Ann Harding

Ann Harding; Dorothy Walton Gatley actually ( born August 7, 1901 in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, † September 1, 1981 in Sherman Oaks, California ) was an American actress.

Life

The daughter of a high-ranking military spent her childhood and youth at various U.S. military bases. Contrary to the express wish of her father Ann Harding decided to pursue a career as an actress. Your greatest success on Broadway in 1927 she could celebrate in the crime drama The Trial of Mary Dugan. Ann Harding went early 1929 by Hollywood, but hope to be able to play in the film adaptation of the play by MGM starring, however, broke at the moment, as Norma Shearer decided, in the role of the murder suspects Chorus Girls their official debut in to give sound film. Harding then entered into a contract with the company Pathé and made her first film role in the adaptation of Philip Barry's comedy Salon Paris Bound, a major financial and artistic success.

The Studio sat Harding immediately in Holiday, once again in the adaptation of Barry - piece. The staging brought the only nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Ann Harding 1930. The piece is now the most fans in the film adaptation of The Sister of the Bride by George Cukor in 1938 with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant in memory. At the time Harding belonged together with the actresses Constance Bennett and Helen Twelvetrees with the biggest stars in their home studio Pathé. Their status as Queen of the studios, and they also retained after Pathé merged briefly with other companies to RKO later. From the beginning, Harding suffered career under what is called typecasting: the endless repetition of the same role. After the actress enjoyed great success as a sophisticated, long- suffering lady of high society at the box office, she decided on the recipe for success to change little. The range of roles ranged from old-fashioned melodramas such as East Lynne or Devotion via triangle stories in front of an exotic studio background such as escape from Devil's Island, which began Harding as the wife of a prison warden in French Guiana, and prestige, with Ann as the wife of a plantation operator somewhere in Indochina and the Conquerors, where Harding as a long suffering wife of Richard Dix, directed by William Wellman, the turmoil of the great American land grab is on the end of the 19th century and was given to the total fee for their efforts from the studio at least $ 93,500. Your flair for sophisticated comedy - a neologism for which there is no adequate German equivalent - has been rarely used, so in 1932 in the film adaptation of the play The Animal Kingdom, in turn, by Philip Barry, with Leslie Howard and Myrna Loy. 1933 Ann Harding was seen again as entsagungsreiche lady of high society who hides her heart under layers of fur, as they kind-hearted wife of a publisher played in the film adaptation of the Broadway success of When Ladies Meet, which begins an affair with Myrna Loy. Later in the year she was seen at de site of William Powell in the comedy thriller Double Harness.

After 1933, however, Harding decided to play only in tearful melodramas. The stories themselves were similar to all: the actress falls in love with the wrong man, gets pregnant without being married, somewhere a murder, Ann takes for incomprehensible reasons, the blame goes to jail innocent, suffering very much, still crying more and at the end there is a happy ending. The suffering is done with the greatest possible amount of glamor and still like so mercilessly strike the fate of the heroine is always dressed perfectly. At the summit of this world pain romance consisted of two strips of 1934: The Life of Vergie Winters, during which Harding is pregnant unintentionally, waived their child and end up even goes in favor of the child father for a murder in prison, which she did not commit. Gallant Lady Harding again sat as an unwed mother who can hold their children back in their arms after several thugs fate after the father had released it without their knowledge for adoption. The resulting film was such a success that the studio re- titled Always Goodbye with Barbara Stanwyck filmed the story than four years later. After the failure of Enchanted April and the challenging but financially disappointing adaptation of Peter Ibbetson with fellow actor Gary Cooper, both in 1935, the career of Harding sank rapidly into insignificance. She turned in 1937 in England at the side of Basil Rathbone Love From A Stranger, based on the play by Agatha Christie and then retired for some years from the canvas. It was not until 1942, she returned as a character actress in Eyes in the Night to Hollywood.

Ann Harding was married from 1926 to 1936 with the actor Harry Bannister and from 1937 to 1962 with the composer Werner Janssen, both marriages ended in divorce. She has a daughter from his first marriage.

Two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame recall the actress. The star height 6201 Hollywood Bouldevard is dedicated to her work in film, the star height 6840 Hollywood Boulevard recalls her work on television.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Oscar / Best Actress

Academy Awards 1931 - Nominations for Holiday

Ann Harding

Life

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Further Reading