[5] While at Columbia, she mainly appeared in B-movies roles. Her movie career was essentially over, too, although she had solid parts in Gore Vidal's satirical political drama, ''The Best Man,'' and the Olivia de Havilland thriller ''Lady in a Cage,'' both in 1964. She returned to the screen in 1946 in Up Goes Maisie, followed by the final Maisie film Undercover Maisie. So I consulted a lawyer and he told me to do it if I thought the script was worth it and I said “Oh well, it may be, I don’t know.” So I accepted it. Due to her popularity from the Masie films, MGM head Louis B. Mayer paid $80,000 to purchase film rights to the Broadway production of DuBarry Was a Lady especially for Miss Sothern. She also owned a cattle ranch in Idaho named the A Bar S Cattle Company. Unknown. After two years, the studio released her from her contract.

Annette Yde was a concert singer, while Sothern's father worked in importing and exporting. After Sothern became ill, MGM canceled her contract. She only had two scenes in the movies (her character commits suicide). He found that an arsenic compound completely cured syphilis within 3 weeks. Letters addressed to ''Maisie, U.S.A.'' had no trouble being delivered. Ann Sothern, a deft comedian and talented singer who was known as the Queen of the B's at Columbia and RKO, where she made 18 movies between 1934 and 1936, died on Thursday at her home in Ketchum, Idaho. In the 1950's, the movie offers dried up a bit. ", Best Actress Starring in a Regular Series, Best Continuing Performance by a Comedienne in a Series, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Continuing Character) in a Comedy Series, This page was last edited on 19 August 2020, at 03:57. Her mother moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as a vocal coach for Warner Bros. studios. Born Harriet Arlene Lake in Valley City, North Dakota, she was the oldest of three daughters born to Walter J. Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile, Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile. She continued the rest of the 1960s working in guest roles in television. But that meant I thought I was pretty and vanity was bad," she says. The radio show always opened with the clicking of Maisie's high heels, followed by a … What do you remember about Ann Sothern? The role she played was a relatively minor one with limited dialogue. '', See the article in its original context from. [14] Ratings for the series were weak and after 23 episodes, the show was retooled. Ann Sothern (January 22, 1909 – March 15, 2001) was an American stage, radio, film, and television actress whose career spanned six decades. Ms. Sothern's bit part let Lindsay Anderson, the director who would be making ''The Whales of August,'' know that Ms. Sothern was still alive. '', A few months before the nominations were announced, Ms. Sothern told an interviewer that her chances were dismal.

[24] They separated in September 1941 and Sothern filed for divorce in April 1942, charging Pryor with mental cruelty. In 1957, Private Secretary was renewed for a fifth season, but Sothern left the series after she had what she later described as a "violent fight" with producer Jack Chertok over profits from the series. On September 15th 1933 she left Texas for Hollywood accompanied by her mother, father, brother and three sisters. Walter Winchell, commenting on one of her photos, wrote "Ann Sheridan in Copyright © 1999-2020 AncientFaces, LLC. Lake and Annette Yde. Just being known by a nickname indicates that you’re not thought of as a true actress . Scheduled opposite the ABC series The Untouchables, ratings dropped substantially and The Ann Sothern Show was canceled in 1961.

Ratings for the series remained solid until CBS moved The Ann Sothern Show to Thursdays for its third season. Patricia Ann "Tisha" Sterling (born December 10, 1944) is a retired American actress. she was 81 years old when after 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela, the leader of the movement to end South African apartheid was released on February 11th 1990. In 1972, Sothern appeared in the Sid and Marty Krofft television special Fol-de-Rol. She became as famous for her 8 marriages (to 7 people) as she was for her beauty and films. [3][4], While visiting her mother in California, she won a role in the Warner Bros. revue The Show of Shows. [11] In 1953, she was cast as the lead in the series Private Secretary. BY ANCESTRY.COM. She never got the big break Gene Kelly and others did, of being with the Arthur Freed steamroller of talent.''. [30], From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core, Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy, Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy, "Maisie of the Movies Not the Real Ann Sothern", "Ann Sothern Elopes To Marry Robert Stirling", "Ann Sothern Obtains Divorce Decree From Second Actor Husband", "TV's 'Private Secretary' Ann Sothern dies at 92", https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Ann_Sothern&oldid=706121, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, About Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core, Episode: "From Hollywood: The Photoplay Movie Awards", Best Actress Starring in a Regular Series, Best Continuing Performance by a Comedienne in a Series, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Continuing Character) in a Comedy Series. . Due to her forced inactivity, Sothern gained a considerable amount of weight. After Ball's long-time co-star Vivian Vance announced plans to leave the show, the press speculated that Sothern would be Vance's replacement. [13][22], In addition to acting, Sothern pursued a musical career. In 1953, Sothern moved into television as the star of her own sitcom Private Secretary. It was actually a press agent’s invention, but Ann agreed with it wholeheartedly. Return from Ann Sheridan Biography to Ann Sothern moved with her father to Seattle, where she attended the University of Washington, dropping out after one year. ''I found a much smaller house in Hollywood,'' she recalled. [29], On March 15, 2001, Sothern died from heart failure at her home in Ketchum at the age of 92. She was 92. [28][29] Her injuries required hospitalizations where she was put in traction. 27 years longer than Perhaps never the star she might have been, Ms. Sothern was nevertheless one of the shrewdest actresses around. [17], After The Ann Sothern Show ended, she returned to films in 1964's The Best Man, opposite Henry Fonda. Over 4 million posters were printed in 1917 and 1918. The next year, she played the mother of a homicidal son in psychological horror film The Killing Kind. She said… “There’s no position, really. The character, based on the Maisie short stories by Nell Martin, proved to be popular and spawned a successful film series (Congo Maisie, Gold Rush Maisie, Up Goes Maisie, etc.) Over the course of her career, Sothern also managed several businesses and production companies. As well as acting, she had another career aspiration. Sothern appeared in two musical films in 1948, April Showers opposite Jack Carson and Words and Music starring an all-star cast of MGM actors, singers and dancers. A review of Swing Shift Maisie (1943) by Time magazine praised Sothern and described her as "one of the smartest comediennes in the business". Ann Sothern was born Harriette Lake on Jan. 22, 1909, in Valley City, N.D., where her mother, a concert singer, was on tour. [9] While the film received mediocre to poor reviews, it was a smash hit with audiences. In 1953, Sothern moved into television as the star of her own sitcom Private Secretary. Actress. Those were the last words spoken by Ann Sheridan to her husband just before she died on January 21, 1967 one month shy of her 52nd birthday. The series originally co-starred Ernest Truex as Katy's timid boss Jason Macauley, who was routinely outshone by Katy, and bullied by his domineering wife Flora (Reta Shaw). Lucille Ball, whom she appeared alongside on Ball's program The Lucy Show on multiple occasions, called Sothern "the best comedian in the business, bar none."[1]. [29] She was buried in Ketchum Cemetery. On November 1st 1939, Warner Brothers arranged a date between Ann and actor George Brent as a publicity stunt. After signing with MGM, Sothern was cast as brassy Brooklyn burlesque dancer Mary Anastasia O'Connor, known professionally as Maisie Ravier, in Maisie (1939).

In the 1950s, she opened the Ann Sothern Sewing Center in Sun Valley, Idaho, which sold fabric, patterns, and sewing machines. In 1953 her beau Steve Hanagan died suddenly of a heart attack. During the series' second season, Jesse White, who also starred in Private Secretary, joined the cast. '', Through bad luck or fate, Ms. Sothern was never more than a minor star: ''a Hollywood princess,'' she once said, ''not a Hollywood queen. After Sothern became ill, MGM canceled her contract. I heard it was an absolute horror.” In 1936, she was signed by RKO Radio Pictures and, after a string of films that failed to attract a large enough audience, she left RKO.