Ann Dvorak: Movies & Box Office

Born Anna McKim on August 2, 1911 in New York City, Ann Dvorak grew up as the only child of silent‑film actress Anna Lehr and director Edwin McKim. Early in life she appeared on screen at the age of five as "Baby Anna Lehr" in the 1916 silent version of Ramona, and continued with small parts in The Man Hater (1917) and Five Dollar Plate (1920) before her parents divorced and she stepped away from acting for several years. In the late 1920s she resurfaced at MGM as a chorus girl and assistant choreographer, eventually catching the eye of producer Howard Hughes who groomed her for dramatic roles. Dvorak’s breakthrough came during the pre‑Code era, most notably as Paul Muni’s sister in Scarface (1932) and as the troubled Vivian in Three on a Match (1932) alongside Bette Davis and Joan Blondell, performances that cemented her reputation for style, elegance, and emotional intensity. At nineteen she eloped with co‑star Leslie Fenton; their marriage sparked a year‑long honeymoon that conflicted with studio contracts and led to a protracted legal battle over her salary, revealing the gender inequities of the Hollywood system. After a prolific period at Warner Bros. she freelanced, appearing in The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937) as Della Street and later supporting the war effort in England as an ambulance driver while making British films. Post‑war she starred in Abilene Town (1946), showed comic timing in Out of the Blue (1947), and even performed on Broadway in The Respectful Prostitute (1948). Dvorak retired from the screen in 1952 upon marrying her third husband, Nicholas Wade, and moved to Hawaii, where she lived until her death from cancer on December 10, 1979. Her legacy endures with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star at 6321 Hollywood Boulevard, honoring a career that combined daring on‑screen choices with a fierce independence off‑screen.