Ann Harding

Ann Harding
Ann Harding, 1930
Born	Dorothy Walton Gatley August 7, 1902 San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Died	September 1, 1981 (aged 79) Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1921–1965
Spouse(s)	Harry Bannister (1926–1932) 1 child Werner Janssen (1937–1962) 1 child
Children	Jane Bannister (1928-2005) Grace Kaye Janssen

Ann Harding (August 7, 1902 – September 1, 1981) was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress.

Early years

Born Dorothy Walton Gatley at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, to George G. Gatley and Elizabeth "Bessie" Crabb. The daughter of a career army officer, she traveled often during her early life. Her father was born in Maine and served in the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. He died in San Francisco, California in 1931. She grew up in East Orange, New Jersey and graduated from East Orange High School.^[1] Harding attended Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, PA, on the Pennsylvania Main Line outside Philadelphia.

Career

Following school, she found employment as a script reader. She began acting and made her Broadway debut in 1921. In 1924, Harding finds her "home theater" in Rose Valley, PA when she is directed by Hedgerow Theatre founder Jasper Deeter in The Master Builder. Over the years she would return to Hedgerow to reprise several of her roles. She soon became a leading lady, who kept in shape by using the services of Sylvia of Hollywood.^[2] She was a prominent actress in Pittsburgh theatre for a time, performing with the Sharp Company and later starting the Nixon Players with Harry Bannister.^[3] 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. Also in 1931, Harding purchases the Hedgerow Theatre building for Deeter for $5,000 and donates it to the company.

First under contract to Pathé, which was subsequently absorbed by RKO studio, Harding (who was promoted as the studio's 'answer' to MGM's superstar Norma Shearer), co-starred with Ronald Colman, Laurence Olivier, 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 trio who specialized in the "women's pictures" genre.

Leslie Howard and Ann Harding in The Animal Kingdom, 1932

Her performances were often heralded by the critics, who cited her diction and stage experience as assets to the then-new medium of "talking pictures". Harding's second film was Her Private Affair, in which she portrayed a wife of questionable morality. The film was an enormous commercial success. During this period, she was generally considered to be one of cinema's most beautiful women, with her 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, self-sacrificing young woman. Following lukewarm responses by both her 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 returned in 1942 to make Eyes in the Night and to take secondary roles in other movies. In 1956, she again starred with Fredric March, this time 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 brief runs, with the former play lasting a mere three performances (including previews). Harding made her last acting appearance in 1965 in an episode of Ben Casey before retiring from acting.

Personal life

Harding married actor Harry Bannister in 1926. They had one child together before divorcing in 1932. Their daughter Jane was born in 1928 and died in December 2005. In 1937, Harding married Werner Janssen, the famous conductor. Janssen and Harding enjoyed life in a number of cities, before settling down in California to work more closely with Hollywood. The couple divorced in 1962. Her death certificate states that she had an adoptive daughter Grace Kaye Harding.

Death

On September 1, 1981, Harding died at the age of 79 in Sherman Oaks, California. After cremation, her urn was placed in the Court of Remembrance wall at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.

For her contributions to the motion picture and television industries, Harding has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6201 (motion picture) and 6840 Hollywood Boulevard (television).

Broadway stage credits

Date	Production	Role
October 3, 1921 – Oct 1921	Like a King	Phyllis Weston
October 1, 1923 – May 1924	Tarnish	Letitia Tevis
September 8, 1924 – September 1924	Thoroughbreds	Sue
October 7, 1925 – December 1925	Stolen Fruit	Marie Millais
March 23, 1926 – April 1926	Schweiger	Anna Schweiger
September 28, 1926 – March 1927	The Woman Disputed	Marie-Ange
September 19, 1927 – October 1927	The Trial of Mary Dugan	Mary Dugan
February 28, 1962 – March 1, 1962	General Seeger	Rena Seeger
February 17, 1964 – February 17, 1964	Abraham Cochrane	Myra Holliday

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1929	Paris Bound	Mary Hutton
	Her Private Affair	Vera Kessler	Co-starred Harry Bannister
	Condemned	Madame Vidal	US reissue title: Condemned to Devil's Island, Co-starred Ronald Colman
1930	Holiday	Linda Seton	Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actress
	The Girl of the Golden West	Minnie
1931	East Lynne	Lady Isabella	The film was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar
	Devotion	Shirley Mortimer
1932	Prestige	Therese Du Flos Verlaine
	Westward Passage	Olivia Van Tyne Allen Ottendorf	Co-starred Laurence Olivier
	The Conquerors	Caroline Ogden Standish	US reissue title: Pioneer Builders
	The Animal Kingdom	Daisy Sage	UK Title: The Woman in His House, Co-starred Leslie Howard
1933	When Ladies Meet	Claire Woodruff	Co-starred Myrna Loy
	Double Harness	Joan Colby	Co-starred William Powell
	The Right to Romance	Dr. Margaret "Peggy" Simmons	Co-starred Robert Young
1934	Gallant Lady	Sally Wyndham
	The Life of Vergie Winters	Vergie Winters aka Virginia Wood
	The Fountain	Julie von Marwitz
	The Hollywood Gad About	Herself	Short subject
1935	Biography of a Bachelor Girl	Marion Forsythe
	Enchanted April	Mrs. Lotty Wilkins
	The Flame Within	Doctor Mary White
	Peter Ibbetson	Mary, Duchess of Towers	Co-starred Gary Cooper
1936	The Lady Consents	Anne Talbot
	The Witness Chair	Paula Young
1937	Love from a Stranger	Carol Howard	US title: A Night of Terror, Co-starred Basil Rathbone
1942	Eyes in the Night	Norma Lawry	Starred Edward Arnold
1943	Mission to Moscow	Mrs. Marjorie Davies
	The North Star	Sophia Pavlova	US recut version: Armored Attack
1944	Nine Girls	Gracie Thornton
	Janie	Lucille Conway
1945	Those Endearing Young Charms	Mrs. Brandt (Captain)
1946	Janie Gets Married	Lucille Conway
1947	It Happened on 5th Avenue	Mary O'Connor
	Christmas Eve	Aunt Matilda Reed	US reissue title: Sinner's Holiday
1950	The Magnificent Yankee	Fanny Bowditch Holmes	Co-starred Louis Calhern
	Two Weeks with Love	Katherine Robinson
1951	The Unknown Man	Stella Mason	US title: The Bradley Mason Story
1956	The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit	Helen Hopkins	Starred Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones
	I've Lived Before	Mrs. Jane Stone
	Strange Intruder	Mary Carmichael

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1955	Crossroads	Hulda Lund	1 episode
	Studio 57	Martha Halstead	1 episode
1956	Front Row Center	Grammie	1 episode
1959	The DuPont Show with June Allyson	Naomi	1 episode, "Ruth and Naomi"
1961	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Sarah Hale	Episode 07x12: ″A Jury of Her Peers″
1963	The Defenders	Helen Bernard	1 episode
	Burke's Law	Annabelle Rogers	1 episode
1964	Dr. Kildare	Mae Priest	1 episode
1965	Ben Casey	Edith Sommers	1 episode

References

• Ann Harding – Cinema's Gallant Lady (Biography By Scott O'Brien)

1. Percy, Eileen. "Durante Will Be Made an M. G. M. Star; 'Schnozzle; Has Ste Record for Saving Pictures.", The Milwaukee Sentinel, October 26, 1932. "Ann Harding began hers 15 years ago in a dramatic class at East Orange High school."
2. Hollywood Undressed: Observations of Sylvia As Noted by Her Secretary (1931) Brentano’s.
3. Conner, Lynne (2007). Pittsburgh In Stages: Two Hundred Years of Theater. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 105–106. ISBN 978-0-8229-4330-3. Retrieved 2011-06-06.

External links

• Ann Harding at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ann Harding at the Internet Movie Database
• Photographs of Ann Harding
• General Seeger (Google Book Search (BETA) preview of play online)

Ann Harding at Find a Grave