| Ann Richards | |
|---|---|
| Born | Shirley Ann Richards 13 December 1917 Sydney, Australia |
| Died | 25 August 2006 (aged 88) Torrance, California, United States |
Ann Richards (13 December 1917 – 25 August 2006) was an Australian actress, who achieved notability in Australian films as Shirley Ann Richards before moving to the United States where she continued her career as a film actress, mainly as an MGM starlet.
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Born Shirley Ann Richards in Sydney, Australia and educated at Ascham School Edgecliff, Richards began her career as a lead actress in It Isn't Done (1937) for Cinesound Productions and director Ken G. Hall. Hall put Richards under long-term contract and starred her in several more films, most notably Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938).[1] In 1940 she appeared in a production of Charley's Aunt at the Minerva Theatre.[2]
Richards left Australia for Hollywood on December 11, 1941.[3]. Ken G. Hall had sent on some film featuring her to Carl Dudley, an American-based writer who had worked on the script for It Isn't Done and with whom Richards was to stay when he arrived, but it had gone missing. Nonetheless, Dudley invited Fred Finkleberg to dinner to meet Richards; he recommended her to top agent Leland Hayward. Within her first week in Hollywood Richards was cast in a short, The Woman in the House (1942), which led to a contract with MGM.[4]
MGM insisted that she change her name to avoid confusion with the actress Anne Shirley. After a number of supporting roles, including Random Harvest with Ronald Colman and Greer Garson, she was groomed by MGM for leading roles, including parts in both Gaslight (1944) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) but they seemed to lose enthusiasm after the box office failure of An American Romance (1944).
She was scheduled to star opposite Barry Sullivan in Love Letters), but the studio instead chose to use Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten in the lead roles, and Richards was given a supporting part. She did star in The Searching Wind (1946) with Robert Young. After being dropped from MGM, Richards finished out her career with supporting roles in films such as Sorry, Wrong Number (1948).[5] She retired following the unsuccessful film noir Breakdown (1952).
Richards married the producer-director Edmond Angelo in 1949, and together they raised three children. After her retirement, Richards ventured into poetry, publishing several well-received volumes including The Grieving Senses in 1971 and Odyssey for Edmond in 1991. She also wrote the verse play Helen of Troy in the 1970s, which she and Angelo presented on college campuses. They remained married until Angelo's death in 1983.