Anne Shirley (born Dawn Evelyn Paris; April 17, 1918 – July 4, 1993) was an American actress. Beginning her career as a child actress under the stage name Dawn O'Day, she adopted the stage name of Anne Shirley, after playing the title character in the film adaptation of ''

Anne of Green Gables ''Anne of Green Gables'' is a 1908 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery (published as L. M. Montgomery). Written for all ages, it has been considered a classic children's novel since the mid-20th century. Set in the late 19th century, ...

'' in 1934, after which she achieved a successful career in supporting roles. Among her films is '' Stella Dallas'' (1937), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Although Shirley left the acting profession in 1944, at the age of 26, she remained in Los Angeles, where she died at the age of 75.

Early life

Born in New York City, as a baby she began modeling, and made her film debut with a featured role in 1922's '' Moonshine Valley''. Shirley began acting at the age of five as the live action "Alice" in

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

's pre-

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

silent animated series "Alice in Cartoonland". She had a highly successful child star career in

Pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

movies, appearing in films such as ''

Liliom ''Liliom'' is a 1909 play by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár. It was well known in its own right during the early to mid-20th century, but is best known today as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein 1945 musical ''Carousel''. P ...

'',

Tom Mix Thomas Edwin Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of many early Western films between 1909 and 1935. He appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent films. He w ...

's ''

Riders of the Purple Sage ''Riders of the Purple Sage'' is a Western novel by Zane Grey, first published by Harper & Brothers in 1912. Considered by scholars to have played a significant role in shaping the formula of the popular Western genre, the novel has been called ...

'', '' So Big'', '' Three on a Match'' and '' Rasputin and the Empress''.

Career

Anne Shirley and John Beal in M'Liss, 1936

In 1934, she starred as the character of

Anne Shirley Anne Shirley is a fictional character introduced in the 1908 novel ''Anne of Green Gables'' by L. M. Montgomery. Shirley is featured throughout the classic book series, which revolve around her life and family in 19th and 20th-century Prince Ed ...

in ''

'' and took that character's name as her stage name. After adopting the name Anne Shirley, she starred in ''

Steamboat 'Round the Bend ''Steamboat Round the Bend'' is a 1935 American comedy film directed by John Ford, released by 20th Century Fox and produced by Fox Film Corporation, based on the 1933 novel of the same name by author Ben Lucien Burman. It was the final film ma ...

'', ''

Make Way for a Lady ''Make Way for a Lady'' is a 1936 romantic comedy/ drama directed by David Burton, starring Herbert Marshall and Anne Shirley. June Drew ( Anne Shirley) is the teenaged "lady" based on Elizabeth Jordan's novel ''Daddy and I''. Plot June Drew ...

'' and '' Stella Dallas'', for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Later roles were in ''

Vigil in the Night ''Vigil in the Night'' is a 1940 RKO Pictures drama film based on the 1939 serialized novel '' Vigil in the Night'' by A. J. Cronin. The film was produced and directed by George Stevens and stars Carole Lombard, Brian Aherne and Anne Shirley. P ...

'', '' Anne of Windy Poplars'', ''

The Devil and Daniel Webster "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1936) is a short story by American writer Stephen Vincent Benét. He tells of a New Hampshire farmer who sells his soul to the devil and is later defended by Daniel Webster, a fictional version of the noted 19th-c ...

'' and '' Murder, My Sweet'', her final film. Of Shirley's portrayal in '' Saturday's Children'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote that she "endows the little wife with heroic integrity and strength of character."

Personal life

Shirley married actor John Payne on August 22, 1937, in Montecito, California. They had a daughter, former actress Julie Payne, and divorced in 1943. Her second husband was film producer and screenwriter

Adrian Scott Robert Adrian Scott (February 6, 1911 – December 25, 1972) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was one of the Hollywood Ten and later blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses. Life and career Early life Scott was born ...

. When he was

blacklisted Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, ...

and decided to move the family to Europe, she wrote a "Dear John" letter to him, stating she'd rather stay behind and divorce him, which she did in 1949. Her third husband was Charles Lederer, nephew of

Marion Davies Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl ...

. They had a son, Daniel Lederer, before his death in 1976. Shirley had brief relationships with younger western star

Rory Calhoun Rory Calhoun (born Francis Timothy McCown, August 8, 1922April 28, 1999) was an American film and television actor. He starred in numerous Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s, and appeared in supporting roles in films such as ''How to Marry a Millio ...

and with French movie star Jean-Pierre Aumont. Shirley died from lung cancer in Los Angeles, aged 75, on July 4, 1993, and was cremated. For her contributions to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Calif ...

at 7020 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

AnneShirleyMurderMySweetTrailerScreenshot1955

References

External links

*
Anne Shirley
at the

AFI Catalog of Feature Films The ''AFI Catalog of Feature Films'', also known as the ''AFI Catalog'', is an ongoing project by the American Film Institute (AFI) to catalog all commercially-made and theatrically exhibited American motion pictures from the birth of cinema in ...

Anne Shirley
at the

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

database
Anne Shirley
at

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cul ...

Anne Shirley
at Virtual History {{DEFAULTSORT:Shirley, Anne American child actresses American film actresses Deaths from lung cancer Actresses from New York City Deaths from cancer in California 1918 births 1993 deaths 20th-century American actresses