Mary Anderson (actress, born 1918)

Mary Anderson

Anderson with actor Charles Russell in Behind Green Lights (1946)
Born Mary Bebe Anderson
(1918-04-03)April 3, 1918
Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Died April 6, 2014(2014-04-06) (aged 96)
Burbank, California, U.S.
Cause of death Natural causes
Other names Mary B. Anderson[1]
Occupation Actress
Years active 1939–1965
Spouse(s) Leonard M. Behrens
(m. 1940–1950; divorced)
Leon Shamroy
(m. 1953–1974; his death; 1 child)

Mary Anderson (April 3, 1918 – April 6, 2014) was an American actress, who appeared in 31 films and 22 television productions between 1939 and 1965. She was best known for her small supporting role in the film Gone With the Wind.[2]

Early life

Mary B. "Bebe" Anderson was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. She attended Howard College (now Samford University).

Her younger brother James Anderson (1921–1969) was also an actor, best known as Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).

Career

After two uncredited roles, she made her first important screen appearance in Gone With the Wind (1939). After auditioning as one of the 1,400 actresses involved in the search for Scarlett, she received the supporting role of Maybelle Merriwether.

In 1944, she played Alice the nurse, one of the ten characters in the Alfred Hitchcock film Lifeboat. Ending her film career in the early 1950s, she occasionally acted on television, for example as Catherine Harrington on Peyton Place in 1964 (episodes 2-20). She made a guest appearance in Perry Mason as Arlene Scott in "The Case of the Rolling Bones" (1958).

Personal life

Anderson was married to Leonard M. Behrens from 1940 to 1950. Her second marriage was to cinematographer Leon Shamroy from 1953 until his death in 1974. They had one child, Anderson Alexander Shamroy, who died July 1, 1956 at the age of two months. Mary Anderson died on April 6, 2014 in Burbank, California, three days after her 96th[3] birthday. She was under hospice care and died peacefully in a condo in Toluca Lake that she shared with her long-time companion, Gordon Carnon at her side. Her death left two surviving credited Gone With the Wind credited cast members, Mickey Kuhn and Olivia de Havilland,[4] who played the roles of Beau Wilkes and Melanie Hamilton, respectively.

Actresses with the same name

She is often confused with the stage actress Mary Anderson (1859–1940) or the silent film actress Mary Anderson (1897–1986).

Partial filmography

References

  1. ↑ Mary B. Anderson as per United States census (Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama; Roll: 23; Page: 39B; Enumeration District: 13; Image: 794.0; FHL microfilm: 2339758. Ancestry.com.
    1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls. Friend Mickey Kuhn
  2. ↑ "Necrology for 2014". Nostalgia Digest. 41 (2): 16–23. Spring 2015.
  3. ↑ http://articles.latimes.com/2014/apr/08/local/la-me-mary-anderson-20140408
  4. ↑ Noland, Claire (April 7, 2014). "Mary Anderson dies at 96; actress had role in 'Gone With the Wind'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
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