 Ann Sothern, 92, the blond, full-lipped actress whose gift for flippant comedy enlivened dozens of movies and two television series during a career that spanned more than 60 years and included an Oscar nomination, died March 15, 2001 at her home in Ketchum, Idaho, of apparent heart failure. Researchers in film archives traced Miss Sothern's career back to an appearance as an extra in 1927. After a career that she once said included every entertainment medium but rodeo, Miss Sothern was nominated for the Academy Award for a supporting role in "The Whales of August," a well-regarded 1987 movie about age and optimism. In the intervening years, Miss Sothern, who could sing and dance, delighted Broadway audiences in musical comedy and showed ability as a dramatic actress in Hollywood's "A Letter to Three Wives." She brought mirth to America's living rooms in two early sitcoms, "Private Secretary" and "The Ann Sothern Show." By one count, her film roles came to about 70, many made in the 1930s and 1940s, considered Hollywood's golden age. Miss Sothern, a highly valued performer of the time, once likened those days to "being in a little cocoon. You didn't even have to walk to the set. There was always a limousine." Her title role in 1939's "Maisie" began a series of pictures that were among her best known. They included "Congo Maisie," "Gold Rush Maisie," "Ringside Maisie" and several other scatterbrained comedies, winding up with "Undercover Maisie" in 1947. Her first television series, "Private Secretary," ran from 1953 to 1957, the days of black and white broadcasting. It displayed her wisecracking style. That show was followed by "The Ann Sothern Show," in which she was featured as the assistant manager of a hotel. It ran from 1958 to 1961. Later she appeared as the voice of the car in the TV show "My Mother the Car." Miss Sothern was born Harriette Lake on Jan. 22, 1909, in Valley City, N.D. Her father deserted the family when she was young, and her mother, who had sung in concerts, moved with her first to Minneapolis and then to Los Angeles. Miss Sothern's first credited film appearance was as an extra in "Broadway Nights" in 1927. She had uncredited parts in seven other movies in the late 1920s and early 1930s before appearing as a dancer in "Broadway Through a Keyhole" in 1933 and then as Joan Larrabee in 1934's "Kid Millions." She later appeared in such MGM musicals as "Panama Hattie" and "Lady Be Good," in which she gave voice to the Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II song "The Last Time I Saw Paris." It won the 1941 Academy Award for best song. One of the first films that gave full scope to her comedic gifts was "Trade Winds," in which she showed a knack with dialogue written by Dorothy Parker. Her success as Jean Livingstone in that film was followed the next year by the first of the daffy "Maisie" films. She appeared in her best-known dramatic role as Rita Phipps in "A Letter to Three Wives" in 1949. Joseph Mankiewicz won the Academy Award for best director for it. An accident onstage in 1974 damaged Miss Sothern's legs and back and led to years of treatment. She was married to bandleader-actor Roger Pryor from 1936 to 1942 and to actor Robert Sterling from 1943 to 1949. Both marriages ended in divorce. Miss Sothern moved to Ketchum in 1984. The Associated Press reported that her only child, actress Tisha Sterling, lived nearby and was with her when she died. |