Heartbreak as Oscar-nominated Golden Age icon and Joan Crawford’s legendary on-screen daughter Ann Blyth dies at 98
HOLLYWOOD legend Ann Blyth has died aged 98.
The Oscar-nominated actress was best known for playing Joan Crawford’s scheming daughter in the classic film noir Mildred Pierce.
Blyth died of natural causes on Wednesday, just weeks before her 99th birthday on August 16.
Her death was announced by KABC entertainment reporter George Pennacchio on Thursday.
She was one of the last surviving stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age after a glittering career spanning more than seven decades.
Blyth shot to fame at just 16 when she starred as the spoiled and manipulative Veda Pierce opposite Joan Crawford in the 1945 noir classic Mildred Pierce.
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Her chilling performance as the money-hungry daughter earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and helped cement her place in Hollywood history.
The film received six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, with Crawford taking home the Best Actress award.
Years later, Blyth revealed it was Crawford herself who helped her land the career-defining role.
“I knew that other people wanted the part as well, but I was the lucky one because Joan Crawford did the test with me, and it made a world of difference,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2013.
“People just didn’t do that, not people of her stature.”
Film historian Alan K. Rode previously praised Blyth’s unforgettable turn, saying she “just blew everybody away.”
He added: “It’s certainly Joan Crawford’s movie, but she is really the spine of the movie.
“She is the epitome of the film noir daughter from hell. It’s just an amazing performance that stands the test of time.”
Tragically, Blyth barely had time to celebrate the film’s success after suffering a devastating back injury in a toboggan accident near Lake Arrowhead just days after filming wrapped.
She spent around 18 months recovering in a back brace before returning to the screen.
Blyth went on to star opposite Burt Lancaster in the prison drama Brute Force before appearing in films including The Great Caruso, The World in His Arms, Kismet and The Helen Morgan Story, alongside a young Paul Newman.
Born in Mount Kisco, New York, in 1927, Blyth entered showbusiness as a child, appearing on radio from the age of five before making her Broadway debut in Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine.
She later became known for her soprano singing voice, starring in a string of lavish Hollywood musicals during the 1950s.
After her film career wound down, Blyth turned her attention to theatre, appearing in productions of The King and I, The Sound of Music and Show Boat.
She also became a familiar face on television with appearances in Wagon Train, The Twilight Zone, Quincy, M.E. and Murder, She Wrote, her final TV role in 1985.
Away from the spotlight, Blyth enjoyed a long marriage to Los Angeles obstetrician Dr James McNulty.
The couple married in 1953 and remained together for more than 50 years until his death in 2007.
They had five children together – Timothy, Maureen, Kathleen, Terence and Eileen.
In later years, biographer Jacqueline T. Lynch suggested Blyth’s devout Catholic faith and quiet family life may have worked against her in Hollywood.
“When the publicity department and gossip columnists got hold of the news of her quiet, church-going private life, they put a different spin on her career trajectory, and the studios relegated her to more lightweight roles,” Lynch told Broadway World.