Anne Seymour (actress)

Anne Seymour (September 11, 1909 – December 8, 1988) was an American film and television character actress.[1]

Anne Seymour
Seymour as Lucia Garret in Empire in 1962.
Born	Anne Seymour Eckert (1909-09-11)September 11, 1909 Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Died	December 8, 1988(1988-12-08) (aged 79) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Other names	Anne Eckert Anne Seymour Eckert
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1944–1988
Parent(s)	William Stanley Eckert May Davenport Seymour Eckert

Personal life

Anne Seymour Eckert was born in Manhattan to William Stanley and May Davenport (née Seymour) Eckert (1883–1967)[2] an actress and later curator of the Museum of the City of New York. She was the seventh generation of a theatrical family traceable to 18th century Ireland. Seymour, her mother (May Davenport Seymour), and her brother (Bill Seymour) were all active in radio concurrently.[3]

Her great-uncle was character actor Harry Davenport, and her cousins were writer James Seymour and actor John Seymour.

Education

After attending St. Mary's for "her conventional education", Seymour studied at the American Laboratory Theatre.[4]

Personal life

Seymour never married, and had no children.

Death

She died of heart failure[5] at age 79 in Los Angeles, and is interred in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.

Career

Stage

Seymour's first professional activity as an entertainer came with the Jitney Players, for which she earned $15 per week.[4]

She was in four Broadway productions. She played in At the Bottom and Puppet Show, both in 1930, and in The School for Scandal in 1931. Almost three decades later, she played Mrs. Sara Delano Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello.[6]

Radio

Seymour debuted on radio in Cincinnati in 1932.[4] In the early 1940s, she played Prudence Dane, the leading female role in the "historic serial" A Woman of America[4] and starred as Mary Marlin in The Story of Mary Marlin, both on NBC.[3] She was also a member of the casts of Joyce Jordan, Girl Interne, Tom Bradley, Against the Storm, and King Arthur, Junior.[7]

Television

Seymour's first venture in television was a three-month role in Follow Your Heart, an NBC soap opera. "I hated every minute of it," she said.[8] She also "had a running part on a CBS soap opera called The First Hundred Years."[8] She played Mrs. Barr in season 1, episode 15 of My Three Sons in 1961. She later starred in Empire, a 1962-63 series set in the modern American West.[8] Turning her talents to comedy, she was a regular in The Tim Conway Show in 1970.[9]

She was a guest star on many American television series in the 1960s and 1970s. She appeared in two episodes of Perry Mason; in 1963 she played Hettie Randall in "The Case of the Festive Felon", and in 1964 she played Bonnie Mae Wilmet in "The Case of the Bullied Bowler". She portrayed Amelia Tarbell in Pollyanna (1960), Esther in the episode "Final Escape" of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985), and Miss Tilford in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. In a 1965 episode of Hazel entitled "A 'Lot' to Remember", she played Laura Kirkland.

She played Ms. Frost in "A Visit to Upright", a 1972 episode of Bonanza, as well as three different characters in four episodes of Gunsmoke: "Snow Train Parts 1 & 2", "The Wake", and "Kitty's Injury". In the spring of 1970, she was a regular cast member of the situation comedy The Tim Conway Show, playing airport and airline owner Mrs. K. J. Crawford during the show's 12-episode run. She guest-starred in the episode "Involvement" of Emergency! that first aired on January 24, 1976 (Season 5, Episode 17). She played the role of Millie Eastman, a retired head nurse of Rampart General who tried to commit suicide by overdosing on pills. During her recovery at Rampart, she is placed in a semi-private room with Jean Clark (Dawn Lyn) to whom she starts mentoring for emotional support.

Film

An early film appearance by Seymour was in All the King's Men (1949) as Mrs. Lucy Stark.[10] She played the role of Grandma Beebe in the 1961 children's film classic Misty, a screen adaptation of Marguerite Henry's children's book, Misty of Chincoteague.[10][11] Her last performance was in 1988, in the feature film Field of Dreams, which was released after her death.[10]

Radio appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
1946	Inner Sanctum Mystery	No Rest for the Dead[12]
1948	Quiet, Please	Green Light

Film appearances

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1949	All the King's Men	Mrs. Lucy Stark
1951	The Whistle at Eaton Falls	Mary London
1957	Four Boys and a Gun	Mrs. Richards
1957	Man on Fire	Judge Randolph
1958	The Gift of Love	Miss McMasters
1958	Desire Under the Elms	Eben's Mother
1958	Handle with Care	Matilda Iler
1960	Home from the Hill	Sarah Halstead
1960	Pollyanna	Mrs. Amelia Tarbell
1960	All the Fine Young Cannibals	Mrs. Bixby
1960	The Subterraneans	Charlotte Percepied
1961	Misty	Grandma Beebe
1964	Stage to Thunder Rock	Myra Parker
1964	Good Neighbor Sam	Irene
1964	Where Love Has Gone	Dr. Sally Jennings
1965	Mirage	Mrs. Frances Calvin
1966	Blindfold	Smitty
1966	Waco	Ma Jenner
1967	How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying	Gertrude Biggley	Uncredited
1967	Fitzwilly	Grimsby
1968	Stay Away, Joe	Mrs. Hawkins
1969	How to Commit Marriage	Molly - Baby's Nurse	Uncredited
1972	The Man	Ma Blore
1973	So Long, Blue Boy	Martha
1974	Seven Alone	Narrator (adult Catherine)
1975	Gemini Affair	Agnes Wilson
1975	Hearts of the West	Nietz' Housekeeper	Uncredited
1980	Never Never Land	Zena
1983	Triumphs of a Man Called Horse	Elk Woman
1984	Trancers	Chairman Ashe
1988	Big Top Pee-wee	Pearl
1989	Field of Dreams	Chisolm Newspaper Publisher	(final film role)

References

1. Anne Seymour;MyHeritage.com
2. American and British Theatrical Biography: A Directory, p.839 c.1979 by J. P. Wearing ISBN 0-8108-1201-0
3. "Friday's Highlights" (PDF). Radio and Television Mirror. 14 (1): 52. May 1940. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
4. "American Woman's Pioneer Role Told In Radio Drama". The Lincoln Star. December 19, 1943. p. 32. Retrieved September 14, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
5. Quinlan's Film Character Actors: Anne Seymour
6. "Anne Seymour". Playbill Vault. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
7. "Radio Mother". Harrisburg Telegraph. June 21, 1941. p. 26. Retrieved May 5, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
8. Stern, Harold (August 5, 1962). "Anne Seymour to Rule TV Ranch". Sunday Gazette-Mail. p. 53. Retrieved September 13, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
9. Penton, Edgar (February 21, 1970). "'Navy' Adversaries Run World's Worst Airlines". The Ogden Standard-Examiner. p. 16. Retrieved September 13, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
10. IMDb - Anne Seymour, Filmography Retrieved 2015-08-07
11. "History of Misty of Chincoteague", Misty's Heaven - Misty'sHeaven.com Retrieved 2015-08-07
12. "Anne Seymour on "Inner Sanctum" Monday on WHP". Harrisburg Telegraph. November 23, 1946. p. 19. Retrieved September 13, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.

External links

• Anne Seymour on IMDb
• Anne Seymour at the Internet Broadway Database
• Anne Seymour at Find a Grave