When Anna Lee died she had been virtually forgotten by the country of her birth, yet she remained a star in the US.
The first half of her career followed a conventional path: middle-class upbringing (dad a vicar), drama school, rep, West End, film bit parts, long-term contract. She even married her director, Robert Stevenson, who handled most of her best films. By the end of the 30s she was an established star. Then came the war.
Stevenson was a pacifist and his British work had won him a contract with David O. Selznick so Hollywood looked a lot more attractive than Britain. Naturally his wife and children went with him. Anna Lee wasn't a big enough name to get quite the same kicking in the press that other fleeing stars, notably Gracie Fields, got; but she never regained the public esteem she lost.
Like many British actresses in Hollywood, Lee found her previous films career counted for little. Unlike most British actresses, going home wasn't an option, and she quickly settled for below-the-title roles. Ultimately, this gave her career a staying power it might otherwise have lacked. The marriage to Stevenson ended before the war did, but she continued to work in Hollywood. Though her roles were rarely large, she stayed busy.
Her Britishness got her a role in John Ford's How Green Was My Valley. She became part of Ford's informal repertory company and appeared in many of his films, including her only post-war British film Gideon's Day.
Though the seventies she worked increasingly in television. In 1978 she got her greatest role as Lila Quartermain in the day-time soap opera General Hospital. She stayed in the role for over twenty five years. Even a car crash in 1981 which left her paralysed from the waist down couldn't stop her, and she continued to perform in a wheelchair. Her run ended a few months before her death when her contract was downsized.
It is interesting to speculate what would have happened to Anna Lee if she had stayed in Britain. Would she have gone from strength to strength like Margaret Lockwood or would she have virtually disappeared like Jane Baxter? Either way, it's unlikely she would have appeared in as many classic films, even in bit parts, if she'd stayed.
| 1932 | Say It with Music |
| 1933 | Mayfair Girl |
| 1933 | The King's Cup |
| 1933 | Chelsea Life |
| 1933 | The Bermondsey Kid |
| 1934 | Rolling in Money |
| 1934 | Mannequin |
| 1934 | Lucky Loser |
| 1934 | Faces |
| 1934 | The Camels are Coming |
| 1935 | The Passing of the Third Floor Back |
| 1935 | First a Girl |
| 1935 | Heat Wave |
| 1936 | The Man Who Changed His Mind |
| 1937 | O.H.M.S. |
| 1937 | King Solomon's Mines |
| 1937 | Non-stop New York |
| 1939 | Four Just Men |
| 1940 | Young Man's Fancy |
| 1940 | Return to Yesterday |
| 1940 | Seven Sinners (U.S.) |
| 1941 | My Life With Caroline (U.S.) |
| 1941 | How Green Was My Valley (U.S.) |
| 1942 | Flying Tigers (U.S.) |
| 1942 | Commandos Strike at Dawn (U.S.) |
| 1943 | Forever and a Day (U.S.) |
| 1943 | Hangmen Also Die (U.S.) |
| 1943 | Flesh and Fantasy (U.S.) |
| 1944 | Summer Storm (U.S.) |
| 1946 | Bedlam (U.S.) |
| 1946 | G.I. War Brides (U.S.) |
| 1947 | High Conquest (U.S.) |
| 1947 | The Ghost and Mrs Muir (U.S.) |
| 1948 | Fort Apache (U.S.) |
| 1948 | Best Man Wins (U.S.) |
| 1949 | Prison Warden (U.S.) |
| 1958 | Gideon's Day |
| 1958 | The Last Hurrah (U.S.) |
| 1959 | The Horse Soldiers (U.S.) |
| 1959 | This Earth is Mine (U.S.) |
| 1959 | Crimson Kimono (U.S.) |
| 1960 | Jet Over the Atlantic (U.S.) |
| 1960 | The Big Night (U.S.) |
| 1961 | Two Rode Together (U.S.) |
| 1961 | The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (U.S.) |
| 1962 | Jack the Giant Killer (U.S.) |
| 1962 | Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (U.S.) |
| 1963 | The Prize (U.S.) |
| 1964 | The Unsinkable Molly Brown (U.S.) |
| 1964 | For Those Who Think Young (U.S.) |
| 1965 | The Sound of Music (U.S.) |
| 1966 | 7 Women (U.S.) |
| 1966 | Picture Mommy Dead (U.S.) |
| 1967 | In Like Flint (U.S.) |
| 1968 | Star! (U.S.) |
| 1987 | The Right Hand Man (U.S.) |
| 1987 | Beyond the Next Mountain (U.S.) |
| 1989 | Listen To Me (U.S.) |
| 1989 | Beverley Hills Brats (U.S.) |
| 1994 | What Can I Do? |
