Quick Facts
| Intro | American actress born in 1920 | ||
| Was | Actor Film actor Television actor | ||
| From | United States of America | ||
| Field | Film, TV, Stage & Radio | ||
| Gender | female | ||
| Birth | 3 April 1920, Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama, U.S.A. | ||
| Death | 6 April 2014, Burbank, Los Angeles County, California, U.S.A. (aged 94 years) | ||
| Family |
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Biography
Mary Anderson (April 3, 1918 – 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 film Gone With the Wind as well as one of the main characters in the 1943 film Lifeboat.
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 (1921–1969) was also an actor, best known as Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
Career
After two uncredited roles, she made her first important screen appearance in Gone With the Wind (1939). After auditioning as one of the 1,400 actresses involved in the search for Scarlett, she received the supporting role of Maybelle Merriwether.
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. Mary Anderson died on April 6, 2014 in Burbank, California, three days after her 96th birthday. She was under hospice care and died in a condo in Toluca Lake that she shared with her long-time companion, Gordon Carnon. Her death left two surviving credited Gone With the Wind credited cast members, Mickey Kuhn and Olivia de Havilland, who played the roles of Beau Wilkes and Melanie Hamilton, respectively.
Actresses with the same name
She is often confused with the stage actress Mary Anderson (1859–1940) or the silent film actress Mary Anderson (1897–1986).
Partial filmography
- The Woman (1939) - Young Girl (uncredited)
- Gone With the Wind (1939) - Maybelle Merriwether
- 'Til We Meet Again (1940) - Girl (uncredited)
- Flight Angels (1940) - Daisy Lou
- The Sea Hawk (1940) - Maid of Honor (uncredited)
- All This, and Heaven Too (1940) - Rebecca Jay
- My Love Came Back (1940) - Woman Mistaken for Amelia by Tony (uncredited)
- A Dispatch from Reuter's (1940) - Girl with Max (uncredited)
- Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941) - Amy Saunders
- Under Age (1941) - Edie Baird
- Henry Aldrich for President (1941) - Phyllis Michael
- Bahama Passage (1941) - Mary Ainsworth
- Henry and Dizzy (1942) - Phyillis Michael
- The Song of Bernadette (1943) - Jeanne Abadie
- Lifeboat (1944) - Alice MacKenzie
- The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) - (uncredited)
- Wilson (1944) - Eleanor Wilson
- Within These Walls (1945) - Anne Howland
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) - (uncredited)
- Behind Green Lights (1946) - Nora Bard
- To Each His Own (1946) - Corinne Piersen
- Whispering City (1947) - Mary Roberts
- The Asphalt Jungle (1950) - Police Broadcaster (voice, uncredited)
- The Underworld Story (1950) - Molly Rankin
- Last of the Buccaneers (1950) - Swallow
- Hunt the Man Down (1950) - Alice McGuire / Peggy Linden
- Chicago Calling (1951) - Mary Cannon
- Passage West (1951) - Myra Johnson
- One Big Affair (1952) - Hilda Jones
- I, the Jury (1953) - Eileen Vickers
- Dangerous Crossing (1953) - Anna Quinn
- Jet Over the Atlantic (1959) - Maria
- Cheech & Chong's Next Movie (1980) - Old Lady in Music Store (uncredited) (final film role)
