Anne Sargent

Anne Sargent, born Helen W. Thomas on November 18, 1923, in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, was a film, stage, and television actress whose Broadway career spanned from 1945 to 1980. She died on July 23, 2007.

Sargent's stage work brought her into collaboration with Alfred Lunt, under whose direction she performed in theater between 1948 and 1950. Among her Broadway credits are The Philadelphia Story, I Know My Love, The Men We Marry, and A Boy Who Lived Twice. In March 1949, she appeared in a production of I Know My Love at the Biltmore Theatre in Los Angeles, California, a production that starred Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.

Her film work includes the 1948 motion picture The Naked City, in which she played Mrs. Halloran, a role for which she became particularly recognized. In July 1950, Metro Goldwyn Mayer signed her to appear in Three Guys Named Mike.

On television, Sargent appeared in a 1958 episode of Perry Mason titled "The Case of the Married Moonlighter," playing Eileen Harrison, the wife of the title character. She also appeared in the Bewitched episode "A Strange Little Visitor," which stands as her last known acting credit.

Sargent was married twice. Her first husband was Edmon Ryan, an actor with Warner Brothers, with whom she had a daughter, actress Hilary Shelton Ryan, born in London in 1955, who later studied at Tudor Hall School near Banbury, England. Sargent's second husband was Paul McGrath, known as the voice of Inner Sanctum Mysteries during the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1978, Sargent accompanied McGrath to England, where he died in his sleep while the couple were staying in London.