Mary Anderson (April 3, 1918 â€" 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 iconic film Gone With the Wind.
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 (1921â€"1969) was also an actor.
Career
After two uncredited roles, she made her first important screen appearance in Gone With the Wind (1939). After auditioning for the part of Scarlett O'Hara, she received the supporting role of Maybelle Merriweather.
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.
Actresses with the same name
Often confused with the stage actress Mary Anderson (1859â€"1940) or the silent film actress Mary Anderson (1897â€"1986), Mary Anderson appeared in a number of films in the 1940s and was first credited under her birth name in a 1940 short film.
Death
Mary Anderson died on April 6, 2014 in Burbank, California, three days after her 96th 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 leaves two surviving Gone With the Wind credited cast members. Those actors are Mickey Kuhn and Olivia de Havilland, who played the roles of Beau Wilkes and Melanie Hamilton, respectively.
Partial filmography
- Gone With the Wind (1939)
- All This, and Heaven Too (1940)
- Under Age (1941)
- Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941)
- Bahama Passage (1941)
- The Song of Bernadette (1943)
- Lifeboat (1944)
- Wilson (1944)
- Behind Green Lights (1946)
- To Each His Own (1946)
- Whispering City (1947)
- The Underworld Story (1950)
- Hunt the Man Down (1950)
- I, the Jury (1953)
- Dangerous Crossing (1953)
References
External links
- Mary Anderson at Find a Grave
- Mary Anderson at the Internet Movie Database
- Profile, allmovie.com; accessed April 7, 2014.