When I met former child actress Cora Sue Collins at her Beverly Hills apartment in March 2003, she said, ‘Did you ever talk to Ann Gillis? She lives in Belgium.’ I didn’t know that at the time, and so upon my return to my home country after visiting Hollywood for a few weeks, I tried to find out how to get in touch with her.

On the internet I found an address in a place called Kontich, near Antwerp. I went over there and the couple that lived in that particular house, told me she had lived there but moved a couple of years ago. They told me one of their neighbors might be able to help me out. So I went over there, and they got me her phone number where I could reach her.

That’s how I got in touch with former Hollywood child actress Ann Gillis who appeared in several Hollywood films from the mid-1930s until the late 1940s. She was born Alma Mabel Conner on February 12, 1927, in Little Rock, Arkansas. When she moved to Los Angeles with her family, her mother pursued opportunities for her in the entertainment industry. At age eight, she found herself in the spotlight, and was landing significant roles in ‘double A films,’ as she describes them, with “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936) with Oscar winner Luise Rainer being the first one.

Her career took off when she began to secure roles in various Hollywood productions. She caught the attention of casting directors who saw her potential as a leading child actress.

At age eleven, she played Becky Thatcher in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (1938), a film adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic novel. Her portrayal was well-received, and it cemented her status. Her performance showcased her ability to bring depth and nuance to her characters, even at a young age. The film was a major success and remains one of the most memorable adaptations of Twain’s work.

Throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s, Ms. Gillis continued to appear in various films, often playing the role of the spirited and sometimes spoiled brats. Her versatility as an actress was evident in films such as “Little Orphan Annie” (1938), where she played the title role, and “Beau Geste” (1939), in which she starred alongside Gary Cooper—one of the many stars she worked with over the years. These roles demonstrated her range and ability to handle comedic and dramatic material.

When she retired from acting, Ms. Gillis largely stayed out of the public eye. She did, however, make one final return to the screen in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), where she provided the voice of the mother of the character Frank Poole, played by Gary Lockwood.

After her Hollywood career, Ms. Gillis married Paul Ziebold; their union lasted from 1947-1951. She then moved to New York where she met and married Scottish actor Richard Fraser in 1952; he was known for his role as Angela Lansbury’s vengeful brother in “The Picture of Dorian Grey” (1945). They moved to England in 1961. After their divorce in 1970, she moved to Belgium in 1972 and was married to Belgian René Van Hulst from 1991 until his death in 1999.

The following interview was conducted during our first encounter in 2003 when she also gave me a few stills from her archive; the feature image on top is a publicity still from 1944 from Universal when Ms. Gillis was seventeen. Later on, we stayed in touch and always had lunch in a restaurant close to her residence in Hechtel, Limburg. I remember Ms. Gillis as very kind-hearted and good-natured. It was always a joy to spend time with her and an honor to be included in her circle of acquaintances.

In 2014, Ms. Gillis returned to England and died in a nursing home in Horam, East Sussex, England, on January 31, 2018, at age 90. She was buried on Theobolds Green Woodland Burial Ground in East Sussex. Her tomb says, ‘Ann Conner Ziebold Fraser 12.2.1927 to 31.1.2018 AKA The Hollywood Actress Ann Gillis. As you join the Stars and the Heavens God speed and Rest in Peace.’

Her granddaughter is British actress Katey Ann Fraser.

Ms. Gillis, would you consider “2001: A Space Odyssey” one of the highlights of your career?

No, it was such a horrible experience that I said, ‘I don’t need to do this. If this is how it has become—work in film, I mean—I don’t need to do this.’ So I thought, ‘Finito. No more.’ And I never accepted another part. But when “A Space Odyssey” was first offered to me, I thought it would be a better way to end my film career because in my final Hollywood film, “Big Town After Dark” [1947], I played a gangster’s moll and I got shot in the end.

Why was “2001” such a bad experience?

[Laughs.] When [director] Stanley Kubrick gave me the script, he said, ‘Don’t worry. We’ll all get together, make up the dialogue as we get along, and we’ll use that.’ The other mother and the other husband sat with Kubrick, making up the dialogue—hers is not included in the film, I don’t know why, but whatever—and by the end of that morning, he suggested to get me instead. So they called me, they had me dressed, and he said, ‘This is a five-page script. Now go learn the dialogue and we’ll shoot it in an hour.’ So I had one hour to learn five pages. It was not the sort of dialogue like ‘How are you?’ and he answers, and he asks me something and I answer. No. We were talking separately to a screen, sending a television message to our son in space. So when it was time to get on the set—the other man [played by Alan Gifford] helped me with the script, he knew it. We just changed mothers, me being one of them. They had a backdrop behind us, and the two of us were sitting at a table with a screen in front of us. The first seven takes weren’t good because the lights didn’t work or the backdrop didn’t work or somebody coughed—all the things that can happen in film. The eighth take was fine, and I thought, ‘That’s great, it was lovely. Thank you very much.’ Then Kubrick said, ‘You know, Ann, I think it would be good when he says this and you say that instead, and then he can say this.’ So he changed it—every time, from take eight to take twenty-one, and then he printed all of them. He had a blank check, he could spend as much money as he wanted. Can you imagine? To print twenty-one takes, and most of them were no good. He kept getting a new idea for everything. It was a very uncomfortable experience for me.

Did you ever have any uncomfortable situations in Hollywood?

Only once, when I was doing a test at Warner Bros. Joan Leslie was up for the same part, and she sat on the director’s lap while I did my test. I knew I wouldn’t get it, but I thought that was not polite. Maybe I wouldn’t have gotten it anyway because I was typecast after “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” [1938].

How would you compare “2001: A Space Odyssey” to the films you made in Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s?

In Hollywood, everybody was marvellous to you. The only problem was that you were never introduced to anybody properly. This was Sam, this was Leo, and that was Harry. When you ran into them several years later, they would say, ‘You don’t remember me, do you?’ [Laughs.] I never knew their last names. Every time you made a new film, you met so many new people that you were supposed to remember, and I couldn’t—also because I began working in Hollywood when I was eight and went on to work there until I was nineteen. But in Hollywood, I was always taken care of. I smiled at people, I was always polite, and always said ‘Thank you’—that sort of thing. I remember the crew always like me a lot.

When did you first get noticed?

In the mid-1930s, every studio was trying to have another Shirley Temple, and I had a very nice part in “The Great Ziegfeld” [1936] when Ziegfeld [played by William Powell] came back to his father and he was giving a piano lesson to a little girl, supposedly age six while I was nine—but okay. He told his father he was going into the theatrical business; he talked to this little girl who was sitting on his lap and gave her something. It was one of those public relations parts, it didn’t mean anything, but I played somebody in a big double A film, and I was let in because of Shirley Temple. The studio needed that. If you take “The Singing Cowboy” [1936], made by Republic, they were delighted to have somebody who had just made this film at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The smaller studios immediately hired you if you had made a double A movie. And so it went on like that; one film led to another.

Do you remember how you got the part in “The Great Ziegfeld”?

The film was made in November 1935, and I only got the part by accident. My mother had put me in a theatrical school—which is always helpful—and there was an agent who knew they were looking for a little red-headed girl to play Billie Burke as a child in “The Great Ziegfeld.” So she approached me and my mother and drove us to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer where we met the casting director that day. And I took the test that same day, I think. I did not get the Billie Burke part, but another part where I had this conversation with William Powell—such a darling man. I made $50 a day.

Career-wise, I suppose “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” [1938] was a major step forward because you played one of the leading roles…

…you have to know that, in the beginning, it was a very small part, but from the comics they had, they put more of my part into the film. [Producer] David O. Selznick had three girls under contract for the part of Becky Thatcher—I was one of them—and then he kept on casting for the part of Tom Sawyer until he found the right boy [Tommy Kelly]. He could write all night long and he’d have a new script ready for the afternoon shooting, and in the afternoon they got the script for the next morning shooting. You had to be on your toes all the time to know what was going on, especially since I never got any help from [director] Norman Taurog who was brought in at the very last minute. Originally, the cast members were all amateurs, except me; I was the only one who had done about ten films.

You appeared in several screen classics, such as “The Great Ziegfeld,” “The Garden of Allah” [1936], “Beau Geste” [1939], “All This, and Heaven Too” [1940], “Since You Went Away” [1944], and you provided the voice of the adult Faline in Disney’s animated feature “Bambi” [1942]. Can you tell something about that?

When I did “Bambi” I sat in one of those large empty rooms made for sound recording, with holes in the walls and all that. I sat on a high stool with a microphone in front of me and the director was three miles away behind a glass wall. He’d say, ‘Now you say this line,’ and I would say it several times. Or he’d say, ‘Let’s try it this way.’ And it would go one all day, or two days—I don’t remember. But it was weird because you worked by yourself; you didn’t see any other actor, and you didn’t really see the director. But I enjoyed doing it.

William Powell with Ann Gillis in a clip from “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936)

In “Edison, The Man” [1940], you worked with Spencer Tracy. Everybody always speaks very highly of him. You too?

Sure because he was a lovely man, very patient and very interesting. And so was the director, Clarence Brown. He was a darling and very underestimated director, just like Curtis Reinhardt. I also liked Michael Curtiz [“Janie,” 1944] because he was straight: if he liked you, you knew it, and if he didn’t like you, he’d tell you. His English was terrible, but it was funny. He liked me because I was always on time and I knew my lines. In between films I would be called in to make complementary tests for other actors, knowing that I wouldn’t be up for the role. They did that because they knew I was reliable. If they gave me a script, I would have it.

“Since You Went Away,” about a family suffering through World War 2,  was your third and final film for David O. Selznick and became another film classic you appeared in. How do you remember that film?

My character’s name was Becky and I only had one scene dancing and making a couple of comments. During the dancing, we had to come back a couple of times because Joseph Cotten was so drunk that we had to do it again. There was a lot of stress on that set. Jennifer Jones was married to Robert Walker [both played leading roles in the film], and she was having an affair with David O. Selznick. Walker was under stress, Jennifer was certainly under stress, and Joseph Cotten was in the middle of it all. He just couldn’t stand it.

Was it easy to combine work and school at such a young age?

There was very often a table on the stage. They were very explicit about the hours. Between takes, you had to study three hours every day, and the teachers had to mark down every minute. When you weren’t working, you were studying—or you had to relax, learn your lines for the nest day, get your hair fixed or you were in makeup. I remember Virginia Bruce and how gorgeous she was; she had the most beautiful skin that she even refused makeup. But we did a lot of studying. In those days we worked six days a week, so we really worked a lot, and the hours were long.

When did you have to be at the studio in the morning?

We lived in Beverly Hills on Benedict Canyon, and when I worked at Warner Bros., I had to be there at 06:30 AM. You had to be ready to shoot at 08:30 AM—something like that. And we very often worked until seven o’clock in the evening. Those were very long days.

What about the studio heads?

I was terrified of David O. Selznick [laughs]. He was like a big shark, so to speak. He was always very nice to me; I was just terrified because I was so young. But later, when I wasn’t working in film anymore, I went to the theater one day and went down in the elevator, and behind me was Selznick. I knew it was him, but I didn’t think he would remember who I was. So I wasn’t about to say, ‘Hello, I’m Ann Gillis. Do you remember me?’ But in the end, I did say hello to him, saying, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize you. I don’t know if you recognize me, it’s me, Ann Gillis’—grown up and so forth. I also remember his father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer; I had met him a couple of times. He seemed all right; he was like a perfectly nice grandpa. Harry Cohn at Columbia… let’s just say he was not very well-liked because he could be very rude. He called me in one day, so I went into his office, and he said, ‘Ann, are you Jewish?’ I said, ‘No, sir. I’m Irish.’ ‘You photograph Jewish. Turn around.’ So I turned around. Then he said, ‘Okay. That’s enough. Goodbye.’ I didn’t get the part [laughs]. I think Jane Withers got it, but I don’t remember what film it was.

Did your film career result in lasting friendships with people you worked with?

No, absolutely not. My mother kept me away from the Hollywood bunch as much as possible. I made lasting friends when I was older; one of them was Ona Munson who played Belle Watling in “Gone With the Wind” [1939]. We did “The Cheaters” [1945] together. She was a great lady.

Your Hollywood career ended abruptly in 1947. What happened?

I got married, and my husband [Paul Ziebold] didn’t want me to work. When the marriage broke up [in 1951], I went to New York, and did some television. In those days it was live television, coast to coast.

Did you ever miss Hollywood?

No. My mother was mad about movies, and she was a very good actress. I once got a script in the afternoon, and I went to my mother and asked, ‘The script says I gotta have hysterics. What’s that?’ Try to explain that to a ten-year-old. We went to the studio, and she showed me what hysterics were. She scared the hell out of me, I can tell you—crying, screaming, howling, and laughing and crying at the same time. I was pretty horrified. She said, ‘Okay, now go to the set.’ So all I did then was imitate my mother.

“The Time of Their Lives” [1946] starring Abbott and Costello was one of your final films in Hollywood. They were very successful at the time, weren’t they?

Absolutely. And that was the only Abbott and Costello movie where they had a real script. It was originally written for Cary Grant. Can you imagine? And then they rewrote it for Abbott and Costello. They were a couple of characters [laughs]. They were very sweet and very successful; they were among the biggest stars of the 1940s.

Hechtel, Limburg (Belgium)
April 2003

FILMS

MEN IN WHITE (1934) DIR Richard Boleslawski PROD Monta Bell SCR Waldemar Young (play “Men In White” [1934] by Sidney Kingsley) CAM George J. Folsey ED Frank Sullivan MUS William Axt CAST Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Jean Hersholt, Elizabeth Allan, Otto Kruger, C. Henry Gordon, Russell Hardie, Wallace Ford, Ann Gillis (Flower Girl [uncredited])

THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (MGM, 1936) DIR Robert Z. Leonard PROD Hunt Stromberg SCR William Anthony McGuire (suggested by the life of Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.) CAM Oliver T. Marsh ED William S Gray MUS Arthur Lange CAST William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, Fanny Brice, Virginia Bruce, Reginald Owen, Ray Bolger, Jean Chatburn, Gertrude Astor, William Demarest, Ann Gillis (Mary Lou [Jean Chatburn] as a Child).

SINGING COWBOY (1936) DIR Mack V. Wright PROD Nat Levine SCR Dorrell McGowan, Stuart E. McGowan (original story by Tom Gibson) CAM William Nobles, Edgar Lyons ED Lester Orlebeck CAST Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Lois Wilde, Lon Chaney Jr., Ann Gillis (Lou Ann Stevens), Earle Hodgins, Harvey Clark, John Van Pelt

UNDER YOUR SPELL (1936) DIR Otto Preminger PROD John Stone SCR Saul Elkins, Frances Hyland (story by Sy Bartlett, Bernice Mason) CAM Sidney Wagner ED Fred Allen MUS Charles Maxwell, Arthur Lange CAST Lawrence Tibbett, Wendy Barrie, Gregory Ratoff, Arthur Treacher, Gregory Gaye, Berton Churchill, Jed Prouty, Claudia Coleman, Madge Bellamy, Ann Gillis (Gwendolyn [uncredited])

THE MAN I MARRY (1936) DIR Ralph Murphy PROD Val Paul SCR Harry Clork, M. Coates Webster CAM Joseph A. Valentine ED Bernard W. Burton MUS Charles Previn CAST Doris Nolan, Michael Whalen, Charles ‘Chic’ Sale, Nigel Bruce, Richard ‘Skeets’ Gallagher, Marjorie Gateson, Cliff Edwards, Gerald Oliver Smith, Ann Gillis (Little Girl [uncredited])

THE GARDEN OF ALLAH (1936) DIR Richard Boleslawski PROD David O. Selznick SCR Lynn Riggs, W.P. Lipscomb (novel “The Garden of Allah” [1904] by Robert Hichens) CAM Harold Rosson, Virgil Miller, W. Howard Greene ED Hal C. Kern, Anson Stevenson MUS Max Steiner CAST Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith, Tilly Lisch, John Carradine, Joseph Schildkraut, Alan Marshall, Lucile Watson, Ann Gillis (Convent Girl 2 [uncredited])

KING OF HOCKEY (1936) DIR Noel M. Smith PROD Bryan Foy SCR George Bricker CAM L. William O’Connell ED Harold McLernon MUS Howard Jackson CAST Dick Purcell, Anne Nagel, Marie Wilson, Wayne Morris, George E. Stone, Joseph Crehan, Ann Gillis (Peggy ‘Princess’ O’Rourke), Gordon Hart, Dora Clement, Harry Davenport

POSTAL INSPECTOR (1936) DIR Otto Brower EXEC PROD Charles R. Rogers SCR Horace McCoy (story by Horace McCoy, Robert Presnell Sr.) CAM George Robinson ED Philip Cahn MUS Clifford Vaughan CAST Ricardo Cortez, Patricia Ellis, Michael Loring, Bela Lugosi, Wallis Clark, Arthur Loft, David Oliver, Guy Usher, Bill Burrud, Bess Flowers, Ann Gillis (Little Girl [uncredited])

OFF TO THE RACES (1937) DIR Frank R. Strayer PROD Max Golden SCR Helen Logan, Robert Ellis (story by Helen Logan, Robert Ellis) CAM Barney McGill ED Alex Troffey CAST Slim Summerville, Jed Prouty, Shirley Deane, Spring Byington, Russell Gleason, Kenneth Howell, George Ernest, June Carlson, Florence Roberts, Billy Mahan, Ann Gillis (Winnie Mae)

YOU CAN’T BUY LUCK (1937) DIR Lew Landers PROD Maury M. Cohen SCR Martin Mooney, Arthur T. Horman (story by Martin Mooney) CAM J. Roy Hunt ED Jack Hively MUS Roy Webb CAST Onslow Stevens, Helen Mack, Vinton Haworth, Maxine Jennings, Paul Guilfoyle, Frank M. Thomas, Richard Lane, Bess Flowers, Ann Gillis (Peggy [uncredited])

THE CALIFORNIAN (1937) DIR Gus Meins PROD Sol Lesser SCR Gilbert Wright, Gordon Newell (story by Gilbert Wright, Gordon Newell, Harold Bell Wright) CAM Harry Neumann ED Carl Pierson, Arthur Hilton CAST Ricardo Cortez, Marjorie Weaver, Katherine De Mille, Nigel de Brulier, Morgan Wallace, Maurice Black, Ann Gillis (Rosalia [Marjorie Weaver] as a Child)

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (1938) DIR Norman Taurog PROD David O. Selznick SCR Jack V.A. Weaver (novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” [1876] by Mark Twain) CAM James Wong Howe ED Margaret Clancey MUS Max Steiner CAST Tommy Kelly, May Robson, Walter Brennan, Victor Jory, David Holt, Jackie Moran, Margaret Hamilton, Cora Sue Collins, Ann Gillis (Becky Thatcher) Spring Byington

PECK’S BAD BOY WITH THE CIRCUS (1938) DIR Edward F. Cline PROD Sol Lesser SCR Robert Neville, Al Martin, David Boehm (characters created by George W. Peck; adaptation by Robert Neville) CAM Jack McKenzie ED Arthur Hilton MUS Victor Young CAST Tommy Kelly, Ann Gillis (Fleurette de Cava), George ‘Spanky’ McFarland, Edgar Kennedy, Benita Hume, Billy Gilbert, Grant Mitchell, Nana Bryant, Louise Beavers, William Demarest

LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE (1938) DIR Ben Holmes PROD John Speaks SCR Budd Schulberg, Samuel Ornitz (comic strip by Harold Gray; story by Samuel Ornitz, Endre Bohem) CAM Frank Redman ED Robert Bischoff MUS Joseph Nussbaum, Louis Forbes, George Bassman CAST Ann Gillis (Annie), Robert Kent, June Travis, J. Farrell MacDonald, J.M. Kerrigan, Margaret Armstrong, Sarah Padden, James Burke

BEAU GESTE (1939) DIR – PROD William A. Wellman SCR Robert Carson (novel by Percival Christopher Wren) CAM Archie Stout, Theodor Sparkuhl ED Thomas Scott MUS Alfred Newman CAST Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward, J. Carrol Naish, Donald O’Connor, James Stephenson, Albert Dekker, Broderick Crawford, Ann Gillis (Isobel Rivers [Susan Hayward] as a Child), Harvey Stephens

THE UNDER-PUP (1939) DIR Richard Wallace PROD Joe Pasternak SCR Grover Jones (story by I.A.R. Wylie) CAM Hal Mohr ED Frank Gross MUS Frank Skinner CAST Robert Cummings, Nan Grey, Gloria Jean, Beulah Bondi, Virginia Weidler, Margaret Lindsay, C. Aubrey Smith, Billy Gilbert, Ann Gillis (Letty Lou), Raymond Walburn, Paul Cavanagh, Samuel S. Hinds, Dickie Moore, Cecil Kellaway, Jean Porter

EDISON, THE MAN (1940) DIR Clarence Brown PROD John W. Considine Jr. SCR Talbot Jennings, Bradbury Foote (original story by Dore Schary, Hugo Butler) CAM Harold Rosson ED Frederick Y. Smith MUS Herbert Stothart CAST Spencer Tracy, Rita Johnson, Lynne Overman, Charles Coburn, Gene Lockhart, Henry Travers, Felix Bressart, Peter Godfrey, Ann Gillis (Nancy Gray)

MY LOVE CAME BACK (1940) DIR Curtis Bernhardt EXEC PROD Hal B. Wallis SCR Robert Buckner, Ivan Goff, Earl Baldwin (story by Walter Reisch) CAM James Wong Howe, Charles Rosher ED Rudi Fehr MUS Heinz Roemheld CAST Olivia de Havilland, Jeffrey Lynn, Eddie Albert, Jane Wyman, Charles Winninger, Spring Byington, Grant Mitchell, Ann Gillis (Valerie Malette), S. Z. Sakall

ALL THIS, AND HEAVEN TOO (1940) DIR – PROD Anatole Litvak SCR Casey Robinson (novel “All This, And Heaven Too” [1938] by Rachel Field) CAM Ernest Haller ED Warren Low MUS Max Steiner CAST Bette Davis, Charles Boyer, Jeffrey Lynn, Barbara O’Neil, Virginia Weidler, Helen Westley, Walter Hampden, Henry Daniell, Harry Davenport, June Lockhart, Ann Gillis (Emily Schuyler), Cora Sue Collins

LITTLE MEN (1940) DIR Norman Z. McLeod PROD Gene Towne SCR Arthur Caesar, Mark Kelly (novel “Little Men” [1871] by Louisa May Alcott) CAM Nicholas Musuraca ED Heorge Hively MUS Roy Webb CAST Kay Francis, Jack Oakie, George Bancroft, Jimmy Lydon, Ann Gillis (Nan), Carl Esmond, Richard Nichols, Casey Johnson, William Demarest

NICE GIRL? (1941) DIR William A. Seiter PROD Joe Pasternak SCR Gladys Lehman, Richard Connell (play “Nice Girl?” by Phyllis Duganne) CAM Joseph A. Valentine ED Bernard W. Burton MUS Frank Skinner CAST Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone, Walter Brennan, Robert Stack, Robert Benchley, Helen Broderick, Ann Gillis (Nancy Dana), Tommy Kelly

GLAMOUR BOY (1941) DIR Ralph Murphy PROD Sol C. Siegel SCR Val Burton, Bradford Ropes CAM Daniel L. Fapp ED William Shea MUS Victor Young CAST Jackie Cooper, Susanna Foster, Walter Abel, Darryl Hickman, Ann Gillis (Brenda Lee), William Demarest, Marcia Mae Jones, Frank Coghlan Jr.

MR. DYNAMITE (1941) DIR John Rawlins ASSOC PROD Marshall Grant SCR Stanley Crea Rubin (also story) CAM John W. Boyle ED Ted J. Kent CAST Lloyd Nolan, Irene Hervey, J. Carrol Naish, Robert Armstrong, Frank Gaby, Elisabeth Risdon, Ann Gillis (Joey, a.k.a. Abigail), Shemp Howard, Cliff Nazarro, Monte Brewer

TOUGH AS THEY COME (1942) DIR William Nigh ASSOC PROD Ken Goldsmith SCR Brenda Weisberg, Lewis Amster (story by Lewis Amster, Albert Bein) CAM Elwood Bredell ED Bernard W. Burton CAST Billy Halop, Paul Kelly, Helen Parrish, Ann Gillis (Frankie Taylor), Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsly, Gabriel Dell, Virginia Brissac

MEET THE STEWARTS (1942) DIR Alfred E. Green PROD Robert Sparks SCR Karen DeWolf (story by Elizabeth Dunn) CAM Henry Freulich ED Al Clark MUS Leo Shuken CAST William Holden, Frances Dee, Grant Mitchell, Ann Gillis (Jane Goodwin), Roger Clark, Marjorie Gateson, Anne Revere, Margaret Hamilton

BAMBI (1942, animated) DIR David Hand PROD Walt Disney SCR (story by Felix Salten) ED Thomas Scott MUS Edward H. Plumb, Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline CAST (voice only) Donnie Dunagan, Sterling Holloway, Bobby Stewart, John Sutherland, Paula Winslowe, Ann Gillis (Adult Faline [uncredited])

‘NEATH BROOKLYN BRIDGE (1942) DIR Wallace Fox PROD Sam Katzman, Jack Dietz SCR Harvey Gates (also orginal story) CAM Mack Stengler ED Carl Pierson CAST Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Noah Beery Jr., Ann Gillis (Sylvia), Marc Lawrence, Dave O’Brien, Ernest Morrison

MAN FROM MUSIC MOUNTAIN (1943) DIR Joseph Kane PROD Harry Grey SCR Bradford Ropes, J. Benton Cheney CAM William Bradford ED Tony Martinelli CAST Roy Rogers, Trigger, Bob Nolan, Ruth Terry, Pal Kelly, Ann Gillis (Penny Winters), George Cleveland, Pat Brady, Renie Riano, Paul Harvey

STAGE DOOR CANTEEN (1943) DIR Frank Borzage PROD Frank Borzage, Sol Lesser SCR Delmer Daves CAM Harry J. Wild MUS Freddie Rich CAST William Terry, Cheryl Walker, Judith Anderson, Kenny Baker, Tallulah Bankhead, Ralph Bellamy, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Ray Bolger, Ina Claire, Gracie Fields, Lynn Fontanne, Helen Hayes, Katharine Hepburn, Jean Hersholt, George Jessel, Alfred Lunt, Harpo Marx, Ethel Merman, Paul Muni, Merle Oberon, George Raft, Martha Scott, Ethel Waters, Johnny Weissmuller, Ed Wynn, Henry Armetta, Helen Broderick, Jane Darwell, William Demarest, Virginia Field, Ann Gillis (Ann Gillis), Virginia Grey, Sam Jaffe, Allen Jenkins, Otto Kruger, Helen Menken, Peggy Moran, Dame May Whitty, Count Basie, Xavier Cugat, Benny Goodman, Marjorie Riordan, Jean Louis Heydt, Gertrude Lawrence, Peggy Lee, Django Reinhardt, Ruth Roman

SINCE YOU WENT AWAY (1944) DIR John Cromwell PROD David O. Selznick SCR David O. Selznick (book “Since You Went Away…: Letters to a Soldier from His Wife” [1943] and adaptation by Margaret Buell Wilder) CAM Lee Garmes, Stanley Cortez ED Hal C. Kern MUS Max Steiner CAST Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple, Monty Woolley, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Walker, Hattie McDaniel, Agnes Moorehead, Alla Nazimova, Keenan Wynn, Guy Madison, Dorothy Dandridge, John Derek, Rhonda Fleming, Ann Gillis (Becky Anderson [uncredited]), Andrew V. McLaglen, Terry Moore, Ruth Roman

JANIE (1944) DIR Michael Curtiz PROD Alex Gottlieb SCR Agnes Christine Johnston, Charles Hoffman (play “Janie” [1942] by Josephine Bentham, Herschel V. Williams Jr.) CAM Carl E. Guthrie ED Owen Marks MUS Heinz Roemheld CAST Joyce Reynolds, Robert Hutton, Edward Arnold, Ann Harding, Robert Benchley, Alan Hale, Hattie McDaniel, Jackie Moran, Ann Gillis (Paula Rainey), Colleen Townsend, Julie London, Andy Williams

A WAVE, A WAC AND A MARINE (1944) DIR Phil Karlson PROD Edward Sherman SCR Hal Fimberg CAM Maury Gertsman ED William Austin MUS Freddie Rich CAST Elyse Knox, Ann Gillis (Judy), Sally Eilers, Richard Lane, Marjorie Woodworth, Ramsay Ames, Henry Youngman, Charles ‘Red’ Marshall, Freddie Rich, Connie Haines, Mel Blanc

IN SOCIETY (1944) DIR Jean Yarbrough PROD Edmund L. Hartmann SCR Edmund L. Hartmann, John Grant, Hal Fimberg (story by Howard Snyder, Hugh Wedlock Jr.) CAM Jerome Ash ED Philip Cahn MUS Frank Skinner CAST Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Arthur Treacher, Marion Hutton, Kirby Grant, Thomas Gomez, Ann Gillis (Gloria Winthrop), George Dolenz, Will Osborne, Margaret Irving, Bess Flowers

THE CHEATERS (1945) DIR – ASSOC PROD Joseph Kane SCR Frances Hyland (original story by Frances Hyland, Albert Ray) CAM Reggie Lanning ED Richard L. Van Enger MUS Walter Scharf CAST Joseph Schildkraut, Billie Burke, Eugene Pallette, Ona Munson, Raymond Walburn, Ann Gillis (Angela Pidgeon), Ruth Terry, Robert Livingston, David Bolt

JANIE GETS MARRIED (1946) DIR Vincent Sherman PROD Alex Gottlieb SCR Agnes Christine Johnston (characters created by Josephine Bentham, Herschel V. Williams Jr.) CAM Carl E. Guthrie ED Christian Nyby MUS Frederick Hollander [Friedrich Hollaender] CAST Joan Leslie, Robert Hutton, Edward Arnold, Ann Harding, Dorothy Malone, Hattie McDaniel, Robert Benchley, Hattie McDaniel, Margaret Hamilton, Ann Gillis (Paula Rainey), Mel Tormé

THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES (1946) DIR Charles Barton PROD Val Burton SCR Val Burton, Walter DeLeon, Bradford Ropes CAM Charles Van Enger ED Philip Cahn MUS Milton Rosen CAST Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marjorie Reynolds, Binnie Barnes, John Shelton, Gale Sondergaard, Ann Gillis (Nora O’Leary)

SWEETHEART OF SIGMA CHI (1946) DIR Jack Bernhard PROD Jeffrey Bernerd SCR Michael Jacoby (original story by George Waggner) CAM L. William O’Connell ED William Austin CAST Elyse Knox, Ross Hunter, Phil Regan, Phil Brito, Ed Brophy, Ann Gillis (Sue), Tom Harmon, Alan Hale Jr., William Beaudine Jr., Slim Gaillard Trio, Frankie Carle

GAY BLADES (1946) DIR – ASSOC PROD George Blair SCR Albert Beich (magazine story by Jack Goodman, Albert Rice; adaptation by Marcel Klauber) CAM William Bradford ED Tony Martinelli MUS R. Dale Butts CAST Allan Lane, Jean Rogers, Edward Ashley, Frank Albertson, Ann Gillis (Helen Dowell), Robert Armstrong, Paul Harvey, Ray Walker, Jonathan Hale

BIG TOWN AFTER DARK (1947) DIR William C. Thomas PROD William H. Pine, William H. Thomas SCR Whitman Chambers (radio drama “Big Town” [1937-1942] by Daniel Mainwaring, Maxwell Shane) CAM Ellis W. Carter ED Howard A. Smith MUS Darrell Calker CAST Philip Reed, Hillary Brooke, Richard Travis, Ann Gillis (Susan Peabody LaRue), Vince Barnett, Joe Sawyer, Douglas Blackley, Charles Arnt, Robert Kent

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) DIR – PROD Stanley Kubrik SCR Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke (short story “The Sentinel” [1951] by Arthur C. Clarke) CAM Geoffrey Unsworth ED Ray Lovejoy CAST Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Robert Beatty, Ann Gillis (Mother of Frank Poole [Gary Lockwood])