1930's Movie Actresses Who Should Not Be Forgotten

Ann Dvorak was born into a showbusiness family on August 2, 1911. Her father was a director for one of the early film studios and her mother, Anna Lehr, was a successful and prolific silent movie actress. After several films as a child actress, Ann Dvorak began work as an MGM assistant choreographer in the late 1920s and then began to appear on film as a chorus girl, finally amassing over 20 uncredited features and shorts for the studio.

During this early period, she became friendly with Joan Crawford who introduced her to producer and studio owner, Howard Hughes. He signed the beautiful dancer up with his Caddo Company and in 1932 she was cast opposite Paul Muni in the now legendary gangster film, 'Scarface' directed by Howard Hawks. The movie was was a great success and Ann was cast in other successful pre-Code films such as 'Three on a Match' in 1932, with Joan Blondell and Bette Davis, and opposite Spencer Tracy in Sky Devils' in 1932.

'Three on a Match'
Bette Davis, Joan Blondell and Ann Dvorak

She seemed destined to become a top Hollywood star until she met and fell in love with the actor, Leslie Fenton. The two married in 1932 and sailed to Europe for a year-long honeymoon. Unsurprisingly, her studio, by now Warner Bros., objected and Anne's career suffered a permanent setback. Although she continued to appear in movies as a freelance actress, her roles were disappointing and the movies lacklustre.

After divorcing Fenton in 1945 she married Russian dancer Igor Dega two years later but divorced in 1951, and married her third and last husband, TV producer Nicholas Wade, to whom she remained married until his death in 1977. She also retired from the screen in 1951 and lived her post-retirement years quietly until her death from stomach cancer in Honolulu at the age of 68 in 1979. She had no children.

She was a strong-willed lady who was not afraid to speak up for herself against the studio bosses about her roles. She was a classic Hollywood actress with great talent, a unique, haunting beauty and a strong screen presence.

Madge Evans was born on July 1, 1909, and made her professional debut at the age of six months, posing as an artist's model. She was a beautiful baby with classical features and reddish-yellow hair.She became the baby "Fairy Soap Girl" in newspaper adverts, and then at the age of four she began her acting career, starring in a series of specially written plays which made her a huge star. She then began making films and was the first actress to star as Heidi.

Madge the Fairy soap Model

Madge all grown up

After a break of 7 years from 1924 to devote her talents to the stage Madge was tempted back to movies by MGM in 1931, still only 22 and ravishingly beautiful. She became one of the studio's top second-echelon stars, and appeared in some very successful pictures such as 'Dinner at Eight' in 1933) and 'David Copperfield' in 1935. She co-starred opposite such greats as James Cagney in 'The Mayor of Hell' in 1933 and Spencer Tracy in 'The Show Off' the following year and with Bing Crosby in 'Pennies from Heaven' in 1935.

She rertired from movies at the end of her contract in 1938 and married playwright Sidney Kingsley the following year. She appeared in some television shows durng the 1950's but steadfastly refused repeated offers to return to Hollywood.

Madge Evans died of cancer in 1981 at her home in Oakland, New Jersey.

Marie Wilson was one of the original dumb blondes, but in reality she was anything but dumb. she was a very shrewd lady who knew precisely how to use her looks and assets. She was Marilyn Monroe 10 years before the real Marilyn. It is strange how Marie has been largely forgotten whilst the legend of Marilyn continues to grow.

Marie was born in 1916 in Anaheim, California. She was educated in Hollywood and she decided at an early age that entertainment was to be her career. After graduating from school she began working as an extra in the nearby studios and appeared unbilled in a number of films including Laurel and Hardy's 'Babes in Toyland' in 1934. Her career accelerated when she met the director Nick Grinde who helped secure a Warner Brothers contract for her in 1935. For the next four years Marie gradually developed her dizzy blonde persona in mainly 'B'movies such as 'Satan Met a Lady' in 1936, 'Melody for Two' and 'The Great Garrick' both in 1937, and 'Sweepstakes Winner' in 1939.

Marie became a popular pinup during the war and then really hit her dumb blonde stride in the radio show 'My Friend Irma' in the late 1940's, eventually portraying the title character in two films and a television series as well as on radio.

After her early relationship with Nick Grinde, Marie was married three times, to golfer Bob Stevens for one year from 1938, to TV producer Allan Nixon from 1942-50 and to Robert Fallon from 1951 to her death in 1972.

She died of cancer far too young at age 56 in 1972 and was interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.

Marie with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in 'My Friend Irma', 1947

Marie Wilson
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1931 Oscars

1932 Oscars

1933 Oscars

1934 Oscars

1935 Oscars

1936 Oscars

1937 Oscars

1938 Oscars

1939 Oscars

Anne Nagel appeared in well over seventy films in the course of her career and became well known in her lifetime. She has now been all but forgotten.

She was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1915 and was originally encouraged by her parents to be a nun but her great interest in modeling and dance led her into a showbusiness career. Her first movie experience was in experimental Technicolor shorts directed by her stepfather and her striking beauty and pleasantly modulated voice got her a contract at Warner Brothers in 1932. She made a string of steady, if unspectacular, roles in low budget 'B' pictures such as 'Three Legionnaires' in 1937, 'Mystery House' in 1938 and 'Legion of Lost Flyers' in 1939.

Anne's life began to go downhill with her marriage in 1936 to actor Ross Alexander, an homosexual with a drinking problem and prone to periods of self-hating manic depression. Alexander committed suicide by shooting himself, after less than one year of marriage, and it affected Ann deeply.

Anne Nagel with the masked Warren Hull, in 'The Green Hornet Strikes Again', 1940

She continued acting in increasingly unmemorable films until 1951 when she moved to television, appearing in such series as 'The Range Rider' and 'Circus Boy'.

Her second marriage was to Air Force Lt. Col. James H. Keenan in 1941, but again the marriage was not happy and they divorced in 1951. By 1957 Anne's acting career had finished and she was increasingly beset by her own problems of alcoholism.

Anne Nagel died on 6 July 1966 from liver failure. She was 53. There is no marker on her grave, she had no children, and no surviving relatives. Hers is a sad story of how the allure of Hollywood can make lives, but can also break them.

Four actresses four careers, four lives lived and ended. It is over now, but each lady has left us memories of her beauty, photographs, songs and, of course movies. They don't deserve to be forgotten. Let's remember them in their glorious pomp, dazzling and delighting audiences everywhere. Thank you, Ann Dvorak, Madge Evans, Marie Wilson, and Anne Nagel, you are not forgotten.