Ann Harding Biography

Fast Facts

• Studied Drama at Bryn Mawr's Baldwin School with Otis Skinner
• Started out as an insurance company clerk and script reader for the film company Famous-Players-Lasky
• Made her screen acting debut in the film "Paris Bound" in 1929
• Made her Broadway debut in 1921 in a production of "Like a King" and would appear in nine more Broadway plays before leaving for Hollywood in 1929
• Quote: "In playing a role, I get to intimately understand another's point of view․ I learn that circumstances may alter cases-and for the time being, to think as another thinks․"
• Quote: "[I have] an obligation to try to preserve the illusion of the profession․․․Whatever charm and dignity an actor may possess are ruined if delved into too deeply․"
• Returned to Broadway in her later career, in the comedy "Goodbye, My Fancy" in 1949 and later in the 1960s productions "General Seeger" and "Abraham Cochrane․"
• Best known for her role as Daisy Sage in "The Animal Kingdom" and as Mary O'Connor in "It Happened on Fifth Avenue․"
• In her later career she became popular for her supporting roles in films like "The Magnificent Yankee" and "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit․"