Oscar-nominated actress Ann Blyth, remembered by generations of film lovers for playing Joan Crawford’s calculating daughter Veda in the 1945 classic Mildred Pierce, has died at the age of 98. As per reports, Blyth died of natural causes on Wednesday. The news was confirmed by KABC’s George Pennacchio.
Ann Blyth once suffered a serious back injury
Blyth earned her only Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mildred Pierce. She starred opposite Joan Crawford, who is said to have personally backed the teenage actor’s casting by appearing with her during the screen test.
Looking back on the role years later, Blyth told The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg in 2013, “I knew that other people wanted the part as well but I was the lucky one because Joan Crawford did the test with me, and it made a world of difference. People just didn’t do that, not people of her stature.”
The faith Crawford placed in her paid off. While Crawford went on to win the Oscar for Best Actress, Blyth received the only Academy Award nomination of her career.
The performance also drew praise from critics. Reviewing the film, The Hollywood Reporter wrote, “This Blyth child is exquisite in her understanding of one of the most difficult roles ever written. Only the undeniable genius that has made Joan Crawford the great popular star she long since became enables her to keep Ann Blyth from running off with the film.”
Just days after finishing Mildred Pierce, Blyth suffered a serious back injury in a sledding accident near Lake Arrowhead, California. She later wrote about the experience in a 1954 article titled My Career Took a Toboggan Ride.
“One minute we were sailing down the hard-packed icy hillside like snowbirds, then there was a crash and I fell on my back with a sickening thud,” she wrote. “I didn’t cry out. The feeling was too big for that.”
The accident left her in a body cast for seven months before she spent several more months using a wheelchair. Despite her injuries, she attended the 1946 Academy Awards wearing a specially designed gown over her back brace.
Ann Blyth’s glorious filmography
Away from dramatic roles, Blyth also found success in movie musicals. She introduced the song The Loveliest Night of the Year in The Great Caruso (1951), where she starred opposite Mario Lanza. She later appeared in films including Rose Marie, The Student Prince and Kismet.
Her film career also included titles such as Brute Force, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, The Buster Keaton Story and The Helen Morgan Story. The latter became her final feature film before she stepped away from movies, despite being considered for the lead role in The Three Faces of Eve, which eventually earned Joanne Woodward an Academy Award.
Born Anne Marie Blythe on August 16, 1927, in Mount Kisco, New York, Blyth was raised on Manhattan’s Lower East Side after her father left the family. She began performing at a young age, singing and reciting poetry on radio when she was just six years old. She later appeared with the San Carlos Opera Company before making her Broadway breakthrough in Watch on the Rhine.
Universal Pictures signed her in 1943, and she went on to star in several musicals, including Chip Off the Old Block, Babes on Swing Street, The Merry Monahans and Bowery to Broadway.
Even after stepping away from films, Blyth remained active through television, stage performances and nightclub acts. She appeared in shows such as Wagon Train, The Twilight Zone, The Name of the Game, Quincy M.E. and Murder, She Wrote. She also became a familiar face through a series of Hostess snack cake commercials during the 1970s.
In her personal life, Blyth married Los Angeles obstetrician James McNulty in 1953. The couple had five children, Timothy, Maureen, Kathleen, Terence and Eileen, and remained together until McNulty’s death in 2007.
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