Ann Sothern facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ann Sothern
Sothern in 1960
Born	Harriette Arlene Lake (1909-01-22)January 22, 1909 Valley City, North Dakota, U.S.
Died	March 15, 2001(2001-03-15) (aged 92) Ketchum, Idaho, U.S.
Resting place	Ketchum Cemetery
Other names	Harriet Byron Harriet Lake
Alma mater	University of Washington
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1927–1987
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Roger Pryor ​ ​ (m. 1936; div. 1943)​ Robert Sterling ​ ​ (m. 1943; div. 1949)​
Children	Tisha Sterling

Ann Sothern (born Harriette Arlene Lake; January 22, 1909 – March 15, 2001) was a famous American actress. She worked on stage, radio, film, and television for almost 60 years!

Ann Sothern started her career in the late 1920s with small parts in movies. In 1930, she performed on Broadway, which is a famous theater district in New York City. Soon, she was getting lead roles.

In 1939, a big movie studio called MGM cast her as Maisie Ravier. Maisie was a lively and lovable showgirl from Brooklyn. People really liked this character. It led to a successful series of Maisie movies and even a radio show called The Adventures of Maisie.

In 1953, Sothern became a TV star in her own sitcom called Private Secretary. This show was on CBS for five seasons. Ann Sothern was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards for her role. In 1958, she starred in another CBS sitcom, The Ann Sothern Show, which ran for three seasons.

Later, from 1965 to 1966, Sothern was the voice of Gladys Crabtree in the sitcom My Mother the Car. She kept acting in the late 1960s, appearing in plays, movies, and guest roles on TV. She worked less in the 1970s and 1980s because of health problems.

In 1987, Ann Sothern appeared in her last movie, The Whales of August. She starred with other famous actresses like Bette Davis and Lillian Gish. For her role in this film, Sothern received her only Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. After the movie, she retired to Ketchum, Idaho. She lived there until she passed away from heart failure in March 2001.

Her friend Lucille Ball, who she worked with on The Lucy Show, once called Sothern "the best comedian in the business."

Ann Sothern's Early Life

Ann Sothern was born Harriette Arlene Lake in Valley City, North Dakota. She was the oldest of three daughters. Her mother, Annette Yde, was a concert singer. Her father, Walter J. Lake, worked in importing and exporting.

Harriette and her sisters grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her parents separated when she was four years old. They later divorced in 1927.

When she was five, Ann started taking piano lessons. She later studied at the McPhail School of Music. Her mother also taught piano there. Ann would sometimes go with her mother on concert tours when she wasn't in school.

By age 11, she was a skilled pianist and sang solos in her church choir. At 14, she began voice lessons and continued to study music. As a teenager at Minneapolis Central High School, she acted in many plays and even directed some shows.

During high school, she won state contests for student musical composers three years in a row. She graduated from high school in 1926. Her mother then moved to Los Angeles to work as a vocal coach for Warner Bros. studios. Ann moved with her father to Seattle and attended the University of Washington for one year.

Ann Sothern's Career

Starting Out in Hollywood

While visiting her mother in California, Ann got a part in a Warner Bros. show called The Show of Shows. She then did a screen test for MGM and signed a six-month contract. She appeared in small roles, but she wanted bigger parts.

She met a famous producer named Florenz Ziegfeld at a party. He offered her a role in one of his shows. When MGM didn't renew her contract, she moved to New York City to work with Ziegfeld. In 1931, she had lead roles on Broadway in America's Sweetheart and Everybody's Welcome.

Movies and Radio Stardom

In 1934, Ann signed a contract with Columbia Pictures. The head of the studio, Harry Cohn, changed her name to Ann Sothern. "Ann" was chosen to honor her mother, and "Sothern" was for a famous actor named E. H. Sothern. At Columbia, she mostly appeared in "B-movies," which were lower-budget films. After two years, she left Columbia.

In 1936, she signed with RKO Radio Pictures. After a few movies that weren't very popular, she left RKO. She then signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

At MGM, Sothern was cast as Maisie Ravier in the movie Maisie (1939). Maisie was a lively Brooklyn dancer. The role was originally planned for Jean Harlow, but Harlow passed away.

After years of smaller roles, Ann Sothern became very successful with Maisie. The movie made a lot of money for MGM. This led to a series of popular Maisie comedy movies. From 1939 to 1947, she starred in 10 Maisie films. A review in Time magazine called her "one of the smartest comediennes in the business."

The popularity of the movies led to her own radio show, The Adventures of Maisie. It was broadcast on CBS from 1945 to 1947. Because she was so popular, MGM bought the rights to a Broadway show called DuBarry Was a Lady just for her. However, Sothern didn't like the script, so Lucille Ball (her real-life best friend) got the role instead.

After filming Maisie Gets Her Man in 1942, Sothern starred in the movie Panama Hattie (1942) with Red Skelton. This movie had some problems during filming, but it was a big hit with audiences.

In 1943, she appeared in Swing Shift Maisie and the war drama Cry 'Havoc'. The next year, she starred in Maisie Goes to Reno before taking time off to have her first child. She returned to movies in 1946 with Up Goes Maisie, followed by the last Maisie film, Undercover Maisie.

Sothern also appeared in two musical films in 1948: April Showers and Words and Music. In 1949, she was in the Academy Award-winning film A Letter to Three Wives. She received great reviews for her performance. However, her career started to slow down in the late 1940s. In 1949, Sothern got hepatitis and was sick for three years. Because of her illness, MGM ended her contract.

Becoming a Television Star

Ann Sothern (left) with Lucille Ball (center) on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour in 1957.

By the early 1950s, Sothern was mostly in supporting roles in movies, like The Blue Gardenia (1953). She needed money for her medical bills, so she turned to television. In 1953, she got the lead role in the series Private Secretary.

Sothern played Susan Camille "Susie" MacNamara, a secretary for a talent agent in New York City. The show was very popular and often ranked in the top 10. Sothern was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award four times for her role. In 1957, she left the show after a disagreement with the producer.

She returned to TV the next year in The Ann Sothern Show. Sothern played Kathleen "Katy" O'Connor, an assistant manager at a hotel. The show's ratings were not strong at first. So, they changed the show and brought in Don Porter (her co-star from Private Secretary) as her boss. This added some romance and helped improve the ratings. In 1959, the series won a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. The show was canceled in 1961 after its ratings dropped.

Later Career and Retirement

After The Ann Sothern Show ended, she returned to movies in the political drama The Best Man (1964). She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her work in this film. In 1965, she had a recurring role on her friend Lucille Ball's show, The Lucy Show.

In 1965, Sothern co-starred in the TV comedy series My Mother the Car. She played Gladys Crabtree, the voice of a talking car that was the reincarnation of the main character's mother. Sothern was never seen in the show; only her voice was heard.

She continued to work in guest roles on TV and in occasional movies during the rest of the 1960s. In 1972, she appeared in a TV special called Fol-de-Rol. The next year, she played a mother in the horror film The Killing Kind. In 1974, she traveled to Hong Kong for the martial arts film Golden Needles.

Her next role was in the 1975 action/comedy film Crazy Mama. For the rest of the 1970s, health problems caused her to work less. She appeared in some TV shows and plays, including a small role in the horror film The Manitou (1978).

Sothern returned to television in 1985 in a TV movie based on her old film, A Letter to Three Wives. Ann Sothern's final film was The Whales of August in 1987. Her role in this movie earned her her only Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. After filming, Sothern retired from acting and moved to Ketchum, Idaho.

Other Businesses and Music

Throughout her career, Ann Sothern also managed several businesses. In the 1950s, she opened the Ann Sothern Sewing Center in Sun Valley, Idaho. She also owned a cattle ranch in Idaho called the A Bar S Cattle Company. Sothern owned two production companies that made her TV shows.

Besides acting, Sothern also had a musical career. In 1954, she performed her own nightclub act in places like Reno and Las Vegas. In the late 1950s, she started the A Bar S Music Company and released her first album, Sothern Exposure, in 1958.

Ann Sothern's Personal Life

Marriages and Family

Ann Sothern married actor and band leader Roger Pryor in September 1936. They divorced in May 1943. Less than a week later, she married actor Robert Sterling. They had one daughter, Patricia Ann "Tisha" Sterling. Ann and Robert divorced in March 1949.

Health Challenges

After filming A Letter to Three Wives, Sothern got hepatitis from a serum shot she received in England. She had to stay in bed for a while but continued to work on the Maisie radio show. In 1952, she converted to Roman Catholicism.

In 1974, Sothern was hurt during a play in Jacksonville, Florida. A prop tree fell on her back, causing a fractured vertebra and nerve damage in her legs. She had to be hospitalized and wear back braces. Because she couldn't move much, she gained weight. She also felt sad and depressed. Sothern said her positive attitude and faith helped her through. For the rest of her life, she had numbness in her feet and needed a cane to walk.

Ann Sothern's Death

Ann Sothern passed away on March 15, 2001, from heart failure at her home in Ketchum, Idaho. She was 92 years old. She is buried in Ketchum Cemetery.

Ann Sothern has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One is for her movies, and the other is for her television work.

Filmography

Stage Work

Awards and Nominations

Images for kids

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  Ann Sothern and Robert Sterling at a baseball game in 1942.

See Also

In Spanish: Ann Sothern para niños