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Quick Facts
![Anne Revere](https://pplstatic.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.comhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/The-Children%27s-Hour-1935-1.jpg)
Biography
Anne Revere (June 25, 1903 – December 18, 1990) was an American stage, film, and television actress.
Early life
Born in New York City, Revere was a direct descendant of Boston silversmith and American Revolution hero Paul Revere. Her father, Clinton, was a stockbroker, and she was raised on the Upper West Side and in Westfield, New Jersey. In 1926, she graduated from Wellesley College. Despite her unsuccessful attempts to join dramatic groups in high school and (initially) in college, she eventually was successful at Wellesley and studied dramatics there. She went on to enroll at the American Laboratory School to study acting with Maria Ouspenskaya and Richard Boleslavsky.
Career
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/The-Children%27s-Hour-1935-1.jpg/260px-The-Children%27s-Hour-1935-1.jpg)
Revere made her Broadway debut in 1931 in The Great Barrington. Three years later, she went to Hollywood to reprise her stage role in the film adaptation of Double Door. She returned to Broadway to create the role of Martha Dobie in the original 1934 production of The Children's Hour, and in later years she appeared on the New York stage in As You Like It, The Three Sisters, and Toys in the Attic, for which she won the 1960 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play.
Revere worked steadily as a character actress in films, appearing in nearly three dozen between 1934 and 1951. She frequently was cast in the role of a matriarch and played mother to Elizabeth Taylor, Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, John Garfield, and Montgomery Clift, among others. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress three times and won for her performance in National Velvet. Additional screen credits included The Song of Bernadette, Gentleman's Agreement, The Keys of the Kingdom, Body and Soul, and A Place in the Sun.
In 1951, Revere resigned from the board of the Screen Actors Guild. At the time she was an active member of the American Communist Party. She later pleaded the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. She would not appear again on film for the next 20 years, finally returning to the screen in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon.
She began appearing on television in 1960, notably in soap operas such as A Flame in the Wind, The Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow, and Ryan's Hope.
Revere and her husband, theatre director Samuel Rosen, moved to New York and opened an acting school, and she continued to work in summer stock and regional theater productions and on television.
Illness and death
Revere died of pneumonia in her Locust Valley, New York, home at the age of 87. She was survived by one sister.
Filmography
Year | Film | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1934 | Double Door | Caroline Van Brett | |
1940 | The Howards of Virginia | Mrs. Betsy Norton | |
One Crowded Night | Mae Andrews | ||
1941 | Remember the Day | Miss Nadine Price | |
The Flame of New Orleans | Giraud's Sister | ||
Men of Boys Town | Mrs. Fenely | ||
The Devil Commands | Mrs. Walters | ||
1942 | The Gay Sisters | Miss Ida Orner | |
Are Husbands Necessary? | Anna | ||
Meet the Stewarts | Geraldine Stewart | ||
1943 | The Song of Bernadette | Louise Soubirous | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
Old Acquaintance | Belle Carter | ||
Shantytown | Mrs. Gorty | ||
The Meanest Man in the World | Kitty Crockett, Clark's Secretary | ||
1944 | The Keys of the Kingdom | Agnes Fiske | |
National Velvet | Mrs. Brown | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress | |
Sunday Dinner for a Soldier | Agatha Butterfield | ||
Rainbow Island | Queen Okalana | ||
Standing Room Only | Major Harriet Cromwell | ||
The Thin Man Goes Home | Crazy Mary | ||
1945 | Fallen Angel | Clara Mills | |
Don Juan Quilligan | Mrs. Cora Rostigaff | ||
1946 | Dragonwyck | Abigail Wells | |
1947 | Gentleman's Agreement | Mrs. Green | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
Forever Amber | Mother Red Cap | ||
Body and Soul | Anna Davis | ||
Carnival in Costa Rica | Mama Elsa Molina | ||
The Shocking Miss Pilgrim | Alice Pritchard | ||
1948 | Deep Waters | Mary McKay | |
Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! | Judith Dominy | ||
Secret Beyond the Door | Caroline Lamphere | ||
1949 | You're My Everything | Aunt Jane | |
1951 | A Place in the Sun | Hannah Eastman | |
The Great Missouri Raid | Mrs. Samuels | ||
1970 | Macho Callahan | Crystal | |
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon | Miss Farber | ||
1976 | Birch Interval | Mrs. Tanner |