Ann Savage(1921-2008)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
For one tough cookie who achieved major cult stardom with her
hard-bitten blonde looks and "Perfect Vixen" tag, Ann Savage in real
life was a lovely, spirited, gentle-looking lady. She may have peaked
only briefly in 1940s Hollywood low-budgeters, but she made the most of
it during that fairly short tenure. Out of the dozens of movies under
her belt, one film part shot her to femme fatale infamy and, to this
day, remains her biggest claim to fame. It took only four (some
accounts say six) days to shoot, but
Detour (1945) stands out as one of the
best examples of surreal film noir, and the unforgettable dialogue and
riveting teaming of Ann and sulky co-star
Tom Neal are the primary reasons for
its enduring fame.
An only child, Ann was born Bernice Maxine Lyon in Columbia, South
Carolina, on February 19, 1921. Her father was a US Army officer and
the family traveled with him to his various duty stations, including
Dallas and New Orleans, until settling in Jacksonville, Florida. He
died when she was only four years old. Ann's mother, a jewelry buyer,
took the two of them to Los Angeles before Ann was 10 years old.
Appearing in local theater productions, the young girl trained at
Max Reinhardt's acting school. The
school's manager happened to be Bert D'Armand, who later became her
agent. They married in 1945.
She changed her name to "Ann Savage" before even stepping onto a sound
stage and it was a workshop production of "Golden Boy" that led to her
initially signing up at Columbia Pictures. The first glimpse of Ann
came as an extra in MGM's
The Great Waltz (1938) and she
gradually earned on-camera experience in unbilled parts in such war-era
movies as
The More the Merrier (1943)
and
Murder in Times Square (1943).
She rose to featured and co-star status in such lightweight Columbia
films as
Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943),
Footlight Glamour (1943) and
Saddles and Sagebrush (1943).
Although Ann played devilish dames in
The Unwritten Code (1944),
Apology for Murder (1945) and
The Last Crooked Mile (1946),
it was venomous Vera, the blackmailing, tough-talking,
cigarette-dangling, good-for-nothing who bullies hapless wanna-be
tough-guy musician (Tom Neal) into her
schemes in Detour (1945) that truly summed
up her "bad girl" charisma. At the inducement of Columbia Pictures
honcho Harry Cohn, Savage and Neal
made four films together (the last being "Detour"). The other three
were Klondike Kate (1943),
Two-Man Submarine (1944) and
The Unwritten Code (1944) (the
two would reunite years later in a 1955 TV episode of the series
Gang Busters (1952)).
Ann was one of the more popular WWII pinups. After appearing in a photo
layout in "Esquire" magazine in 1944 that was shot by renowned studio
photographer George Hurrell Sr., she
became a favorite with the troops, making numerous personal appearance
tours at various military bases in order to raise war bonds.
Freelancing after leaving Columbia, Ann appeared in a host of other
second-string pictures, including
You Can't Do Without Love (1944),
The Spider (1945),
The Dark Horse (1946),
Renegade Girl (1946),
Jungle Flight (1947),
Satan's Cradle (1949),
Pygmy Island (1950) and
Woman They Almost Lynched (1953),
which would be her last film for over three decades. While she
certainly demonstrated talent and range, she was unable to rise out of
the "B" mold. This led her to look at TV for a time in the 1950s as a
possible medium, guesting on such shows as
The Ford Television Theatre (1952),
City Detective (1953),
Schlitz Playhouse (1951),
Death Valley Days (1952)
and Fireside Theatre (1949).
Ann semi-retired in the late 1950s and moved from Hollywood to
Manhattan with husband Bert, who by now had traded his agent business
for the financing and professional trading world. She occasionally
appeared on local TV and in industrial films. The couple traveled
extensively until his sudden death in 1969. A grief-stricken Ann
returned to Hollywood to be near her mother, sharpened her legal
secretarial skills by working as a docket clerk with Bert's attorneys
in Los Angeles (Loeb & Loeb) and became an avid speed-rated pilot in
her spare hours.
Elsewhere the veteran actress continued to delight her fans with her
appearances at "film noir" festivals, nostalgia conventions and special
screenings of her work. Refusing to appear in exploitative material, Ann
turned down much work. In later years she appeared very
sporadically--in the movie
Fire with Fire (1986) and an
episode of
Saved by the Bell (1989).
Out of nowhere the resilient octogenarian was cast by Canadian director
Guy Maddin, a film noir fan, to play a
shrewish mother in the highly acclaimed
My Winnipeg (2007), earning "bad
girl" raves all over again.
Named an "icon and legend" by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences in 2005, Ann was applauded for her body of work by "Time"
Magazine twice in 2007. She died at a Hollywood nursing home at age 87
on Christmas Day in 2008 from complications of multiple strokes.
hard-bitten blonde looks and "Perfect Vixen" tag, Ann Savage in real
life was a lovely, spirited, gentle-looking lady. She may have peaked
only briefly in 1940s Hollywood low-budgeters, but she made the most of
it during that fairly short tenure. Out of the dozens of movies under
her belt, one film part shot her to femme fatale infamy and, to this
day, remains her biggest claim to fame. It took only four (some
accounts say six) days to shoot, but
Detour (1945) stands out as one of the
best examples of surreal film noir, and the unforgettable dialogue and
riveting teaming of Ann and sulky co-star
Tom Neal are the primary reasons for
its enduring fame.
An only child, Ann was born Bernice Maxine Lyon in Columbia, South
Carolina, on February 19, 1921. Her father was a US Army officer and
the family traveled with him to his various duty stations, including
Dallas and New Orleans, until settling in Jacksonville, Florida. He
died when she was only four years old. Ann's mother, a jewelry buyer,
took the two of them to Los Angeles before Ann was 10 years old.
Appearing in local theater productions, the young girl trained at
Max Reinhardt's acting school. The
school's manager happened to be Bert D'Armand, who later became her
agent. They married in 1945.
She changed her name to "Ann Savage" before even stepping onto a sound
stage and it was a workshop production of "Golden Boy" that led to her
initially signing up at Columbia Pictures. The first glimpse of Ann
came as an extra in MGM's
The Great Waltz (1938) and she
gradually earned on-camera experience in unbilled parts in such war-era
movies as
The More the Merrier (1943)
and
Murder in Times Square (1943).
She rose to featured and co-star status in such lightweight Columbia
films as
Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943),
Footlight Glamour (1943) and
Saddles and Sagebrush (1943).
Although Ann played devilish dames in
The Unwritten Code (1944),
Apology for Murder (1945) and
The Last Crooked Mile (1946),
it was venomous Vera, the blackmailing, tough-talking,
cigarette-dangling, good-for-nothing who bullies hapless wanna-be
tough-guy musician (Tom Neal) into her
schemes in Detour (1945) that truly summed
up her "bad girl" charisma. At the inducement of Columbia Pictures
honcho Harry Cohn, Savage and Neal
made four films together (the last being "Detour"). The other three
were Klondike Kate (1943),
Two-Man Submarine (1944) and
The Unwritten Code (1944) (the
two would reunite years later in a 1955 TV episode of the series
Gang Busters (1952)).
Ann was one of the more popular WWII pinups. After appearing in a photo
layout in "Esquire" magazine in 1944 that was shot by renowned studio
photographer George Hurrell Sr., she
became a favorite with the troops, making numerous personal appearance
tours at various military bases in order to raise war bonds.
Freelancing after leaving Columbia, Ann appeared in a host of other
second-string pictures, including
You Can't Do Without Love (1944),
The Spider (1945),
The Dark Horse (1946),
Renegade Girl (1946),
Jungle Flight (1947),
Satan's Cradle (1949),
Pygmy Island (1950) and
Woman They Almost Lynched (1953),
which would be her last film for over three decades. While she
certainly demonstrated talent and range, she was unable to rise out of
the "B" mold. This led her to look at TV for a time in the 1950s as a
possible medium, guesting on such shows as
The Ford Television Theatre (1952),
City Detective (1953),
Schlitz Playhouse (1951),
Death Valley Days (1952)
and Fireside Theatre (1949).
Ann semi-retired in the late 1950s and moved from Hollywood to
Manhattan with husband Bert, who by now had traded his agent business
for the financing and professional trading world. She occasionally
appeared on local TV and in industrial films. The couple traveled
extensively until his sudden death in 1969. A grief-stricken Ann
returned to Hollywood to be near her mother, sharpened her legal
secretarial skills by working as a docket clerk with Bert's attorneys
in Los Angeles (Loeb & Loeb) and became an avid speed-rated pilot in
her spare hours.
Elsewhere the veteran actress continued to delight her fans with her
appearances at "film noir" festivals, nostalgia conventions and special
screenings of her work. Refusing to appear in exploitative material, Ann
turned down much work. In later years she appeared very
sporadically--in the movie
Fire with Fire (1986) and an
episode of
Saved by the Bell (1989).
Out of nowhere the resilient octogenarian was cast by Canadian director
Guy Maddin, a film noir fan, to play a
shrewish mother in the highly acclaimed
My Winnipeg (2007), earning "bad
girl" raves all over again.
Named an "icon and legend" by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences in 2005, Ann was applauded for her body of work by "Time"
Magazine twice in 2007. She died at a Hollywood nursing home at age 87
on Christmas Day in 2008 from complications of multiple strokes.