Hollywood Golden Age actress Ann Blyth has died at the age of 98.
The Academy Award nominee died peacefully of natural causes on Wednesday, June 24, just two months before her 99th birthday, according to KABC reporter George Pennacchio.
Born on August 16, 1927, in New York, Blyth began performing on children’s radio shows at the age of six before landing her first Broadway role in Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine in 1941.
After signing a contract with Universal Studios, she made her film debut in the 1944 teen musical Chip Off the Old Block.
A year later, Blyth delivered her breakthrough performance as Veda Pierce, the scheming daughter of Joan Crawford’s title character in Mildred Pierce (1945). The role earned the then-16-year-old an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
She went on to star in several notable films, including Killer McCoy (1947), Brute Force (1947), Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948), Our Very Own (1950), and The Great Caruso (1951).
Blyth also appeared on television in series such as Wagon Train, The Twilight Zone, Quincy, M.E., and Murder, She Wrote.
Beyond film and television, she enjoyed a successful stage career, starring in productions of The King and I, The Sound of Music, and Show Boat.
Paying tribute on Facebook, George Pennacchio wrote:
“She was only 16 when she was nominated for an Oscar!
“Ann began performing on the radio when she was only six. She was on Broadway at the age of 12, and she made her first film at 14.
“Her career spanned more than 70 years in musical theatre, television, and 35 movies. She also toured for years, singing songs from the Great American Songbook with Bill Hayes and Donald O’Connor.
“Ann was active in philanthropy and volunteered for many causes. Her family says she loved her garden, knitting, and oil painting. She was known for gifting her artwork to friends and family.
“There’s also a star bearing her name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“Her family says she was known for personally answering all of her fan mail, which she was grateful to receive. May this lovely lady rest in peace.”
Blyth is survived by her five children, whom she shared with her late husband, Dr. James McNulty, as well as 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
