Anne Revere
Encyclopedia
Anne Revere was an American
stage, film, and television actress.
, Revere was a direct descendant of American Revolution
hero Paul Revere
. Her father, Clinton, was a stockbroker, and she was raised on the Upper West Side
and in Westfield, New Jersey
. In 1926, she graduated from Wellesley College, then enrolled at the American Laboratory School to study acting with Maria Ouspenskaya
and Richard Boleslavsky.
debut in 1931 in The Great Barrington. Three years later, she went to Hollywood to reprise her stage role in the film adaptation of Double Door. She returned to Broadway to create the role of Martha Dobie in the original 1934 production of The Children's Hour
, and in later years she appeared on the New York stage in As You Like It
, The Three Sisters
, and Toys in the Attic (play)
, for which she won the 1960 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
.
Revere worked steadily as a character actress in films, appearing in nearly three dozen between 1934 and 1951. She frequently was cast in the role of a matriarch and played mother to Elizabeth Taylor
, Jennifer Jones
, Gregory Peck
, John Garfield
, and Montgomery Clift
, among others. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
three times and won for her performance in National Velvet
. Additional screen credits included The Song of Bernadette
, Gentleman's Agreement
, The Keys of the Kingdom
, Body and Soul
, and A Place in the Sun.
In 1951, Revere resigned from the board of the Screen Actors Guild
after she pleaded the Fifth Amendment
and refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee
. She would not appear again on film for the next twenty years, finally returning to the screen in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
. She began appearing on television in 1960, notably in soap opera
s such as The Edge of Night
, Search for Tomorrow
, and Ryan's Hope
.
Revere and her husband, theatre director Samuel Rosen, moved to New York and opened an acting school, and she continued to work in summer stock
and regional theater productions and on television.
in her Locust Valley, New York
home at the age of 87.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stage, film, and television actress.
Early life
Born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Revere was a direct descendant of American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
hero Paul Revere
Paul Revere
Paul Revere was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. He is most famous for alerting Colonial militia of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride...
. Her father, Clinton, was a stockbroker, and she was raised on the Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
and in Westfield, New Jersey
Westfield, New Jersey
Westfield is a town in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 30,316. The old village area, now the downtown district, was settled in 1720 as part of the Elizabethtown Tract....
. In 1926, she graduated from Wellesley College, then enrolled at the American Laboratory School to study acting with Maria Ouspenskaya
Maria Ouspenskaya
Maria Alekseyevna Ouspenskaya was a Russian actress and acting teacher. She achieved success as a stage actress as a young woman in Russia, and as an elderly woman in Hollywood films.-Life and career:...
and Richard Boleslavsky.
Career
Revere made her BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut in 1931 in The Great Barrington. Three years later, she went to Hollywood to reprise her stage role in the film adaptation of Double Door. She returned to Broadway to create the role of Martha Dobie in the original 1934 production of The Children's Hour
The Children's Hour (play)
The Children's Hour is a 1934 stage play written by Lillian Hellman. It is a drama set in an all-girls boarding school run by two women, Karen Wright and Martha Dobie. An angry student, Mary Tilford, runs away from the school and to avoid being sent back she tells her grandmother that the two...
, and in later years she appeared on the New York stage in As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
, The Three Sisters
Three Sisters (play)
Three Sisters is a play by Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov, perhaps partially inspired by the situation of the three Brontë sisters, but most probably by the three Zimmermann sisters in Perm...
, and Toys in the Attic (play)
Toys in the Attic (play)
-Plot:Set in New Orleans following the Great Depression, it focuses on the Berniers sisters, two middle-aged spinsters who have sacrificed their own ambitions to look after their ne'er-do-well younger brother Julian, whose grandiose dreams repeatedly lead to financial disasters...
, for which she won the 1960 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
This is a list of winners and nomination of the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress. The award was first presented in 1947.-1940s:* 1947: Patricia Neal – Another Part of the Forest* 1949: Shirley Booth – Goodbye, My Fancy-1950s:...
.
Revere worked steadily as a character actress in films, appearing in nearly three dozen between 1934 and 1951. She frequently was cast in the role of a matriarch and played mother to Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
, Jennifer Jones
Jennifer Jones
Phylis Lee Isley , better known by her stage name Jennifer Jones, was an American actress. A five-time Academy Award nominee, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette .-Early life:Jones was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Flora Mae and...
, Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
, John Garfield
John Garfield
John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...
, and Montgomery Clift
Montgomery Clift
Edward Montgomery Clift was an American film and stage actor. The New York Times’ obituary noted his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men"....
, among others. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
three times and won for her performance in National Velvet
National Velvet (film)
National Velvet is a 1944 drama film, in Technicolor, based on the novel by Enid Bagnold, published in 1935. It stars Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp and a young Elizabeth Taylor....
. Additional screen credits included The Song of Bernadette
The Song of Bernadette (film)
The Song of Bernadette is a 1943 drama film which tells the story of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, who, from February to July 1858 in Lourdes, France, reported 18 visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was directed by Henry King....
, Gentleman's Agreement
Gentleman's Agreement
Gentleman's Agreement is a 1947 drama film about a journalist who goes undercover as a Jew to conduct research for an exposé on antisemitism in New York City and the affluent community of Darien, Connecticut...
, The Keys of the Kingdom
The Keys of the Kingdom (film)
The Keys of the Kingdom is a 1944 American film based on the 1941 novel, The Keys of the Kingdom, by A. J. Cronin. The movie was adapted by Nunnally Johnson, directed by John M. Stahl and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It stars Gregory Peck, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Rose Stradner, Edmund...
, Body and Soul
Body and Soul
Body and Soul or Body & Soul may refer to:*The Mind-body dichotomyIn film:* Body and Soul , the best-known silent film of pioneer African-American filmmaker Oscar B...
, and A Place in the Sun.
In 1951, Revere resigned from the board of the Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
after she pleaded the Fifth Amendment
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...
and refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
. She would not appear again on film for the next twenty years, finally returning to the screen in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon is a 1970 film directed by Otto Preminger. The film is based on the book by Marjorie Kellogg. The film starred Liza Minnelli as the title character, a girl whose face is scarred in a vicious battery acid attack by her boy friend. Later in an institution, she...
. She began appearing on television in 1960, notably in soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s such as The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night is an American television mystery series/soap opera produced by Procter & Gamble. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network until November 28, 1975; the series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December 1, 1975, until December 28, 1984...
, Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera which premiered on September 3, 1951 on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast it was the...
, and Ryan's Hope
Ryan's Hope
Ryan's Hope is an American soap opera, revolving around 13 years of trials and tribulations within a large Irish American family in the Riverside district of New York City. It aired from July 7, 1975 to January 13, 1989 on ABC...
.
Revere and her husband, theatre director Samuel Rosen, moved to New York and opened an acting school, and she continued to work in summer stock
Summer stock theatre
Summer stock theatre is any theatre that presents stage productions only in the summer within the United States. The name combines both the seasonal time of year with the tradition of staging shows by a resident company, reusing stock scenery and costumes...
and regional theater productions and on television.
Illness and death
Revere died of pneumoniaPneumonia
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...
in her Locust Valley, New York
Locust Valley, New York
Locust Valley is a hamlet located in Nassau County, New York. Locust Valley is an unincorporated area of the Town of Oyster Bay...
home at the age of 87.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 | Double Door | Caroline Van Brett | |
| 1940 | The Howards of Virginia The Howards of Virginia The Howards of Virginia is a 1940 film released by Columbia Pictures and based on the book The Tree of Liberty written by Elizabeth Page... |
Mrs. Betsy Norton | |
| One Crowded Night | Mae Andrews | ||
| 1941 | Remember the Day Remember the Day Remember the Day is a 1941 film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Henry King, and starring Claudette Colbert and John Payne-Plot:An elderly schoolteacher reflects on her life and teaching career while waiting to see "Dewey Roberts", formerly her student and currently a Presidential nominee... |
Miss Nadine Price | |
| The Flame of New Orleans The Flame of New Orleans The Flame of New Orleans is a 1941 comedy film directed by René Clair and starring Bruce Cabot in his first comedy role and Marlene Dietrich. It was nominated an Academy Award for Best Art Direction by Martin Obzina, Jack Otterson and Russell A... |
Giraud's Sister | ||
| Men of Boys Town | Mrs. Fenely | ||
| The Devil Commands The Devil Commands The Devil Commands is a 1941 horror film directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Boris Karloff. The working title of the film was The Devil Said No. In it, a man obsessed with contacting his dead wife falls in with a sinister phony medium. The Devil Commands is one of the many films from the... |
Mrs. Walters | ||
| 1942 | The Gay Sisters The Gay Sisters The Gay Sisters is a 1942 American drama film directed by Irving Rapper, and starring Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Donald Crisp, Gig Young and Nancy Coleman. The Warner Bros. motion picture was based on a novel by Stephen Longstreet.... |
Miss Ida Orner | |
| Are Husbands Necessary? | Anna | ||
| Meet the Stewarts | Geraldine Stewart | ||
| 1943 | The Song of Bernadette The Song of Bernadette (film) The Song of Bernadette is a 1943 drama film which tells the story of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, who, from February to July 1858 in Lourdes, France, reported 18 visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was directed by Henry King.... |
Louise Soubirous | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the... |
| Old Acquaintance Old Acquaintance Old Acquaintance is a 1943 film drama made by Warner Bros. It was directed by Vincent Sherman and produced by Henry Blanke with Jack L. Warner as executive producer from a screenplay by John Van Druten, Lenore Coffee and Edmund Goulding based on Van Druten's play.The film starred Bette Davis and... |
Belle Carter | ||
| Shantytown | Mrs. Gorty | ||
| The Meanest Man in the World | Kitty Crockett, Clark's Secretary | ||
| 1944 | The Keys of the Kingdom The Keys of the Kingdom (film) The Keys of the Kingdom is a 1944 American film based on the 1941 novel, The Keys of the Kingdom, by A. J. Cronin. The movie was adapted by Nunnally Johnson, directed by John M. Stahl and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It stars Gregory Peck, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Rose Stradner, Edmund... |
Agnes Fiske | |
| National Velvet National Velvet (film) National Velvet is a 1944 drama film, in Technicolor, based on the novel by Enid Bagnold, published in 1935. It stars Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp and a young Elizabeth Taylor.... |
Mrs. Brown | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the... |
|
| Sunday Dinner for a Soldier Sunday Dinner for a Soldier Sunday Dinner for a Soldier is a 1944 motion picture directed by Lloyd Bacon andbased on a novelette by Martha Cheavens.The film tells the story of a poor family in Florida who wants to host a meal for a serviceman from the Army airbase nearby.... |
Agatha Butterfield | ||
| Rainbow Island | Queen Okalana | ||
| Standing Room Only | Major Harriet Cromwell | ||
| The Thin Man Goes Home The Thin Man Goes Home The Thin Man Goes Home is a 1945 motion picture directed by Richard Thorpe. It is the fifth of the six Thin Man films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Dashiell Hammett's dapper private detective Nick Charles and his wife Nora.-Plot:... |
Crazy Mary | ||
| 1945 | Fallen Angel Fallen Angel (1945 film) Fallen Angel is a 1945 black-and-white film noir directed by Otto Preminger, with cinematography by Joseph LaShelle, who had also worked with Preminger on Laura a year before. The film features Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, and Charles Bickford. It was the last film Faye made as a major... |
Clara Mills | |
| Don Juan Quilligan | Mrs. Cora Rostigaff | ||
| 1946 | Dragonwyck | Abigail Wells | |
| 1947 | Gentleman's Agreement Gentleman's Agreement Gentleman's Agreement is a 1947 drama film about a journalist who goes undercover as a Jew to conduct research for an exposé on antisemitism in New York City and the affluent community of Darien, Connecticut... |
Mrs. Green | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the... |
| Forever Amber Forever Amber (film) Forever Amber is a 1947 film directed by Otto Preminger and starring Linda Darnell and Cornel Wilde. It was based on the book of the same name. It also starred Richard Greene, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Richard Haydn, Dolores Hart, and Jessica Tandy... |
Mother Red Cap | ||
| Body and Soul Body and Soul (1947 film) Body and Soul is a 1947 film noir which tells the story of a boxer who becomes involved with crooked promoters. It stars John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Hazel Brooks, Anne Revere and William Conrad.... |
Anna Davis | ||
| Carnival in Costa Rica Carnival in Costa Rica Carnival in Costa Rica is an American musical film directed by Gregory Ratoff and written by Samuel Hoffenstein, John Larkin, and Elizabeth Reinhardt. It was released in Technicolor by Twentieth Century Fox... |
Mama Elsa Molina | ||
| The Shocking Miss Pilgrim The Shocking Miss Pilgrim The Shocking Miss Pilgrim is a 1947 American musical comedy film written and directed by George Seaton, starring Betty Grable and Dick Haymes... |
Alice Pritchard | ||
| 1948 | Deep Waters | Mary McKay | |
| Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! is a 1948 comedy film which is known for being one of Marilyn Monroe's earliest films .... |
Judith Dominy | ||
| Secret Beyond the Door | Caroline Lamphere | ||
| 1949 | You're My Everything | Aunt Jane | |
| 1951 | A Place in the Sun | Hannah Eastman | |
| The Great Missouri Raid | Mrs. Samuels | ||
| 1970 | Macho Callahan | Crystal | |
| Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon is a 1970 film directed by Otto Preminger. The film is based on the book by Marjorie Kellogg. The film starred Liza Minnelli as the title character, a girl whose face is scarred in a vicious battery acid attack by her boy friend. Later in an institution, she... |
Miss Farber | ||
| 1976 | Birch Interval | Mrs. Tanner | |