Ann Dvorak

Acting · 0.9 popularity

Age

115

Movies

Born: August 2, 1911 – December 10, 1979
From: New York City, New York, USA

Biography

Ann Dvorak (born Anna McKim; August 2, 1911 – December 10, 1979) was an American stage and film actress. Asked how to pronounce her adopted surname, she told The Literary Digest: "My fake name is properly pronounced vor'shack. The D remains silent." Dvorak was the daughter and only child of silent film actress Anna Lehr and director Edwin McKim. While in New York, she attended St. Catherine's Convent. After moving to California, she attended Page School for Girls in Hollywood. She made her film debut when she was five years old in the silent film version of Ramona (1916), credited as "Baby Anna Lehr". She continued in children's roles in The Man Hater (1917) and Five Dollar Plate (1920), but then stopped acting in films. Her parents separated in 1916 and divorced in 1920; she did not see her father again until 13 years later, when she made a public plea to the press to help her find him. In the late 1920s, Dvorak worked as a dance instructor and gradually began to appear on film as a chorus girl. Her friend, actress Karen Morley, introduced her to billionaire movie producer Howard Hughes, who groomed her as a dramatic actress. She was a success in such pre-Code films as Scarface (1932) as Paul Muni's sister; in Three on a Match (1932) with Bette Davis and Joan Blondell as the doomed, unstable Vivian; in The Crowd Roars (1932) with James Cagney; and in Sky Devils (1932) opposite Spencer Tracy. Known for her style and elegance, she was a popular leading lady for Warner Bros. during the 1930s, and appeared in numerous contemporary romances and melodramas. At age 19, Dvorak eloped with Leslie Fenton, her English co-star from The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932), and they married on March 17, 1932. They left for a year-long honeymoon in spite of her contractual obligations to the studio, which led to a period of litigation and pay disputes during which she discovered she was making the same amount of money as the boy who played her son in Three on a Match. She completed her contract on permanent suspension, then worked as a freelancer. Although she worked regularly, the quality of her scripts declined sharply. She appeared as secretary Della Street to Donald Woods' Perry Mason in The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937). With her then-husband, Leslie Fenton, Dvorak traveled to England where she supported the war effort by working as an ambulance driver and acted in several British films. She appeared as a saloon singer in Abilene Town with Randolph Scott and Edgar Buchanan, released in 1946. The following year she adeptly handled comedy by giving an assured performance in Out of the Blue (1947). In 1948, Dvorak gave her only performance on Broadway in The Respectful Prostitute. Dvorak's marriage to Fenton ended in divorce in 1946. In 1947, she married Igor Dega, a Russian dancer who danced with her briefly in The Bachelor's Daughters. The marriage ended two years later. Dvorak retired from the screen in 1951, when she married her third and last husband, Nicholas Wade, to whom she remained married until his death in 1975. She had no children.

Works

88 films

Scarface

19327.4

'G' Men

19356.6

Abilene Town

19465.3

Housewife

19347.3

The Private Affairs of Bel Ami

19476.2

Racing Lady

19376.0

Ramona

1916

Gentlemen Are Born

19347.3

Lord Byron of Broadway

19304.7

The Long Night

19475.8

Love is a Racket

19325.4

Free and Easy

19306.2

The Hollywood Revue of 1929

19295.9

Madam Satan

19305.9

Three on a Match

19326.3

The Bachelor's Daughters

19466.5

Flame of Barbary Coast

19455.5

Breakdowns of 1936

1936

So This Is College

19294.7

Dance, Fools, Dance

19316.4

The Secret of Convict Lake

19516.6

Girls of the Road

19405.5

The Song Writers' Revue

19295.0

Our Blushing Brides

19305.6

Merrily We Live

19386.9

Blind Alley

19396.0

Dr. Socrates

19356.6

Cafe Hostess

19405.4

Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone

19507.0

The Walls of Jericho

19485.6

A Life of Her Own

19505.3

Out of the Blue

19476.5

Roast-Beef and Movies

19344.3

Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood

20086.1

Crooner

19326.5

Son of India

19315.7

We Who Are About to Die

19377.0

College Coach

19334.6

The Strange Love of Molly Louvain

19326.1

Massacre

19345.5

Bogart: The Untold Story

1997

The Return of Jesse James

19506.0

I Sell Anything

19345.0

The Case of the Stuttering Bishop

19377.2

Heat Lightning

19347.2

Stronger Than Desire

19395.5

The Crowd Roars

19326.1

It's a Great Life

19295.0

Murder in the Clouds

19345.1

Our Very Own

19505.9

The Devil's Cabaret

19305.9

Children of Pleasure

19305.5

Manhattan Merry-Go-Round

19376.5

Squadron Leader X

194310.0

Friends of Mr. Sweeney

19346.8

Thanks a Million

19356.5

This Modern Age

19315.9

Bright Lights

19355.1

Love in the Rough

19305.7

Sweet Music

19356.8

Side Streets

19345.2

I Was an American Spy

19516.6

Good News

19306.3

Devil-May-Care

19296.2

Midnight Court

19375.1

A Trip Thru a Hollywood Studio

19355.9

Sky Devils

19325.0

The Woman Racket

19306.0

Way Out West

19306.2

Manhattan Serenade

19294.0

The Doll Shop

19298.0

A Lady to Love

19304.5

Escape to Danger

19438.0

The Way to Love

19338.0

Gangs of New York

19385.3

The March of Time

19307.0

A Tailor-Made Man

19317.0

She's No Lady

19378.0

The Guardsman

19315.2

Estrellados

19307.0

Midnight Alibi

19346.7

Politics

19316.9

Masquerade in Mexico

19456.0

Hello Pop

19337.3

Chasing Rainbows

19306.0

The Man Hater

19178.0

This Was Paris

19425.9

Stranger in Town

19315.0