From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ann Harding (August 7, 1901 – September 1, 1981) was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress.

Contents 1 Youth and Broadway 2 Film Career and Academy Award Nomination 3 Theater Redux 4 Broadway Stage Credits 5 Filmography 6 Television Credits 7 External link

Born Dorothy Walton Gatley in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the daughter of a career army officer, she traveled often during her early life. Her father, George C. Gatley, was born in Maine and served in the Armed Expeditionary Forces in World War I. He died in San Francisco, California in 1931. The family finally settled in New York, and young Dorothy attended Bryn Mawr College.

Following school, she found employment as a script reader, and began acting on Broadway.

In 1929 she made her film debut in Paris Bound, opposite Fredric March. In 1931 she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Holiday.

First under contract to Pathé, which was subsequently absorbed by RKO studio, Harding co-starred with such luminaries as Ronald Colman, Myrna Loy, Herbert Marshall, Leslie Howard, Richard Dix, and Gary Cooper, often on loan out to other studios, such as MGM and Paramount. At RKO, Harding, along with Helen Twelvetrees and Constance Bennett, comprised a stellar trio who specialized in the "women's pictures" genre.

Her performances were often heralded by the critics, who cited her diction and stage experience as assets to the screen, and she became one of Hollywood's highest salaried stars. In only her second film, Her Private Affair, in which Harding portrayed a wife of questionable morality, she undeniably projected a captivating and charismatic presence -- in spite of several scenes in which her untempered histrionic acting was apparent. However, the film was an enormous commercial success, and with gratifying results, she refined her stage acting which became more appropriately nuanced for the screen.

Such was her talent and her increasing sensitivity to the new medium of the "talking picture" that critics offered these encomiums for her work in several early 1930s films:

"Miss Harding is a sensitive performer and possesses a complete and sympathetic understanding of her rôle. Her voice has a vibrant, dramatic quality."

"...Devotion, the present production at the Mayfair, succeeds in being quite a pleasing entertainment, owing principally to the excellent cast, headed by the radiant and talented Ann Harding..."

"... there is no little fascination aroused by Miss Harding's restrained portrayal."

"Throughout this film Miss Harding gives a charmingly restrained impersonation." (New York Times)

Also during this period she was generally considered to be one of cinema's most beautiful women, with her long waist-length blonde hair as one of her most noted physical attributes. Her films during her peak include The Animal Kingdom, Peter Ibbetson, When Ladies Meet, The Flame Within, and Biography of a Bachelor Girl.

Harding, however, eventually became stereotyped as the innocent young woman willing to sacrifice herself for others, and with lukewarm responses by both the critics and the public to several of her later 1930s films, she eventually quit making movies when she married the conductor Werner Janssen in 1937. However, she was lured back in 1942 to make Eyes in the Night and to make other movies in secondary roles. In 1956 she again starred with Fredric March in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.

The 1960s marked her return to Broadway after an absence of decades -- she had last appeared there in 1927. In 1962 she starred in General Seeger, directed by and co-starring George C. Scott, and in 1964 she appeared in Abraham Cochrane. Both productions had astonishingly, and, most likely, mercifully brief runs with the former play having had a mere three performances (including previews).

No.	Title	Role	Production Dates
1	Like a King	Phyllis Weston	Oct 3, 1921 - Oct 1921
2	Tarnish	Letitia Tevis	Oct 1, 1923 - May 1924
3	Thoroughbreds	Sue	Sep 8, 1924 - Sep 1924
4	Stolen Fruit	Marie Millais	Oct 7, 1925 - Dec 1925
5	Schweiger	Anna Schweiger	Mar 23, 1926 - Apr 1926
6	The Woman Disputed	Marie-Ange	Sep 28, 1926 - Mar 1927
7	The Trial of Mary Dugan	Mary Dugan	Sep 19, 1927 - Oct 1927
8	General Seeger	?	Feb 28, 1962 - Mar 1, 1962
9	Abraham Cochrane	Myra Holliday	Feb 17, 1964 - Feb 17, 1964

Year	No.	Title	Role	Alternate Title
Feature Films:
1929	1	Paris Bound	Mary Hutton
	2	Her Private Affair	Vera Kessler
	3	Condemned	Madame Vidal	USA reissue title: Condemned to Devil's Island
1930	4	Holiday	Linda Seton
	5	The Girl of the Golden West	Minnie
1931	6	East Lynne	Lady Isabella
	7	Devotion	Shirley Mortimer
1932	8	Prestige	Therese Du Flos Verlaine
	9	Westward Passage	Olivia Van Tyne Allen Ottendorf
	10	The Conquerors	Caroline Ogden Standish	USA reissue title: Pioneer Builders
	11	The Animal Kingdom	Daisy Sage	UK Title: The Woman in His House
1933	12	When Ladies Meet	Claire Woodruff	USA TV title: Truth Is Stranger Strange Skirts
	13	Double Harness	Joan Colby
	14	The Right to Romance	Dr Margart J 'Peggy' Simmons
	15	Gallant Lady	Sally Wyndham
1934	16	The Life of Vergie Winters	Vergie Winters
			Virginia Wood
	17	The Fountain	Julie von Marwitz
1935	18	Biography of a Bachelor Girl	Marion Forsythe
	19	Enchanted April	Mrs Lotty Wilkins
	20	The Flame Within	Doctor Mary White
	21	Peter Ibbetson	Mary, Duchess of Towers
1936	22	The Lady Consents	Anne Talbot
	23	The Witness Chair	Miss Paula Young
1937	24	Love from a Stranger	Carol Howard	USA title: A Night of Terror
1942	25	Eyes in the Night	Norma Lawry
1943	26	Mission to Moscow	Mrs Marjorie Davies
	27	The North Star	Sophia Pavlova	USA recut version: Armored Attack
1944	28	Nine Girls	Gracie Thornton
	29	Janie	Lucille Conway
1945	30	Those Endearing Young Charms	Mrs Brandt (Captain)
1946	31	Janie Gets Married	Lucille Conway
1947	32	It Happened on 5th Avenue	Mary O'Connor
	33	Christmas Eve	Aunt Matilda Reed	USA reissue title: Sinner's Holiday
1950	34	The Magnificent Yankee	Fanny Bowditch Holmes	UK title: The Man with Thirty Sons
	35	Two Weeks with Love	Katherine Robinson
1951	36	The Unknown Man	Stella Mason	USA title: The Bradley Mason Story
1956	37	The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit	Helen Hopkins
	38	I've Lived Before	Mrs Jane Stone
	39	Strange Intruder	Mary Carmichael
Short Film:
1934	1	The Hollywood Gad About	Herself

No.	Series Title	Network	Episode Title	Broadcasted	Role
1	Pulitzer Prize Playhouse	ABC	Years of Grace	January 30, 1952
2	Hollywood Opening Night	CBS	Somebody I Know	October 27, 1952
3	The Ford Television Theatre	NBC	There's No Place Like Home	June 4, 1953
4	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	CBS	Miracle in the Night	August 14, 1953
5	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	CBS	The Great Lady	March 5, 1954
6	Lux Video Theatre	CBS	The Queen's English	May 13, 1954	Henrietta Mekker
7	Lux Video Theatre	CBS	A Visit from Evelyn	October 14, 1954
8	Stage 7	CBS	Young Girl in an Apple Tree	April 10, 1955	Vanessa
9	Lux Video Theatre	CBS	An Act of Murder	April 21, 1955	Cathy Cook
10	The Ford Television Theatre	NBC	P.J. and the Lady	June 2, 1955	Louise Potter
11	Damon Runyon Theater	CBS	Lonely Heart	June 4, 1955
12	General Electric Theater	CBS	Tryout	October 2, 1955
13	Matinee Theatre	NBC	Progress Jr. and Minnie Sweeney	October 4, 1955
14	Crossroads	ABC	With All My Love	October 28, 1955
15	Studio 57	Dumont	Vacation with Pay	October 30, 1955	Martha Halstead
16	Climax!	CBS	A Promise to Murder	November 7, 1955	Lady Bertha Wetherby
17	The 20th Century-Fox Hour	CBS	The Late George Apley	November 16, 1955	Mrs. Apley
18	Front Row Center	CBS	Strange Suspicion	January 15, 1956	Grammie
19	Playwrights '56	NBC	The Center of the Maze	April 24, 1956	Augusta
20	Celebrity Playhouse		The Fleeting Years	May 1, 1956
21	Cavalcade of America	ABC	The House of Empty Rooms	January 8, 1957	Mrs. Milgrim
22	Climax!	CBS	The Trouble at No. 5	January 31, 1957	Mrs. Roach
23	The 20th Century Fox Hour	CBS	Springfield Incident	February 6, 1957	Abigail Clay
24	Kraft Television Theatre	NBC	Heroes Walk on Sand	December 11, 1957
25	The DuPont Show with June Allyson	CBS	Ruth and Naomi	September 21, 1959	Naomi
26	Play of the Week	NET	The Potting Shed	January 9, 1961
27	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	NBC	A Jury of Her Peers	December 26, 1961	Sarah Hale
28	The Defenders	CBS	A Taste for Vengeance	April 6, 1963	Helen Bernard
29	Armstrong Circle Theatre	NBC	The Embezzler	April 6, 1963
30	Burke's Law	ABC	Who Killed Mr. X?	September 27, 1963	Annabelle Rogers
31	The Eleventh Hour	NBC	Fear Begins at 40	October 16, 1963	Mrs. Green
32	Dr. Kildare	NBC	Never Too Old for the Circus	January 30, 1964	Mae Priest
33	Ben Casey	ABC	Because of the Needle, the Haystack Was Lost	October 11, 1965	Edith Sommers

• Ann Harding at the Internet Movie Database