Ann Blyth, one of the final living links to Hollywood’s Golden Age, has died at the age of 98.
The veteran actress, best known for her Oscar-nominated role in the 1945 classic Mildred Pierce, died on Wednesday, June 24, from natural causes.
Her death was announced by KABC entertainment reporter George Pennachio, who said Blyth passed away just two months before her 99th birthday.
Blyth’s career stretched across film, radio, theatre and television.
She began as a child performer on radio in the 1930s before moving to Broadway and eventually Hollywood, where she became one of the standout young actresses of her era.
The role that made Hollywood take notice
Blyth’s defining role came in Mildred Pierce, where she played Veda Pierce, the spoilt and manipulative daughter of Joan Crawford’s title character.
She was only 16 when she took on the part.
The Michael Curtiz-directed film became one of the most respected dramas of the 1940s and earned Blyth an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Mildred Pierce received six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress.
Crawford won the film’s only Academy Award for her performance.
Blyth later said Crawford played an important role in helping her get the part.
She recalled that Crawford personally acted opposite her during the audition, something stars of her stature rarely did at the time.
The performance changed the direction of Blyth’s career.
Until then, she had mostly been seen as a wholesome young actress. Mildred Pierce proved she could carry darker, sharper material.
Film historians have continued to praise her performance as one of the great supporting turns of classic Hollywood.
From film noir to musicals
Blyth was born in Mount Kisco, New York, in 1927.
By the age of five, she was already performing on children’s radio programmes.
She made her Broadway debut in 1941 in Lillian Hellman’s Watch On The Rhine, a move that helped open the door to Hollywood and a contract with Universal Studios.
Beyond Mildred Pierce, Blyth appeared in Brute Force in 1947, starring alongside Burt Lancaster in the gritty prison crime drama.
She was also a gifted singer.
Her soprano voice helped her move into Hollywood musicals in the 1950s, with credits including The Great Caruso, Kismet, Rose Marie and The Student Prince.
She later appeared in biographical dramas such as The Buster Keaton Story and The Helen Morgan Story.
After those films failed to make a strong impact with critics and audiences, Blyth stepped away from cinema.
But she did not leave performance behind.
She went on to work in theatre and television, appearing in stage productions such as The King And I, The Sound Of Music and Show Boat.
On television, she featured in Wagon Train, The Twilight Zone and Murder, She Wrote.
Blyth was married to Los Angeles obstetrician James McNulty for more than five decades.
They married in 1953 and had five children: Timothy, Maureen, Kathleen, Terence and Eileen.
McNulty died in 2007 at the age of 89.
Blyth is survived by her children and remembered as one of the last performers who carried the style, discipline and grace of Hollywood’s studio era.
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