Ann Dvorak
Known For: Acting
Gender: Female
Date of Birth: August 2, 1911
Day of Death: December 10, 1979 (68 years old)
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, USA
Ann Dvorak (born Anna McKim; August 2, 1911 – December 10, 1979) was an American stage and film actress. Asked how to pronounce her adopted surname, she told The Literary Digest: "My fake name is properly pronounced vor'shack. The D remains silent." Dvorak was the daughter and only child of silent film actress Anna Lehr and director Edwin McKim. While in New York, she attended St. Catherine's Convent. After moving to California, she attended Page School for Girls in Hollywood. She made her film debut when she was five years old in the silent film version of Ramona (1916), credited as "Baby Anna Lehr". She continued in children's roles in The Man Hater (1917) and Five Dollar Plate (1920), but then stopped acting in films. Her parents separated in 1916 and divorced in 1920; she did not see her father again until 13 years later, when she made a public plea to the press to help her find him. In the late 1920s, Dvorak worked as a dance instructor and gradually began to appear on film as a chorus girl. Her friend, actress Karen Morley, introduced her to billionaire movie producer Howard Hughes, who groomed her as a dramatic actress. She was a success in such pre-Code films as Scarface (1932) as Paul Muni's sister; in Three on a Match (1932) with Bette Davis and Joan Blondell as the doomed, unstable Vivian; in The Crowd Roars (1932) with James Cagney; and in Sky Devils (1932) opposite Spencer Tracy. Known for her style and elegance, she was a popular leading lady for Warner Bros. during the 1930s, and appeared in numerous contemporary romances and melodramas. At age 19, Dvorak eloped with Leslie Fenton, her English co-star from The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932), and they married on March 17, 1932. They left for a year-long honeymoon in spite of her contractual obligations to the studio, which led to a period of litigation and pay disputes during which she discovered she was making the same amount of money as the boy who played her son in Three on a Match. She completed her contract on permanent suspension, then worked as a freelancer. Although she worked regularly, the quality of her scripts declined sharply. She appeared as secretary Della Street to Donald Woods' Perry Mason in The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937). With her then-husband, Leslie Fenton, Dvorak traveled to England where she supported the war effort by working as an ambulance driver and acted in several British films. She appeared as a saloon singer in Abilene Town with Randolph Scott and Edgar Buchanan, released in 1946. The following year she adeptly handled comedy by giving an assured performance in Out of the Blue (1947). In 1948, Dvorak gave her only performance on Broadway in The Respectful Prostitute. Dvorak's marriage to Fenton ended in divorce in 1946. In 1947, she married Igor Dega, a Russian dancer who danced with her briefly in The Bachelor's Daughters. The marriage ended two years later. Dvorak retired from the screen in 1951, when she married her third and last husband, Nicholas Wade, to whom she remained married until his death in 1975. She had no children.
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Actor Myra
Heat Lightning
Actor Susan Merrill
Gentlemen Are Born
Actor Judy Wagner
Murder in the Clouds
Actor Miss Beulah Boyd
Friends of Mr. Sweeney
Actor Joan
Midnight Alibi
Actor Nan Reynolds
Housewife
Actor Marguerite Gilbert
Side Streets
Actor Lydia
Massacre
Actor Barbara
I Sell Anything
Actor Chorine (archive footage) (uncredited)
Roast-Beef and Movies
1933
1932
1931
Actor Rally Audience Extra (uncredited)
Politics
Actor Marian Crickle
Stranger in Town
Actor Party Guest (Uncredited)
This Modern Age
Actor Dancer (uncredited)
Son of India
Actor Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Dance, Fools, Dance
Actor Fan Saying "There He Is" (uncredited)
The Guardsman
Actor Bit (uncredited)
A Tailor-Made Man
Choreographer
Dance, Fools, Dance
1930
Actor Chorine (uncredited)
Estrellados
Actor Zeppelin Reveler (uncredited)
Madam Satan
Actor Chorus Girl (uncredited)
The March of Time
Actor Chorus Girl
The Woman Racket
Actor Chorus Girl
Lord Byron of Broadway
Actor Student
Good News
Actor Chorine (uncredited)
Free and Easy
Actor Carnival Show Girl (uncredited)
Way Out West
Actor One of the 'Quartet' of Models with Tony (uncredited)
Our Blushing Brides
Actor Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Chasing Rainbows
Actor Chorine in Black (uncredited)
The Devil's Cabaret
Actor Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Children of Pleasure
1929
Actor Chorus Girl from Omaha (uncredited)
The Hollywood Revue of 1929
Actor Chorus Girl
It's a Great Life
Actor Student (uncredited)
So This Is College
Actor Chorine (uncredited)
Devil-May-Care
Actor Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Manhattan Serenade
Actor Member of the Chorus (uncredited)
The Song Writers' Revue
Actor Doll
The Doll Shop
