Anna Lee

Anna Lee, MBE (born Joan Boniface Winnifrith; 2 January 1913 – 14 May 2004)[1][2] was a British-born American actress,[3][4] labelled by studios "The British Bombshell".[5]

For other uses, see Anna Lee (disambiguation).

Anna Lee
Anna Lee on the cover of Picturegoer in 1936
Born	Joan Boniface Winnifrith (1913-01-02)2 January 1913 Ightham, Kent, England, UK
Died	14 May 2004(2004-05-14) (aged 91) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Resting place	Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Other names	Joanna Boniface Stafford
Years active	1932–2003
Spouse(s)	Robert Stevenson ​ ( m. 1934; div. 1944) George Stafford ​ ( m. 1944; div. 1964) Robert Nathan ​ ( m. 1970; died 1985)
Children	5, including Venetia Stevenson and Jeffrey Byron
Awards	1983 Soapy Awards for Favorite Woman in a Mature Role in General Hospital 1998 Soap Opera Digest Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role in General Hospital

Early life

Anna Lee was born Joan Boniface Winnifrith in Ightham, Kent, the daughter of Bertram Thomas Winnifrith, a headmaster and Anglican rector, and his second wife, Edith Maude Digby-Roper.[1] Her middle name "Boniface" derives from the saint from whom the Winnifrith family was descended. Her father, who supported his daughter in her desire to become an actress, came from a long line of clergy. As far back as A.D. 680 there was a Benedictine monk named Winifried or Winfrith from Devonshire who was consecrated Archbishop of Mainz. Lee's grandfather, Reverend Alfred Winnifrith, was Rector of Mariansleigh. During WWI, he provided for Belgian refugees and was awarded the Medaille du Roi Albert. Lee's brother, Sir John Winnifrith, was a senior British civil servant who became permanent secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture. She was the goddaughter of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and lifelong friend of his daughter, Dame Jean Conan Doyle.[6]

Career

Britain

Lee trained at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art at the Royal Albert Hall,[5] and made her debut with a bit part in His Lordship (1932), when she was 19.[3] She played a number of minor, often uncredited, roles in films during the early 1930s. Lee began to get more prominent roles in films to satisfy the Cinematograph Films Act of 1927 (17 & 18 Geo. V), which was an act of the United Kingdom Parliament designed to stimulate the declining British film industry.[7] She was known for her roles in films set amongst the wealthy, particularly in Chelsea Life (1933), in which she starred with Louis Hayward.[8]

In 1934, Lee signed a contract with Gainsborough Pictures, the biggest British production company of the era. She played leading lady roles in a variety of different genres at Gainsborough, including the comedy-thriller The Camels Are Coming, the drama The Passing of the Third Floor Back, the horror film The Man Who Changed His Mind and the war film OHMS. She appeared in the 1935 Jessie Matthews musical First a Girl as the aristocratic playgirl and other woman, Princess Miranoff. In 1937, she starred in one of the studio's large-budget productions, King Solomon's Mines.[9]

Lee met her first husband, the director Robert Stevenson in 1933,[5] while shooting The Camels are Coming on location in Egypt.[10] In 1937, she starred in his picture, Non-Stop New York, for Gaumont British. During 1938, she took time off from acting to give birth to her first child.[11] In 1939, Lee and her husband switched to Ealing Studios run by Michael Balcon, the former head of Gainsborough. She played a 19th-century Irish music hall performer who falls in love with an aristocrat in the comedy Young Man's Fancy (1939) and a journalist who helps heroes thwart a foreign enemy's plot against Britain in The Four Just Men (1939).[3]

Her final film in Britain was Return to Yesterday, a film about a young repertory theatre actress who falls in love with a Hollywood star she meets while touring in a small seaside town.[12] With World War II imminent, Lee and Stevenson went to the United States.[1] She remained supportive of the British war effort and in 1943 appeared alongside other British actors in Forever and a Day, a film made to raise money for British charities.[13][14]

United States

When she and her husband moved to Hollywood she became associated with John Ford, appearing in several of his films, notably How Green Was My Valley, Two Rode Together and Fort Apache.[15] She co-starred with John Wayne and John Carroll in Flying Tigers (1942).[16]

She worked for producer Val Lewton in the horror/thriller Bedlam (1946) and had a lead role opposite Brian Donlevy and Walter Brennan in Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die! (1943), a wartime thriller about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.[17][18] Lee made frequent appearances on television anthology series in the 1940s and 1950s, including Robert Montgomery Presents, The Ford Theatre Hour, Kraft Television Theatre, Armstrong Circle Theatre and Wagon Train. She made a guest appearance on Perry Mason as Crystal Durham in "The Case of the Unsuitable Uncle" (1962).[19]

In 1958, she returned to Britain to appear in John Ford's Gideon's Day, in which she played the detective's wife.[20] She had a small but memorable role as Sister Margaretta in The Sound of Music, one of the two nuns who thwarted the Nazis by removing car engine parts, allowing the Von Trapps to escape.[21] Lee appeared in the 1962 classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? in a small role as Mrs. Bates, a neighbour of the sisters played by Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.[20] In 1994, Lee took the leading role in the feature film What Can I Do?, directed by Wheeler Winston Dixon.[22][23]

In later years, she became known to a new generation as matriarch Lila Quartermaine on General Hospital and Port Charles until being removed from contract and dropped to recurring status in 2003 by Jill Farren-Phelps, which was widely protested in the soap world and among General Hospital actors.[24] According to fellow General Hospital actress Leslie Charleson, Lee had been promised a job for life by former General Hospital executive producer Wendy Riche. Charleson said in 2007, "The woman was in her 90s. And then when the new powers-that-be took over they fired her, and it broke her heart. It was not necessary."[24]

Personal life

Lee married her first husband, the director Robert Stevenson, in 1933[5] and moved to Hollywood in 1939. They had two daughters, Venetia and Caroline. Venetia Stevenson, an actress as well, was married to Don Everly of the Everly Brothers and has three children, Edan, Erin, and Stacy. Lee and Stevenson divorced in March 1944, with Venetia and Caroline electing to live with their father. She met her second husband, George Stafford, as the pilot of the plane on her USO tour during the Second World War. They married on 8 June 1944, and had three sons, John, Stephen and Tim Stafford.[25]

Tim Stafford is an actor under the stage name of Jeffrey Byron. Lee and Stafford divorced in 1964. Her final marriage, to novelist Robert Nathan (The Bishop's Wife, Portrait of Jennie), on 5 April 1970, ended at his death in 1985. Lee became a naturalized US citizen under the name Joanna Boniface Stafford (#123624) on 6 April 1945; certificate issued 8 June 1945 (#6183889, Los Angeles, California).

In the 1930s, Lee occupied a house at 49 Bankside in London; she was later interviewed by writer Gillian Tindall for a book written about the address, The House by the Thames, released in 2006. Since first built in 1710, the house had served as a home for coal merchants, an office, a boarding house, a hangout for derelicts and finally once again a private residence in the 1900s. The house is listed in tour guides as a famous residence and has been variously claimed as possibly being home to Christopher Wren during the construction of St. Paul's Cathedral, and previously claimed residents included Catherine of Aragon and William Shakespeare.[26]

In 1981, a car accident left her paralysed from the waist down.[5]

Lee was a staunch Conservative and stated that her views coincided with those of Sir Winston Churchill.[27][28][29]

Awards and honours

In 1982 she was awarded an MBE, after fundraising for the White Cliffs at Dover and Ightham Mote.[5] In 1995, her star was installed on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.[5] On 21 May 2004, she was posthumously awarded a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award; she was scheduled for months to receive the award, but died from pneumonia at age 91 before she could receive it.[30] Her son, Jeffrey Byron, accepted the award on her behalf. On 16 July 2004, General Hospital aired a tribute to Lee by holding a memorial service for Lila Quartermaine.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1932	Ebb Tide		Uncredited
	Say It with Music
	His Lordship	Scrub Girl Chorine	Uncredited
1933	The King's Cup	Minor Role	Uncredited
	Yes, Mr. Brown		Uncredited
	Mayfair Girl	Bit Role	Uncredited
	The Bermondsey Kid
	Chelsea Life	Muriel Maxton
	Mannequin	Babette
1934	Faces	Madeleine Pelham
	Rolling in Money	Lady Eggleby
	Lucky Loser	Ursula Hamilton
	The Camels are Coming	Anita Rodgers
1935	Heat Wave	Jane Allison
	The Passing of the Third Floor Back	Vivian
	First a Girl	Princess Miranoff
1936	The Man Who Changed His Mind	Dr Wyatt
1937	OHMS	Sally Briggs
	King Solomon's Mines	Kathleen O'Brien
	Non-Stop New York	Jennie Carr
1939	The Four Just Men	Ann Lodge
	Young Man's Fancy	Miss Ada
1940	Return to Yesterday	Carol Sands
	Seven Sinners	Dorothy
1941	My Life with Caroline	Caroline
	How Green Was My Valley	Bronwyn
1942	Flying Tigers	Brooke Elliott
	Commandos Strike at Dawn	Judith Bowen
1943	Forever and a Day	Cornelia Trimble-Pomfret
	Flesh and Fantasy	Rowena	(Episode #2)
	Hangmen Also Die!	Masha Novotny
1944	Summer Storm	Nadena Kalenin
1946	Bedlam	Nell Bowen
	G.I. War Brides	Linda Powell
1947	The Ghost and Mrs. Muir	Mrs Miles Fairley
	High Conquest	Marie Correl
1948	Fort Apache	Mrs Emily Collingwood
	Best Man Wins	Nancy Smiley
1949	Prison Warden	Elisa Pennington Burnell
1958	Gideon's Day	Mrs Kate Gideon
	The Last Hurrah	Gert Minihan
1959	The Horse Soldiers	Mrs Buford
	This Earth Is Mine	Charlotte Rambeau
	The Crimson Kimono	Mac
	Jet Over the Atlantic	Ursula Leverett
1960	The Big Night	Mrs Turner
1961	Two Rode Together	Mrs Malaprop
1962	The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance	Mrs. Prescott	Uncredited
	Jack the Giant Killer	Lady Constance
	What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?	Mrs. Bates
	Mutiny on the Bounty		Uncredited
1964	For Those Who Think Young	Laura Pruitt
	The Unsinkable Molly Brown	Titanic Passenger in Lifeboat	Uncredited
1965	The Sound of Music	Sister Margaretta
1966	7 Women	Mrs Russell
	Picture Mommy Dead	Elsie Kornwald
1967	In Like Flint	Elisabeth
1968	Star!	Hostess	Uncredited
1978	Legend of the Northwest
1979	The Night Rider	Lady Earl
1987	Right Hand Man	Worn Woman
	Beyond the Next Mountain	Governor's Wife
1989	Listen to Me	Garson's Grandmother
	Beverly Hills Brats	Gertie
1994	What Can I Do	Elderly Woman

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950	Robert Montgomery Presents	Frances Lawrence	1 episode
1951	Studio One	Anita Derr	1 episode
1952	Robert Montgomery Presents	Ann Hammond	2 episodes
1958	Peter Gunn	Sister Thomas Aquina	1 episode
1960	The Barbara Stanwyck Show		1 episode
1962	Perry Mason	Crystal Durham	1 episode
	McHale's Navy	Pamela Parfrey	1 episode (Christmas) 11
1963	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	Roberta Saunders	1 episode
1964	The Movie Maker		TV movie
1965	Combat!	Sister Lescaut	(episode: "The Enemy")
1966	My Three Sons	Louise Allen	1 episode
1967	Gunsmoke	Amy Bassett	1 episode
1968	Mannix "Edge Of The Knife"	Mrs Harriman	Season 2 Episode 07
1970	Mission: Impossible	Maria Malik	(episode: "The Martyr")
1973	My Darling Daughters' Anniversary	Judge Barbara Hanline	TV Movie
1977	Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years	Laura Delano	TV Movie
1978	The Beasts Are on the Streets	Mrs Jackson	TV movie
1979–2003	General Hospital	Lila Quartermaine	77 episodes, (final appearance)
1980	Scruples	Aunt Wilhelmina	3 episodes
1997	Port Charles	Lila Quartermaine

References

1. Bergan, Ronald (18 May 2004). "Anna Lee". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
2. Leslie Halliwell (November 1988). Halliwell's filmgoer's companion: incorporating The filmgoer's book of quotes and Halliwell's movie quiz. Grafton. p. 421. ISBN 978-0-246-13322-9.
3. "Anna Lee".
4. "Anna Lee – Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos – AllMovie". AllMovie.
5. "Anna Lee".
6. Lee, Anna; Roisman Cooper, Barbara (2007). Anna Lee: Memoir of a Career on General Hospital and in Film. McFarland & Company (Jefferson, North Carolina/London). ISBN 978-0-7864-3161-8.
7. Chibnall, pp.40–41
8. Chibnall, pp. 117–18
9. "King Solomon's Mines (1937) – Robert Stevenson – Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related – AllMovie". AllMovie.
10. The Unknown 1930s p. 163
11. The Unknown 1930s, p. 173
12. The Unknown 1930s p.174-76
13. "Forever and a Day (1943) – René Clair, Edmund Goulding, Cedric Hardwicke, Frank Lloyd, Victor Saville, Kent Smith, Robert Stevenson, Herbert Wilcox – Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related – AllMovie". AllMovie.
14. "Forever and a Day (1943) – René Clair, Edmund Goulding, Cedric Hardwicke, Frank Lloyd, Victor Saville, Kent Smith, Robert Stevenson, Herbert Wilcox – Cast and Crew – AllMovie". AllMovie.
15. "Anna Lee – Movies and Filmography – AllMovie". AllMovie.
16. "Flying Tigers (1942)".
17. "Bedlam (1946)".
18. "Hangmen Also Die! (1943) – Fritz Lang – Cast and Crew – AllMovie". AllMovie.
19. "Perry Mason: The Case of the Unsuitable Uncle (1962) – Francis D. Lyon – Cast and Crew – AllMovie". AllMovie.
20. "Gideon's Day (1958)".
21. "The Sound of Music (1965) – Robert Wise – Cast and Crew – AllMovie". AllMovie.
22. "What Can I Do? (1994)".
23. "Wheeler Winston Dixon – MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art.
24. Soap Opera Weekly, 13 February 2007, p. 2
25. Star Diary, 10 October 1954.
26. "The city's other shore". The Economist. 23 March 2006. Retrieved 23 December 2016. Things pick up in the 1930s, when the house was briefly occupied by Anna Lee, a starlet. The author tracked her down in 2003; she was living in Beverly Hills, having built a second career on the marathon American soap opera General Hospital. She remembered the house fondly; her sister recalled being escorted home by policemen, as the neighbourhood was thought to be dangerous.
27. Obituary, latimes.com; accessed 22 September 2015.
28. Obituary, independent.co.uk; accessed 22 September 2015.
29. Interview, westernclippings.com; accessed 22 September 2015.
30. "Anna Lee, 91: General Hospital Actress".

Sources

• Chibnall, Steve. Quota Quickies: The Birth of the British 'B' Film. British Film Institute, 2007.
• Richards, Jeffrey (ed.). The Unknown 1930s: An Alternative History of the British Cinema, 1929–1939. I.B. Tauris & Co, 1998.

External links

• Anna Lee on IMDb
• Anna Lee at Find a Grave
• Photos of Anna Lee in 'Hangmen Also Die' by Ned Scott