Ann Sothern
Ann Sothern was born in North Dakota, United States on January 22nd, 1909 and is the Movie Actress. At the age of 92, Ann Sothern biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 92 years old, Ann Sothern has this physical status:
Ann Sothern (born Harriette Arlene Lake; January 22, 1909 – March 15, 2001) was an American actress who worked on stage, radio, film, and television in a career that spanned nearly six decades.
Sothern began her film career in the late 1920s as a bit actress.
She made her Broadway debut in 1930 and then moved on to starring roles.
Maisie Ravier, a brash yet lovable Brooklyn showgirl, was the model of MGM in 1939.
The character, which was based on Nell Martin's short stories, was extremely popular and spawned a successful film series (Congo Maisie, Gold Rush Maisie, Up Goes Maisie, etc.). The Adventures of Maisie is a television series on Netflix (The Adventures of Maisie). Sothern made her own sitcom Private Secretary debut in 1953, and she rose to television as the star of her own sitcom Private Secretary.
The show aired on CBS for five seasons, earning Sothern three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
In 1958, she appeared on another sitcom for CBS, The Ann Sothern Show, which aired for three seasons.
Sothern starred Gladys Crabtree, the title character in the sitcom My Mother the Car from 1965 to 1966.
She stayed active in television throughout the late 1960s with stage and film appearances as well as guest-starring roles.
She worked sporadically during the 1970s and 1980s due to health problems. Sothern appeared in her last film The Whales of August, starring Bette Davis and Lillian Gish in 1987.
For her role in the film, Sothern received her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
After filming concluded, she moved to Ketchum, Idaho, where she spent her remaining years before her heart disease in March 2001.
Lucille Ball, who appeared on Ball's program "The Lucy Show" on several occasions, called Sothern "the best comedian in the industry, bar none."
Early life
Harriette Arlene Lake, the oldest of three daughters born to Walter J., was born in Valley City, North Dakota. Lake and Annette Yde. Marion and Bonnie, she had two younger sisters. Hans Nielsen, a Danish violinist, was her maternal grandmother.
Annette Yde was a concert performer, while Sothern's father worked in importation and exporting. Harriette and her sisters were raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and her sister was born there. When she was four years old, her parents divorced (they would later divorce in 1927). She began taking piano lessons at the age of five. She later attended McPhail School of Music, where her mother taught piano. As her school calendar permitted, she began accompanying her mother on her concert tours.
She had become a natural pianist by age 11, and she was singing solos in her church choir by age 11. She began singing lessons at the age of 14 and began to study piano and music composition. She appeared in numerous stage productions and directed several shows as a teen at Minneapolis Central High School.
She competed in national student composer competitions and was crowned three years in a row during her high school years. She graduated from high school in 1926.
Her mother migrated to Los Angeles, where she spent time as a voice coach for Warner Bros. studios. Sothern and her father moved to Seattle, Washington, where she graduated from the University of Washington, but she was forced to leave after one year.
Personal life
Roger Pryor, a British actor and bandleader, married Sothern in September 1936. They separated in September 1941 and Sothern filed for divorce in April 1942, accusing Pryor with mental abuse. In May 1943, the couple's divorce became final. She married actor Robert Sterling less than a week after her divorce from Pryor. Before divorcing in March 1949, the couple had one child, Patricia Ann "Tisha" Sterling.
Sothern contracted infectious hepatitis after filming A Letter to Three Wives. She had been filming in England for a stage performance. She was confided to her bed where she continued to work on the Maisie radio station while recovering. Sothern later said that her illness had resurgent her faith. In 1952, she converted to Roman Catholicism with the help of a friend, Richard Egan.
Sothern was injured while working in a Everybody Loves Opal factory in Jacksonville, Florida, when a fake tree fell on her back. She was left with a fractured lumbar vertebra and nerve damage in her legs as a result of the crash. Since being in traction at a hospital, her injuries necessitated hospitalizations. She was also expected to wear back braces. Sothern gained a considerable amount of weight as a result of her coerced inactivity. Sothern also suffered from depression in addition to her physical discomfort. Sothern credited her "optimistic belief" and Roman Catholic faith for her success. Sothern suffered with numbness in her feet and was requiring a cane to walk the remainder of her life.
Career
She gained a role in the Warner Bros. film The Show of Shows while visiting her mother in California. She undertook a screen test for MGM and signed a six-month deal. She appeared in bits and walk-on roles, but then became dissatisfied with only being in small roles. Florenz Ziegfeld was then invited to a party. Ziegfeld gave her a part in one of his productions. When MGM decided not to pick up her option, she moved to New York City to see Ziegfeld up on his invitation.
She appeared on Broadway in 1931 as the leading actress in America's Sweetheart and Everybody's Welcome.
She began working with Columbia Pictures in 1934. Harry Cohn changed her name to Ann Sothern. "Ann" was named in honor of her mother and the actor "Sothern" was chosen for Shakespearean actor E. H. Sothern. She spent most of her time at Columbia in B-movie roles. The studio fired her from her job after two years. In 1936, she was signed by RKO Radio Pictures, and, after a string of films that were ineffective to attract a large audience, she left RKO. After leaving RKO, she signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer shortly after.
Sothern was cast as brassy Brooklyn burlesque dancer Mary Anastasia O'Connor, also known as Maisie Ravier, in Maisie (1939). MGM originally purchased the Maisie property for Jean Harlow, but Harlow died in June 1937 before a final script was completed. (The Harlow inspiration stayed, as the second Maisie feature, Congo Maisie, was based on MGM's Red Dust.) (Sothern compared Jean Harlow to John Carroll in the Clark Gable role)
Ann Sothern found a lot of success with Maisie after years of struggling and appearing in supporting roles. The film was profitable for MGM, as well as a string of Maisie comedy sequels that came after (box office funds from Maisie pictures paid for MGM's more expensive dramas). She appeared in ten Maisie films from 1939 to 1947. Swing Shift Maisie (1943) by Time magazine praised her as "one of the finest comediennes in the industry" and dubbed her as "one of the finest comediennes in the industry." The success of the film series culminated in the appearance of her own radio show, The Adventures of Maisie, on CBS from 1950 to 1947, and in syndication from 1949 to 1953. Louis B. Mayer, MGM's head Louis B. Mayer, spent $80,000 to buy film rights to the Broadway production of DuBarry Was a Lady, particularly for Miss Sothern. MGM decided to bring Lucille Ball (Sothern's best friend in real life) after Sothern's unrevised script. Sothern appeared in a title role in Panama Hattie (1942), opposite Red Skelton, shortly after completion of filming of Maisie Gets Her Man in 1942. Panama Hattie had been a hit on Broadway with Ethel Merman as the title character, but MGM's attempt to film the film version was plagued with production issues. MGM decided to delay the introduction of a disasterous preview in November 1941 in order to retool the process. The film's original director was replaced, the script was rewritten, and several scenes were reshot. Though the film received poor reviews, it was still a smash box office that attracted huge audiences.
In 1943, she appeared in a seventh Maisie film Swing Shift Maisie, followed by a role in the war drama Cry 'Havoc.' Sothern appeared in the eighth Maisie film Maisie Goes to Reno the following year, before taking time off to have her first child. In 1946, she appeared in Up Goes Maisie, followed by the final Maisie film Undercover Maisie. 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. She appeared in the Academy Award-winning film A Letter to Three Wives for twentieth-century Fox in 1949. Sothern received raves for her appearance, but the acclaim failed to propel her career, which had begun to wane in the late 1940s. Sothern suffered with hepatitis in 1949, a disease she will fight for the next three years. MGM ended her deal after Sothern became ill.
In films like crime thriller The Blue Gardenia (1953), by the early 1950s, Sothern was only in supporting roles. She turned to television to save money due to her increasing medical bills. In 1953, she appeared as the lead in the film Private Secretary. Susan Camille "Susie" MacNamara, a secretary for New York City talent agent Peter Sands, was portrayed by Sothern. (Don Porter) On alternate weeks with The Jack Benny Program, the series aired on CBS. The private secretary was a hit with audiences, regularly ranked in the top ten, and Sothern was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her appearance on the series four times. Private Secretary's fifth season was revived in 1957, but Sothern stalled the series after she had what she later described as a "violent confrontation" with producer Jack Chertok over money from the movie. Sothern dominated 42% of the show and later sued Chertok for $93,000 in back earnings from the series.
In The Ann Sothern Show the following year, she appeared on television for the first time. Kathleen "Katy" O'Connor, the assistant manager at the fictitious Bartley House Hotel, starred Sothern. Ernest Truex co-starred as Katy's timid boss Jason Macauley, who was routinely outshone by Katy and insulted by his domineering wife Flora (Reta Shaw). The series's ratings were poor, and after 23 episodes, the show was retooled. Private Secretary Don Porter, Sothern's co-star, has joined Katy as Katy's boss James Devery. Porter's appearance brought romance to the series and also helped to raise ratings. The series received a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 1959. Jesse White, who also appeared in Private Secretary, appeared in the second season of the series, joined the cast. The Ann Sothern Show remained strong until CBS moved The Ann Sothern Show to Thursdays for its third season. The Ann Sothern Show was cancelled in 1961, and it was scheduled opposite the ABC series The Untouchables, ratings dropped sharply, and the Ann Sothern Show was cancelled in 1961.
She returned to film in The Best Man (1964), opposite Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson, after The Ann Sothern Show ended. For her role in the film, she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe. In the psychological thriller Lady in a Cage starring Olivia de Havilland, she played a prostitute. She appeared on her friend Lucille Ball's "Countes Framboise" in 1965 (née Rosie Harrigan). The news expected that Sothern would be Vance's replacement after Ball's long-time co-star Vivian Vance announced plans to leave the show. Sothern denied the allegations and, eventually, the series continued without a single voice or Sothern.
Sothern appeared in the television comedy "My Mother the Car" in 1965, opposite Jerry Van Dyke. The performance was reminiscent of then-famous situation comedies starring a flying nun (The Flying Nun), a talking horse (Mister Ed), a domestic witch (Bewitched), or other bizarre locales. Van Dyke was a struggling lawyer and family man who discovers a dilapidated, vintage 1928 automobile in a used-car lot. In Ann Sothern's voice, the antique auto speaks to him. The car appears to be the reincarnation of Van Dyke's mother, according to the manufacturer. Van Dyke restores the car to its original condition and brings it home, where it befuddles his family and becomes the envy of a zealous collector. Sothern was never seen in the series; only her voice was heard, reacting empathetically to haphazard events around her.
She continued to work in television and occasional film roles throughout the 1960s. Sothern gave his best appearance in an Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode titled "Water's Edge." Sothern appeared in the Sid and Marty Krofft television special Fol-de-Rol in 1972. In the psychological horror film The Killing Kind, she played the domineering mother of a homicidal son. In 1974, she went to Hong Kong to shoot the martial arts film Golden Needles. Ann, the mahjong parlor owner, was portrayed by her. Chloris Leachman was the next actor in Sothern's 1975 action/comedy film Crazy Mama. For the remainder of the decade, health issues compelled her to rethink her work. She appeared on television and in stage productions, with a small part in Tony Curtis' horror film The Manitou (1978).
In 1985, Sothern appeared in "Ma Finney" in an adaptation of one of her old films, A Letter to Three Wives. In 1987, Sothern's last film was The Whales of August. Her role as the neighbor of elderly sisters, portrayed by Lillian Gish and Bette Davis, earned her her first Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination of her career. Sothern left acting and moved to Ketchum, Idaho, where she spent her remaining years after filming.
Sothern has worked with various companies and production firms throughout her career. Ann Sothern Sewing Center in Sun Valley, Idaho, which sold fabric, patterns, and sewing machines in the 1950s. The A Bar S Cattle Company was also owned by a woman who owned a cattle ranch in Idaho. Sothern owned Vincent Productions, Inc. (named for Sothern's patron saint Vincent de Paul) and Anso Productions, which produced her first series Private Secretary and The Ann Sothern Exhibition.
Sothern pursued a career in addition to acting. She appeared in her own nightclub revue in Reno, Las Vegas, and Chicago during her time as Private Secretary in 1954. She founded the A Bar S Music Company in the late 1950s and released Sothern Exposure, her first album in 1958.