Ann Savage | |
|---|---|
 Savage inDetour (1945) | |
| Born | Berniece Maxine Lyon[1] (1921-02-19)February 19, 1921 Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | December 25, 2008(2008-12-25) (aged 87) Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Hollywood Forever Cemetery |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1943–2007 |
| Spouses | |
Ann Savage (bornBerniece Maxine Lyon,[1] February 19, 1921 – December 25, 2008) was an American film and television actress. She is best remembered as the greedy cigarette-puffingfemme fatale in the critically acclaimedfilm noirDetour (1945). She was featured in more than 20B movies between 1943 and 1946.
Effectively leaving the film business in the mid 1950s, Savage made occasional appearances on television and worked for industrial and inspirational film producers from the 1950s to the 1970s. She made a number of live appearances at film festivals, especially for screenings ofDetour.
In 2007 she was cast by directorGuy Maddin as his mother inMy Winnipeg, "a part that had been tipped to bring her anAcademy Award and which introduced her to a legion of new fans".[4]
Ann Savage was born Berniece Maxine Lyon in Columbia, South Carolina.[4] During her early years, her family moved often as her father, an officer in the United States Army, relocated from base to base.[5] After he died when Berniece was four years old, her mother moved the two of them to Los Angeles.[5] Growing up around the corner from the Jewelry District, theBroadway movie palaces of downtown Los Angeles served as her babysitter while her mother worked selling jewelry.[6]
She attended 64th Street Grammar School andMount Vernon Junior High and first stepped on a sound stage at the age of 17 atMGM Studios to be screen tested byEdgar Selwyn. Ann spent time among the more famous Hollywood kids of the day, such asLana Turner,Judy Garland,Freddie Bartholomew, andDeanna Durbin.[6]
Berniece's MGM test did not work out, prompting her to get her teeth capped[6] and acquire theatre training at theMax Reinhardt workshop[4] onSunset Boulevard.[6] Reinhardt oversaw her name change, and Berniece became Ann Savage.
The Reinhardt school's manager, Bert D'Armand, became Savage's agent, and the two later married.[5] Savage was offered ascreen test byFox, but she decided not to turn up, as she knew the studio already had a bevy of pretty blondes.[4]
Savage instead made a screen test withColumbia Pictures—after playing Lorna in a Reinhardt acting showcase of Odet'sGolden Boy"[6]—and was offered a contract.[4] Recalling Columbia mogulHarry Cohn as "a friendly Uncle type", Savage remembered Cohn being intimidated by acid-tonguedRosalind Russell. The two actresses featured together inWhat a Woman!, one of a dozen films with Savage released in 1943.[4]
Although Columbia typically groomed its girls in the mold ofRita Hayworth, Savage's look echoedAnn Sheridan, although her customary blonde locks were reddened forFootlight Glamour (1943) "so that the star,Penny Singleton, would be the only blonde on screen."[4] She joinedJoan Davis andJinx Falkenburg inTwo Senoritas from Chicago (1943) and starred (as abrunette) in the first of several outings withTom Neal inKlondike Kate (1943).[4] At this time, during World War II, Savage was also a popular pin-up model, including posing for a centerfold inEsquire shot byGeorge Hurrell. She was a tireless seller ofwar bonds on two nationwide drives coordinated by Hollywood studios with the United States government.[6]
Although Savage and Neal did not see eye-to-eye (she found him "childlike"), the duo would star together inTwo Man Submarine andThe Unwritten Code (both 1944) before their most famous film, the 1945 film noirDetour. Reminiscing in the 1980s about her career as a stalwart actress in B movies, Savage dismissed most of her roles as "mindless", saying: "The actresses were just scenery. The stories all revolved around the male actors; they really had the choice roles. All the actresses had to do was to look lovely, since the dialogue was ridiculous".Detour, she felt, was different. The two leads underwentrole reversal, with Savage's Vera blackmailing Neal's Al, in a style described by her manager Kent Adamson as "vicious and predatory... very sexually aggressive".[4]
Although the B-feature was shot quickly in 28 days,[7] its status has been cemented over the years.[4] DirectorWim Wenders called her work "at least 15 years ahead of its time", andThe Guardian termed Ann "aGarbo for our times". More recently, critics such asDerek Malcolm andBarry Norman have praised the film, with Norman calling Savage "sultry and sexy... a feline film noir star at its finest". AfterDetour, although Savage starred in a half-dozen more films during the later 1940s—includingScared Stiff (1945),The Spider (1945),The Dark Horse (1946), andSatan's Cradle (1949; a rarewestern)—her most prolific years were behind her.[4]
WhenDetour entered thepublic domain, it frequently was syndicated on television channels and released in numerousVHS incarnations. Gainingcult status[5] and garnering critical acclaim as "arguably film noir's greatest low-budget feature", this exposure earned Savage a new, younger following.[4] From the 1980s, Savage also attended a number of film festivals, helping to bolster her personal status and leading her to emerge once more as "a glamorous figure-about-Hollywood at film festivals and galas".[4]
In 1983, she attended a screening ofDetour held as a tribute to directorEdgar Ulmer[4] with Ulmer's widowShirley.
During the early 1950s, Savage began working in television and found that she liked performing in anthology drama series, such asFireside Theatre,Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, andThe Ford Television Theatre.[4] She also guest-starred in episodes ofFront Page Detective,Gang Busters,City Detective, andDeath Valley Days (The Pioneers). She continued, however, to act on the big screen as well, including inAllan Dwan'sWoman They Almost Lynched (1953) withAudrey Totter,Joan Leslie andJohn Lund.[4] As offers for additional movie and television roles began to dwindle, Savage started appearing in commercials and industrial films before essentially withdrawing from acting by the mid 1950s.
In Los Angeles in July 1938, while still using her birth name Berniece Lyon, Savage married a 21-year-old gas station attendant, Clark Tennyson.[1] The couple divorced three years later. After a second, even briefer marriage to Douglas Worthington from 1944 to 1945, she married her agent Bert D'Armand in January 1946. D'Armand, who was 18 years older than Savage, proved to be a stabilizing influence on the actress's life.[8] The two left California in the mid 1950s, moving toManhattan and later, before Bert's death in 1969, splitting their time between New York and Florida.[5]
After Bert's death, Savage returned to Los Angeles to be near her mother.[5] There she took odd jobs to finance flying lessons, becoming a licensed pilot in 1979.[4] Her manager quoted her as saying that she loved flying because it put her "closer to God and Bert".[6] She also became part-owner of a small tool company and later took a secretarial course and became adocket clerk receptionist and then a secretary at the law firmLoeb & Loeb in Los Angeles.[4]
Savage was keen on the "preservation and celebration of all things Hollywood", becoming a volunteer and advisory board member ofHollywood Heritage.[6]
Savage's exposure and the praise heaped onDetour led to her appearing in the 1986 filmFire with Fire and in a guest role on the television showSaved by the Bell.
In 2007, she enjoyed a comeback,[4] and rave reviews, when Canadian filmmakerGuy Maddin cast her as his mother in hisMy Winnipeg (2008), a "personal portrait of his hometown".[5] Maddin, according to Savage's manager, is a fan ofDetour, and Savage's role in his film—"a part that had been tipped to bring her anAcademy Award"—also "introduced her to a legion of new fans, includingSteven Spielberg,John Travolta, andMartin Scorsese".[4] Maddin has stated that he cast Savage because she "would have scared the pants offBette Davis".[5]My Winnipeg was critically acclaimed and won prizes from both theToronto Film Critics Association and theSan Francisco Film Critics Circle as well as the Best Canadian Feature Film at theToronto International Film Festival and aGenie Award nomination.
Remaining blonde through her eighties and continuing to attend film festivals and galas, Savage had a series of strokes and became a resident of theMotion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in California.[4] She died in her sleep on December 25, 2008, aged 87. Her remains are interred with her husband Bert D'Armand at theHollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Her personal and career memorabilia will become part of theHarry Ransom Center at theUniversity of Texas at Austin alongside the archives ofRobert De Niro,David Mamet,David O. Selznick,Gloria Swanson, and others.[6]
In 2005, Savage was elevated to the status of "icon and legend" by theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[citation needed] In 2007,Time named Savage's role as Vera inDetour one of the "Top 10 Movie Villains" andDetour as one of the 100 best movies.[6] In 2010, McFarland and Co. publishedSavage Detours: The Life and Work of Ann Savage, by Kent Adamson andLisa Morton.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950, 1952 | Fireside Theatre | Colette | 4 Episodes "The Exile" (1952), "The Roof" (1952), "Polly" (1950) "Judas" (1950) |
| 1951 | Mystery Theater | Lena | Episode "The Case of the Missing Gun" |
| 1951 | Front Page Detective | Patti Carroll | Episode: "Clean Sweep" |
| 1952 | Schlitz Playhouse of Stars | Episode: "Tango" | |
| 1953 | Death Valley Days | Diamond Babe | Season 2, Episode 1, "The Diamond Babe" |
| 1954 | City Detective | Lisa | Episode: "Cruise Ship" |
| 1955 | Gang Busters | Juanita | Episode: "The Red Dress Case" |
| 1955 | The Ford Television Theatre | Maggie | Episode: "Magic Formula" |
| 1955 | City Detective | Natalie | Episode: "In Sickness and in Stealth" |
| 1991 | Saved by the Bell | Mrs. Thornhill | Episode: "Boss Lady"Uncredited |
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