Ann Blyth, teen star of 'Mildred Pierce,' dead at 98
[June 27, 2026]
By BOB THOMAS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ann Blyth, a versatile Hollywood star who received an
Oscar nomination at 17 as Joan Crawford's wayward daughter in “Mildred
Pierce," sang opposite Mario Lanza and Howard Keel in such MGM musicals
as ”The Great Caruso" and ended her film career before age 30, has died
at age 98.
Blyth died Wednesday of “natural causes” at her home in Rancho Santa Fe,
California, according to her daughter, Eileen McNulty. Blyth's family
was at her side.
One of the last surviving actors from the Hollywood studio system, Blyth
appeared in youth movies as well as dramas such as "Another Part of the
Forest," and her co-stars included Bing Crosby, Power, Gregory Peck and
Robert Mitchum. Blyth had stopped appearing in films by the end of the
1950s when she chose to spend more time with her children. But she would
work in TV musicals and dramas and tour in concerts and musicals from
"Show Boat" to "The Sound of Music."
She was acting and singing from an early age and her first big break
came at 13 when she was cast as Paul Lukas's daughter in Lillian
Hellman's anti-Nazi play, "Watch on the Rhine," which also starred Bette
Davis. She stayed with the play for almost a year on Broadway and a year
on the road.
When "Watch on the Rhine" appeared in Los Angeles, Universal Studio
signed her to a term contract starting at $175 a week. A dark-haired
actor with a melodic singing voice, she appeared with a young Donald
O'Connor in low-budget musicals such as "Chip Off the Old Block" and
"Bowery to Broadway." The loan-out to Warner Bros. for "Mildred Pierce"
elevated Blyth's career and led to grown-up roles.
Good at being bad
Like "Double Indemnity," adapted for the screen by Billy Wilder in 1944,
"Mildred Pierce" was a James M. Cain thriller about vengeance and
calculation. Crawford won the 1945 Oscar as a waitress who rises to own
a string of Los Angeles restaurants. Blyth was nominated in the
supporting role as Mildred's spoiled daughter, Veda, who seduces her
mother's second husband (Zachary Scott), then riddles him with bullets
in a jealous rage.
Directed by Michael Curtiz of “Casablanca” fame, "Mildred Pierce" was a
memorable piece of film noir that took place mostly at night. For Blyth
it was a major change from the cheery musicals she had been known for.
It was also a stretch for an actor who was the subject of magazine
articles entitled "Incorruptible!", "Angelic Annie" and "Ann Blyth:
Success Without an Enemy."
In 1946, Blyth broke her back in a toboggan accident, and it appeared
her career might be over. She spent seven months in a body cast and
another seven months in a wheelchair, relying on her Roman Catholic
faith for courage.
"The busy, exciting world I had known faded away, and my life slowed
down to little things," she later told The Associated Press. "But even
here I found myself blessed, for a new sense of prayer began to unfold
to me."
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 Once recovered, she appeared as the
love interest for Sonny Tufts in "Swell Guy," Howard Duff in "Brute
Force" and Mickey Rooney in a prizefight movie, "Killer McCoy." She
displayed her dramatic skill as the young woman in love with a
suspected wife-killer, Charles Boyer, in "A Woman's Vengeance."
Her strongest role after "Mildred Pierce" came with
"Another Part of the Forest," Hellman's prequel to her stage and
film drama "The Little Foxes." Blythe appeared as the young Regina
Hubbard, created as an adult on Broadway by Tallulah Bankhead and in
the film by Bette Davis.
Add a little music
Blyth's career made a turn in 1951 when she starred with Mario Lanza
in "The Great Caruso." Her lilting soprano made an ideal match for
his tenor, and they were cast in "The Student Prince." But the
temperamental Lanza dropped out after recording his songs, and
British actor Edmund Purdom acted his role and mouthed the songs.
Blyth co-starred with Howard Keel in "Rose Marie" and "Kismet."
Her other films included "Top o' the Morning" with Crosby, "The
World in His Arms" (Peck) and a reunion with O'Connor, "The Buster
Keaton Story." Her last film was in 1957, “The Helen Morgan Story,”
which co-starred Paul Newman.
Born in 1928 in Mount Kisco, New York, to an Irish mother and
English valet father, she grew up in New York City. After the father
left the family, Nan Blyth supported herself and two daughters by
washing clothes and working in beauty parlors.
She had high hopes for daughter Ann's future as an actress, and at 5
the girl began appearing on a New York radio show. She continued as
a radio performer and spent three years studying and performing with
the San Carlo Opera Company.
After becoming a movie star, Blyth admitted of her early career:
"I'd become blue and despondent when I failed to get a job, and my
mother's encouraging words made me want to try again." Before the
actress's breakout performance in "Mildred Pierce," her mother died
of cancer.
In 1953, Blyth married Dr. James McNulty, brother of tenor-comedian
Dennis Day. They had five children and remained married until
McNulty’s death, in 2007. A few weeks before son Timothy was born in
1954, she made television history of a sort performing the song
"Secret Love" at the Oscars — visibly pregnant as she sang, "Once I
had a secret love ... and my secret love's no secret anymore."
_____
Thomas, a former Associated Press Hollywood correspondent who died
in 2014, was the primary writer of this obituary.
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