Ann Todd

Dorothy Anne Todd (24 January 1909 – 6 May 1993) was an English actress and producer.

Early years

Todd was born in Hartford, Cheshire, England, and educated at St. Winifrid's School, Eastbourne, Sussex. She went onto study speech training and drama under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, then based at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Film

Todd became a popular actress by appearing in such films as Perfect Strangers (1945, as a nurse) and The Seventh Veil (1945, as a troubled concert pianist). She is perhaps best known to American audiences as Gregory Peck's long-suffering wife in Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case (1947).

In 1946, Todd was said to be the "holder of the most lucrative contract ever signed by an English cinema actress, with over a million dollars involved in its clauses."

Television

Todd starred in two episodes of Playhouse 90: "Not the Glory" and "The Grey Nurse Said Nothing".

Stage

In 1957, Todd starred in the Broadway production of Four Winds.

Autobiography

She later produced a series of travel films. Her autobiography is entitled The Eighth Veil, an allusion to the film which made her a star in Britain. Todd was known as the "pocket Garbo" for her diminutive, blonde beauty.

Personal life

Todd said of herself, "I'm really very shy, and I get over that playing an actress."

Todd married three times. Her first husband, Victor N. Malcolm, was a grandson of Lillie Langtry and Prince Louis of Battenberg, the 1st Marquess of Milford Haven; she had a son with him named David Malcolm. Her second and third husbands (Nigel Tangye and David Lean) were first cousins. She had a daughter with Nigel Tangye called Ann Francesca Tangye. She was divorced from Tangye 12 March 1949.

Todd married film director Lean on 21 May 1949 and starred in a number of his films, including The Passionate Friends (1949), Madeleine (1950) and The Sound Barrier (1952). Lean and Todd divorced 15 July 1957.

Death

Todd died on 6 May 1993 from a stroke aged 84.

Filmography

• Maigret (TV) - One episode, "The Patience of Maigret" (1992), Mlle Josette
• Screen Two (TV) - One episode: "The McGuffin" (1986), Mrs Forbes-Duthie
• Maelstrom (TV miniseries) (1985), Astrid Linderman
• The Human Factor (1979), Castle’s mother
• The Fiend (1972), Birdy Wemys
• Thirty-Minute Theatre (TV) - One episode: "The Keys on the Streets" (1967), The woman
• Armchair Theatre (TV) - Two episodes: "Ready for Glory" (1966), Lady Baynton; "The Lady of Camellias" (1958), Marguerite Gautier
• Ninety Degrees in the Shade (1965), Mrs Kurka
• Figlio del capitano Blood II The Son of Captain Blood (1962), Arabella Blood opposite Errol Flynn's son Sean
• Thriller (TV) - One episode: "Letter to a lover" (1961), Sylvia Lawrence
• Taste of Fear (1961), Jane Appleby
• Playhouse 90 (TV) - Two episodes: "The Grey Nurse Said Nothing" (1959), Laura Mills; "Not the Glory" (1958), Lady Diane Goodfellow
• The Offshore Island (TV) (1959), Rachel Verney
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV) - One episode: "Sylvia" (1958), Sylvia Leeds Kent
• General Electric Theater (TV) - One episode: "Letters from Cairo" (1958), Cynthia Spence
• Climax! (TV) - One episode: Shadow of a Memory (1957), Jane Palmer
• Time Without Pity (1957), Honor Stanford
• The United States Steel Hour (TV) - One episode: "Edward My Son" (1955), Evelyn Holt
• The Alcoa Hour (TV) - One episode: "The Black Wings" (1955), Jane Cornish
• The Green Scarf (1954), Solange Vauthier
• BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (TV) - Two episodes: "Tovarich" (1954), Grand Duchess Tatiana Petrovna; "Her Royal Highness" (1952), Princess Louise
• The Sound Barrier (1952), Susan Garthwaite
• Madeleine (1950), Madeleine Smith
• The Passionate Friends (1949), Mary Justin
• So Evil My Love (1948), Olivia Harwood
• Daybreak (1948), Frankie
• The Paradine Case (1947), Gay Keane
• Gaiety George (1946), Kathryn Davis
• The Seventh Veil (1945), Francesca
• Perfect Strangers (1945), Elena
• Ships with Wings (1942), Kay Gordon
• Danny Boy (1941), Jane Kaye
• Poison Pen (1939), Ann Rider
• Tower of London (1939), Princess - uncredited
• Ann and Harold (TV) - unknown episodes, (1938), Ann Teviot
• The Old and the Young (TV) (1938)
• Black Magic (TV) (1938), Mary Chalfont
• South Riding (1938), Midge Carne
• The Squeaker (1937), Carol Stedman
• Action for Slander (1937), Ann Daviot
• Things to Come (1936), Mary Gordon
• The Return of Bulldog Drummond (1934), Phyllis Drummond
• The Water Gipsies (1932), Jane Bell
• The Ghost Train (1931), Peggy Murdock
• These Charming People (1931), Pamela Crawford
• Keepers of Youth (1931), Millicent

Radio appearances