Happy Birthday Ann Dvorak (1912-1979)

Ann Dvorak (pronounced "vor'shack.") was the daughter of silent film star Anna Lehr. She entered films at the start of sound, as a dance instructor for the lavish MGM musicals. Her friend Joan Crawford introduced her to Howard Hughes, who groomed her as a dramatic actress and she was a success in such pre-Code films as Scarface (1932), as Paul Muni's sister, as the doomed unstable "Vivian" in Three on a Match (1932), with Joan Blondell and Bette Davis, in Love Is a Racket (1932), and opposite Spencer Tracy in Sky Devils (1932).

Known for her style and elegance, she was a popular leading lady for Warner Brothers during the 1930s, but a dispute over her pay (she discovered she was making the same amount of money as the little boy who played her son in Three on a Match) led to her finishing out her contract on permanent suspension, and then working as a freelancer, but although she worked regularly, the quality of her scripts declined sharply. She appeared as secretary Della Street in 1937's vehicle for Donald Woods as Perry Mason, The Case of the Stuttering Bishop. She also acted on Broadway.

She married British actor Leslie Fenton in 1932, and came to Britain to make a few films. She contributed to the British war effort driving an ambulance. She retired from the screen in 1951, and died in 1979.

Sky Devils (1932)


Sky Devils (1932) with Spencer Tracy


Scarface (1932)


Scarface (1932)


Scarface (1932)


with George Raft in Scarface (1932)


The Crowd Roars (1932) with James Cagney


The Crowd Roars (1932)


The Crowd Roars (1932) with James Cagney and Joan Blondell



The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932)


on the set of The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932)


The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932) with Leslie Fenton


The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932)





Love Is a Racket (1932)


Love Is a Racket (1932)


Three on a Match (1932)


Three on a Match (1932) with Lyle Talbot and Humphrey Bogart


Three on a Match (1932) with Bette Davis and Joan Blondell


Three on a Match (1932) with Lyle Talbot


Three on a Match (1932) with Warren William and Joan Blondell


Three on a Match (1932) with Buster Phelps


Three on a Match (1932) with Warren William


The Way to Love (1933) with Maurice Chevalier

The Way to Love (1933) with Maurice Chevalier


College Coach (1933) with Pat O'Brien


Housewife (1934)


with Pat O'Brien and Claire Dodd in I Sell Anything (1934)


Murder in the Clouds (1934)


Friends of Mr. Sweeney (1934) with Dorothy Burgess and Charles Ruggles


Thanks a Million (1935)


Sweet Music (1935)


Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (1937)


Merrily We Live (1938) with Brian Aherne and Constance Bennett


Merrily We Live (1938) with Brian Aherne


Merrily We Live (1938)


with Virginia Bruce and Walter Pidgeon in Stronger Than Desire (1939)


with Chester Morris in Blind Alley (1939)


Cafe Hostess (1940)


Girls of the Road (1940)


with Eric Portman in Escape to Danger (1943)


Flame of the Barbary Coast (1945)


Flame of the Barbary Coast (1945) with John Wayne


Abilene Town (1946) with Randolph Scott and Edgar Buchanan


The Long Night (1947) with Henry Fonda


The Long Night (1947)


on the set of The Long Night (1947)


The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947) with George Sanders


The Walls of Jericho (1948)

Our Very Own (1950) with Jane Wyman


Our Very Own (1950)


A Life of Her Own (1950) with Lana Turner and Tom Ewell

Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone (1950)

I Was an American Spy (1951)