Ann Sothern

Ann Sothern, born Harriette Arlene Lake on January 22, 1909, in Valley City, North Dakota, was an American actress whose career in stage, film, radio, and television extended across nearly six decades. She died on March 15, 2001, from heart failure in Ketchum, Idaho, where she had retired following her final film appearance. The oldest of three daughters born to Walter J. Lake and Annette Yde, she grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after her parents separated when she was four years old. Her mother was a concert singer who later worked as a vocal coach for Warner Bros. studios, and her maternal grandfather was Danish violinist Hans Nielsen. Sothern began piano lessons at age five, later studied at McPhail School of Music, and by age eleven was an accomplished pianist who also sang solos in her church choir. She took up voice lessons at fourteen and, during her years at Minneapolis Central High School, appeared in numerous stage productions, directed several shows, and won a state-sponsored student musical composition contest three years consecutively. She graduated in 1926.

After briefly attending the University of Washington in Seattle, Sothern visited her mother in California and secured a bit part in the Warner Bros. revue The Show of Shows. A subsequent screen test led to a six-month contract with MGM, but she appeared only in small roles and grew frustrated with the limited work. A chance meeting with Florenz Ziegfeld at a party resulted in an offer to appear in one of his productions, and when MGM declined to renew her option, she relocated to New York City to pursue the opportunity. Her Broadway career ran from 1930 to 1951 and encompassed five productions: the musical Smiles, the musical America's Sweetheart, the musical Everybody's Welcome, the musical Of Thee I Sing, and the play Faithfully Yours. By 1931 she had secured leading roles in both America's Sweetheart and Everybody's Welcome.

In 1934, Sothern signed with Columbia Pictures, where studio head Harry Cohn renamed her Ann Sothern — "Ann" in honor of her mother and "Sothern" after Shakespearean actor E. H. Sothern. Columbia released her from her contract after two years, and a subsequent deal with RKO Radio Pictures also ended after a series of films failed to draw large audiences. She then signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she found the defining role of her film career. In 1939, MGM cast her as Mary Anastasia O'Connor, a Brooklyn burlesque dancer known professionally as Maisie Ravier, in Maisie. The property had originally been acquired for Jean Harlow, who died in June 1937 before a final script was completed. The film proved profitable for the studio, and from 1939 to 1947 Sothern appeared in ten Maisie films, the box office proceeds from which helped finance MGM's more costly dramatic productions. A 1943 Time magazine review of Swing Shift Maisie described her as one of the smartest comediennes in the business. The popularity of the series led MGM head Louis B. Mayer to pay $80,000 for the film rights to the Broadway production of DuBarry Was a Lady specifically for Sothern, though she ultimately rejected the revised script and the role went to Lucille Ball. In 1942, Sothern also starred in the film version of Panama Hattie opposite Red Skelton, a production that underwent extensive retooling after a disastrous preview but nonetheless became a box office hit. She appeared in A Letter to Three Wives for 20th Century Fox in 1949, earning strong reviews, though her career had begun to decline by that point. That same year she contracted hepatitis, which she battled for three years, and MGM subsequently canceled her contract.

The Maisie film series also generated a radio program, The Adventures of Maisie, which broadcast on CBS from 1945 to 1947, on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1952, and in syndication from 1949 to 1953. Facing mounting medical bills in the early 1950s, Sothern turned to television. In 1953, she was cast as Susan Camille MacNamara, a secretary to a New York City talent agent, in the CBS sitcom Private Secretary. The series aired on alternate weeks with The Jack Benny Program, regularly placed in the top ten in ratings, and earned Sothern three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. The show ran for five seasons. In 1958, she starred in a second CBS sitcom, The Ann Sothern Show, which aired for three seasons. From 1965 to 1966, she provided the voice of Gladys Crabtree, the title character in the NBC sitcom My Mother the Car. Health problems limited her output during the 1970s and 1980s, though she continued to make stage, film, and television appearances through the late 1960s.

In 1987, Sothern appeared in The Whales of August alongside Bette Davis and Lillian Gish, a film that proved to be her final screen credit. Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, the only Oscar nomination of her career. Following the completion of filming, she retired to Ketchum, Idaho, where she remained until her death in March 2001.