Anna Lee
Encyclopedia
Anna Lee, MBE
(born Joan Boniface Winnifrith, 2 January 1913 – 14 May 2004) was an English
actress.
, then debuted with a bit part in the film His Lordship
(1932). When she and her first husband, director Robert Stevenson
, moved to Hollywood she became associated with John Ford
, appearing in several of his films, notably How Green Was My Valley
, Two Rode Together
and Fort Apache
. She worked for producer in the horror/thriller Bedlam
(1946) and had a lead role opposite Brian Donlevy
and Walter Brennan
in Fritz Lang
's Hangmen Also Die! (1943), a wartime thriller about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
.
Lee made frequent appearances on television
anthology series in the 1940s and 1950s, including Robert Montgomery Presents
, The Ford Theatre Hour, Kraft Television Theatre
, Armstrong Circle Theatre
and Wagon Train
.
She had a small, but memorable, role as Sister Margaretta in The Sound of Music
. Sister Margaretta was a supporter of Maria in the abbey and was one of the two nuns who thwarted the Nazis by removing car engine parts, allowing the Von Trapps to escape. Lee also appeared in the 1962 classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
as next-door neighbour Mrs. Bates alongside Joan Crawford
and Bette Davis
. In 1994, she took the leading role of the feature film What Can I Do?
, directed by Wheeler Winston Dixon
.
In later years, she became known to a new generation as the matriarch Lila Quartermaine in General Hospital
and Port Charles
until her sacking in 2003, which was widely protested in the soap world and among General Hospital actors. According to fellow GH actress Leslie Charleson
, Lee was promised a job for life by former GH executive producer Wendy Riche
; when Riche left the show, the new management fired Lee. Charleson said in 2007, "The woman was in her 90s. And then when the new powers-that-be took over they fired her, and it broke her heart. It was not necessary."
One of her sons attested that the firing sapped Lee's will to live. She died not long afterwards of pneumonia
. Lee was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
in Los Angeles, California
.
, Kent
, England
, the daughter of a clergyman who encouraged her desire to act.
She married her first husband, the director Robert Stevenson
, in 1934 and moved to Hollywood in 1939. They had two daughters, Venetia and Caroline. Venetia Stevenson
, an actress as well, was married to Don Everly of the Everly Brothers and has three children, Edan Everly
, Erin Everly and Stacy Everly. Lee and Stevenson divorced in March 1944 with both daughters staying with their father.
Lee met her second husband, George Stafford, as the pilot of the plane on her USO
tour during World War II
. They married on 8 June 1944 and had three sons, John, Stephen and Tim Stafford. Tim is an actor better known by his stage name of Jeffrey Byron
. Lee and Stafford divorced in 1964.
Lee's final marriage was to novelist Robert Nathan
, (The Bishop's Wife
, Portrait of Jennie
), on 5 April 1970, and to whom she was married until his death in 1985.
Lee was the goddaughter of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
and lifelong friend of his daughter, Dame Jean Conan Doyle
. Her brother Sir John Winnifrith
was a senior British civil servant who became permanent secretary
at the Ministry of Agriculture
.
In the 1930s, Lee occupied a house at 49 Bankside
in London
; she was later interviewed by writer Gillian Tindall
for a book written about the address, The House by the Thames, released in 2006. Since first built in 1710, the house had served as a home for coal
merchants, an office, a boarding-house, a hangout for derelicts and finally once again a private residence in the 1900s. The house is listed in tour guides as a famous residence and has been variously claimed as possibly being home to Christopher Wren
during the construction of St. Paul's Cathedral, and previously claimed residents included Catherine of Aragon
and William Shakespeare
.
On 16 July 2004 General Hospital aired a tribute to Lee by holding a memorial service for Lila Quartermaine.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born Joan Boniface Winnifrith, 2 January 1913 – 14 May 2004) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actress.
Career
Lee studied at the Royal Albert HallRoyal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, then debuted with a bit part in the film His Lordship
His Lordship
His Lordship is a 1932 British musical comedy drama film directed by Michael Powell. It was made as a Quota quickie.-Plot:Cheerful Cockney Bert Gibbs inherits a title from his father and becomes Lord Thornton Heath. But then he meets up with movie star Ilya Myona and when his mother asks about her,...
(1932). When she and her first husband, director Robert Stevenson
Robert Stevenson (director)
Robert Stevenson was an English film writer and director. He was educated at Cambridge University where he became the president of both the Liberal Club and the Cambridge Union Society....
, moved to Hollywood she became associated with John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
, appearing in several of his films, notably How Green Was My Valley
How Green Was My Valley (film)
How Green Was My Valley is a 1941 drama film directed by John Ford. The film, based on the 1939 Richard Llewellyn novel, was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and written by Philip Dunne. The film stars Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall...
, Two Rode Together
Two Rode Together
Two Rode Together is a western film directed by John Ford, and starring James Stewart, Richard Widmark, and Shirley Jones. The supporting cast includes Linda Cristal, Andy Devine, and John McIntire...
and Fort Apache
Fort Apache (film)
Fort Apache is a 1948 Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda. The film was the first of the director's "cavalry trilogy" and was followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande , both also starring Wayne...
. She worked for producer in the horror/thriller Bedlam
Bedlam (film)
Bedlam is a film starring Boris Karloff and Anna Lee, and was the last in a series of stylish B films produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures. The film was inspired by William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress, and Hogarth was given a writing credit.-Plot:Set in 1761 London, England, the film...
(1946) and had a lead role opposite Brian Donlevy
Brian Donlevy
Brian Donlevy was an Irish-born American film actor, noted for playing tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best known films are Beau Geste and The Great McGinty...
and Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan was an American actor. Brennan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on three separate occasions, which is currently the record for most wins.-Early life:...
in Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
's Hangmen Also Die! (1943), a wartime thriller about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Operation Anthropoid
Operation Anthropoid was the code name for the targeted killing of top German SS leader Reinhard Heydrich. He was the chief of the Reich Main Security Office , the acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, and a chief planner of the Final Solution, the Nazi German programme for the genocide of the...
.
Lee made frequent appearances on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
anthology series in the 1940s and 1950s, including Robert Montgomery Presents
Robert Montgomery Presents
Robert Montgomery Presents is an American dramatic television series which was produced by NBC from January 30, 1950 until June 24, 1957. The live show had several sponsors during its seven-year run, and the title was altered to feature the sponsor, usually Lucky Strike cigarettes, for example,...
, The Ford Theatre Hour, Kraft Television Theatre
Kraft Television Theatre
Kraft Television Theatre is an American drama/anthology television series that began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J...
, Armstrong Circle Theatre
Armstrong Circle Theatre
Armstrong Circle Theatre is an American anthology drama television series which ran from 1950 to 1957 on NBC, and then until 1963 on CBS. It alternated weekly with The U.S. Steel Hour.-Synopsis:...
and Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
.
She had a small, but memorable, role as Sister Margaretta in The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music (film)
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Music, with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and with the musical...
. Sister Margaretta was a supporter of Maria in the abbey and was one of the two nuns who thwarted the Nazis by removing car engine parts, allowing the Von Trapps to escape. Lee also appeared in the 1962 classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a 1962 American psychological thriller film produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The screenplay by Lukas Heller is based on the novel of the same name by Henry Farrell...
as next-door neighbour Mrs. Bates alongside Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
and Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
. In 1994, she took the leading role of the feature film What Can I Do?
What Can I Do?
What Can I Do? is a single from Ice Cube's compilation, Bootlegs & B-Sides. However in the album version it appeared as a remix the original version was a b-side....
, directed by Wheeler Winston Dixon
Wheeler Winston Dixon
Wheeler Winston Dixon is best known as a writer of film history, theory and criticism. He is the author of numerous books on film, as well as a professor who has taught at Rutgers University, New Brunswick; The New School in New York; and the University of Amsterdam, Holland. He received his Ph.D....
.
In later years, she became known to a new generation as the matriarch Lila Quartermaine in General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
and Port Charles
Port Charles
Port Charles was a daytime soap opera which aired on ABC from June 2, 1997 to October 3, 2003. It is a spin-off of the serial General Hospital, which has been running since 1963 and takes place in the fictional city of Port Charles, New York...
until her sacking in 2003, which was widely protested in the soap world and among General Hospital actors. According to fellow GH actress Leslie Charleson
Leslie Charleson
Leslie Charleson is an American actress most famous for her work in daytime television.-Biography:Charleson was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Her career began on short-lived soap A Flame in the Wind in 1964...
, Lee was promised a job for life by former GH executive producer Wendy Riche
Wendy Riche
Wendy Riche is an American television producer. She has been executive producer of ABC Daytime's General Hospital and the co-creator and executive producer of its spinoff show Port Charles....
; when Riche left the show, the new management fired Lee. Charleson said in 2007, "The woman was in her 90s. And then when the new powers-that-be took over they fired her, and it broke her heart. It was not necessary."
One of her sons attested that the firing sapped Lee's will to live. She died not long afterwards of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. Lee was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
The Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery is a cemetery in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles, California. It is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in Westwood....
in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
Personal life
Anna Lee was born in IghthamIghtham
Ightham is a village in Kent, England, located approximately four miles east of Sevenoaks and six miles north of Tonbridge. The parish includes the hamlet of Ivy Hatch....
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the daughter of a clergyman who encouraged her desire to act.
She married her first husband, the director Robert Stevenson
Robert Stevenson (director)
Robert Stevenson was an English film writer and director. He was educated at Cambridge University where he became the president of both the Liberal Club and the Cambridge Union Society....
, in 1934 and moved to Hollywood in 1939. They had two daughters, Venetia and Caroline. Venetia Stevenson
Venetia Stevenson
Venetia Stevenson , born Joanna Venetia Invicta Stevenson is a retired film and television actress.-Family:Stevenson is the daughter of Oscar nominated director Robert Stevenson and actress Anna Lee. Her brother is actor Jeffrey Byron...
, an actress as well, was married to Don Everly of the Everly Brothers and has three children, Edan Everly
Edan Everly
Edan Donald Everly is a guitarist, musician, singer songwriter. He is the son of Don Everly and nephew to Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers. His mother is actress Venetia Stevenson. Edan's siblings are sisters Erin Everly and Stacy Everly...
, Erin Everly and Stacy Everly. Lee and Stevenson divorced in March 1944 with both daughters staying with their father.
Lee met her second husband, George Stafford, as the pilot of the plane on her USO
United Service Organizations
The United Service Organizations Inc. is a private, nonprofit organization that provides morale and recreational services to members of the U.S. military, with programs in 160 centers worldwide. Since 1941, it has worked in partnership with the Department of Defense , and has provided support and...
tour during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. They married on 8 June 1944 and had three sons, John, Stephen and Tim Stafford. Tim is an actor better known by his stage name of Jeffrey Byron
Jeffrey Byron
Jeffrey Byron is an American actor and writer of screenplays. Bryon has acted in both film and television, and co-wrote one movie script ....
. Lee and Stafford divorced in 1964.
Lee's final marriage was to novelist Robert Nathan
Robert Nathan
Robert Gruntal Nathan was an American novelist and poet.-Biography:Nathan was born into a prominent New York family. He was educated in the United States and Switzerland and attended Harvard University for several years beginning in 1912. It was there that he began writing short fiction and poetry...
, (The Bishop's Wife
The Bishop's Wife
The Bishop's Wife is a 1947 Samuel Goldwyn romantic comedy feature film starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven in a story about an angel who helps a bishop with his problems. It was released by RKO. The film was adapted by Leonardo Bercovici and Robert E...
, Portrait of Jennie
Portrait of Jennie
Portrait of Jennie is a 1948 fantasy film based on the novella by Robert Nathan. The film was directed by William Dieterle and produced by David O. Selznick. It stars Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten.-Plot:...
), on 5 April 1970, and to whom she was married until his death in 1985.
Lee was the goddaughter of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
and lifelong friend of his daughter, Dame Jean Conan Doyle
Jean Conan Doyle
Air Commandant Dame Lena Annette Jean Conan Doyle, Lady Bromet , DBE, AE, WRAF, ADC was best known as Jean Conan Doyle....
. Her brother Sir John Winnifrith
John Winnifrith
Sir Alfred John Digby Winnifrith KCB was a senior British Civil Servant at the Ministry of Agriculture.Winnifrith was born at Ightham, Kent, the son of Rev Bertram Winnifrith. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church College, Oxford. He entered the Board of Trade in 1932 and went to...
was a senior British civil servant who became permanent secretary
Permanent Secretary
The Permanent secretary, in most departments officially titled the permanent under-secretary of state , is the most senior civil servant of a British Government ministry, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis...
at the Ministry of Agriculture
Ministry of Agriculture
An agriculture ministry or department of agriculture is a ministry or other government agency charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister for agriculture....
.
In the 1930s, Lee occupied a house at 49 Bankside
Bankside
Bankside is a district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. Bankside is located on the southern bank of the River Thames, east of Charing Cross, running from a little west of Blackfriars Bridge to just a short distance before London Bridge at St Mary Overie Dock to...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
; she was later interviewed by writer Gillian Tindall
Gillian Tindall
Gillian Tindall is a British writer. Among her better-known works are City of Gold: Biography of Bombay and Celestine: Voices from a French Village...
for a book written about the address, The House by the Thames, released in 2006. Since first built in 1710, the house had served as a home for coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
merchants, an office, a boarding-house, a hangout for derelicts and finally once again a private residence in the 1900s. The house is listed in tour guides as a famous residence and has been variously claimed as possibly being home to Christopher Wren
Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren FRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.He used to be accorded responsibility for rebuilding 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710...
during the construction of St. Paul's Cathedral, and previously claimed residents included Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon , also known as Katherine or Katharine, was Queen consort of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Princess of Wales as the wife to Arthur, Prince of Wales...
and William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
.
Awards and honours
On 21 May 2004 she was posthumously awarded a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award; she was scheduled to receive the award for months, but died before she could receive it. Lee's son attended to accept the award on her behalf.On 16 July 2004 General Hospital aired a tribute to Lee by holding a memorial service for Lila Quartermaine.
Selected filmography
- Say It with Music (1932)
- Chelsea LifeChelsea LifeChelsea Life is a 1933 British drama film directed by Sidney Morgan and starring Louis Hayward, Molly Johnson and Anna Lee.-Cast:* Louis Hayward - David Fenner* Molly Johnson - Lulu* Anna Lee - Honourable Muriel Maxton* Kathleen Saxon - Mrs...
(1933) - The Bermondsey KidThe Bermondsey KidThe Bermondsey Kid is a 1933 British drama film directed by Ralph Dawson and starring Esmond Knight, Pat Peterson, Ellis Irving and Ernest Sefton...
(1933) - Mannequin (1933)
- Rolling in MoneyRolling in MoneyRolling in Money is a 1934 British comedy film directed by Albert Parker and starring Isabel Jeans, Leslie Sarony and John Loder. An impoverished duchess arranges a marriage for her daughter to a wealthy working-class London barber. It was an adaptation of the play Mr. Hopkinson by R.C...
(1934) - The Camels are ComingThe Camels are Coming (film)The Camels are Coming is a 1934 British comedy adventure film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Jack Hulbert, Anna Lee, Hartley Power and Harold Huth...
(1934) - The Passing of the Third Floor BackThe Passing of the Third Floor BackThe Passing of the Third Floor Back is a 1935 British drama film directed by Berthold Viertel and starring Conrad Veidt, Anna Lee, René Ray and Frank Cellier. The film is based on a short story by Jerome K. Jerome and depicts the various small-minded inhabitants of a building and the arrival of a...
(1935) - Heat Wave (1935)
- The Man Who Changed His MindThe Man Who Changed His MindThe Man Who Changed His Mind is a 1936 science fiction horror film starring Boris Karloff and Anna Lee. It was directed by Robert Stevenson and was released in Great Britain by Gainsborough Pictures. The film was also known as The Brainsnatcher or The Man Who Lived Again.-Plot:Dr...
(1936) - Non-Stop New YorkNon-Stop New YorkNon-Stop New York is a 1937 crime film based on the novel Sky Steward by Ken Attiwill. A woman who can clear an innocent man of the charge of murder is pursued by gangsters onto a luxurious transatlantic flying boat.-Cast:...
(1937) - O.H.M.S.O.H.M.S. (film)O.H.M.S. is a 1937 British action comedy film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Wallace Ford, John Mills, Anna Lee and Grace Bradley. An American criminal evades the police by joining the British army.-Cast:* Wallace Ford - Jimmy Tracy...
(1937) - The Four Just MenThe Four Just Men (film)The Four Just Men is a 1939 British thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Hugh Sinclair, Griffith Jones, Edward Chapman and Garry Marsh. It is based on the novel The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace.-Cast:...
(1939) - Young Man's FancyYoung Man's Fancy (film)Young Man's Fancy is a 77 minute long 1940 British comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson, who also wrote the story, and starring Anna Lee and Griffith Jones. An aristocratic Englishman is unhappily engaged to a brewery heiress but meets a human cannonball during a visit to a circus and falls in...
(1939) - Return to YesterdayReturn to YesterdayReturn to Yesterday is a 1940 British drama film directed by Robert Stevenson. It stars Clive Brook and Anna Lee. It was based on the play Goodness How Sad! by Robert Morley.-Cast:* Clive Brook as Robert Maine* Anna Lee as Carol Sands...
(1940) - How Green was My ValleyHow Green Was My ValleyHow Green Was My Valley is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, telling the story through narration of the main character, of his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live. The author had claimed to have based the book on his own knowledge of the Gilfach Goch area, but this was proven...
(1941) - Flying TigersFlying Tigers (film)Flying Tigers is a 1942 black-and-white war film, starring John Wayne and John Carroll as mercenary fighter pilots fighting the Japanese in China prior to the U.S. entry into World War II....
(1942) - The Sound of MusicThe Sound of Music (film)Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Music, with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and with the musical...
(1965)