Cathy O'Donnell
Cathy O'Donnell (born Ann Steely, July 6, 1923 in Siluria; died April 11, 1970 in Los Angeles, California) was an actor who appeared in The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben-Hur.
Ann was the daughter of Grady Steely, a school teacher who also owned a cinema in town. They moved to Greensboro when she was 7, and from there to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma when she was 12.
She attended Harding Junior High School and Classen High School there, then took a job at a U.S. Army induction center as a stenographer. She left to study acting at Oklahoma City University, starring in a production of "Romeo and Juliet". She saved money and made a two-week trip to Hollywood in hopes of landing a movie career. An agent working for Samuel Goldwyn came across her at a drug store and brought her in for a screen test. Goldwyn offered her a contract, assigning her to a speech tutor to minimize her southern accent and to local theaters to gain experience. She was part of a Pasadena Playhouse production of "Little Women". At the suggestion of Goldwyn's wife, she changed her name to Cathy O'Donnell.
Career
O'Donnell appeared on stage in Boston in Life with Father in 1944, and made her film début in an uncredited role as an extra in Wonder Man (1945).
O'Donnell's first major film role was in 1946's highly acclaimed The Best Years of Our Lives, playing Wilma Cameron, the high-school sweetheart of Navy veteran Homer Parrish. Homer was played by real-life World War II veteran and double amputee Harold Russell.
O'Donnell was loaned to RKO for They Live by Night (1948), one of her more memorable films. Farley Granger played her love interest. The film is widely considered a classic of the film noir genre, and is on The GuardianTemplate:'s list of the top 10 noir films. The two actors were later re-teamed for Side Street (1950).
Later O'Donnell starred in The Miniver Story (also 1950), as Judy Miniver and had a supporting role in Detective Story (1951). She appeared as Barbara Waggoman, the love interest of James Stewart's character in the western The Man from Laramie (1955). Her final film role, and perhaps her most famous part, was in Ben-Hur (1959). She played the part of Tirzah, the sister to Judah Ben-Hur.
In the 1960s, she appeared in TV shows, appearing on shows such as Perry Mason, The Rebel and Man Without a Gun. Her last screen appearance was in 1964 in an episode of Bonanza.
Personal life and death
Then 24-year-old O'Donnell married 47-year-old Robert Wyler, the elder brother of film director William Wyler, on April 11, 1948. She had met her husband two years earlier while being directed by his brother in The Best Years of Our Lives. He also directed her in Detective Story (co-written by Robert Wyler) and Ben-Hur. She died on her 22nd wedding anniversary, April 11, 1970, of a cancer-related cerebral hemorrhage following a long illness.<ref name=Slice/> Her husband died nine months later. The couple had no children. She is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California.
Filmography
Films
| Year | Film | Director | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | Wonder Man | H. Bruce Humberstone | Nightclub Extra | Uncredited |
| 1946 | The Best Years of Our Lives | William Wyler | Wilma Cameron | |
| 1947 | Bury Me Dead | Bernard Vorhaus | Rusty | |
| 1948 | The Amazing Mr. X | Bernard Vorhaus | Janet Burke | |
| 1948 | They Live by Night | Nicholas Ray | Catherine "Keechie" Mobley | |
| 1950 | Side Street | Anthony Mann | Ellen Norson | |
| 1950 | The Miniver Story | H.C. Potter | Judy Miniver | |
| 1951 | Never Trust a Gambler | Ralph Murphy | Virginia Merrill | |
| 1951 | Detective Story | William Wyler | Susan Carmichael | |
| 1952 | The Woman's Angle | Leslie Arliss | Nina Van Rhyne | |
| 1954 | Eight O'Clock Walk | Lance Comfort | Jill Manning | |
| 1954 | Loves of Three Queens | Edgar G. Ulmer | Enone | segment "The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships" |
| 1955 | Mad at the World | Harry Essex | Anne Bennett | |
| 1955 | The Man from Laramie | Anthony Mann | Barbara Waggoman | |
| 1957 | The Deerslayer | Kurt Neumann | Judith Hutter | |
| 1957 | The Story of Mankind | Irwin Allen | Early Christian Woman | |
| 1958 | My World Dies Screaming | Harold Daniels | Sheila Wayne Tierney | retitled Terror in the Haunted House |
| 1959 | Ben-Hur | William Wyler | Tirzah |
Television
| Year | Show | Episode | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Lights Out | To See Ourselves | ||
| 1952 | Orient Express | 13th Spy | Francine Gilman | |
| 1954 | The Philip Morris Playhouse | Up for Parole | ||
| 1954 | Center Stage | Chivalry at Howling Creek | ||
| 1955 | The Best of Broadway | The Best of Broadway | Amy Fisher | |
| 1955 | Climax! | Flight 951 | Mona Herbert | |
| 1956 | Matinee Theater | Greybeards and Witches | Velna | |
| 1958 | Zane Grey Theater | Sundown at Bitter Creek | Jennie Parsons | |
| 1958 | The Californians | Skeleton in the Closet | Grace Adams | |
| 1959 | Man Without a Gun | Accused | ||
| 1960 | The Detectives | The Trap | Laurie Dolan | |
| 1960 | The Rebel | You Steal My Eyes | Prudence Gant | |
| 1960 | Tate | Quiet After the Storm | Amy | |
| 1960 | The Rebel | The Hope Chest | Felicity Bowman | |
| 1961 | Perry Mason | The Case of the Fickle Fortune | Norma Brooks | |
| 1961 | Sugarfoot | Angel | Angel | |
| 1964 | Bonanza | The Lila Conrad Story | Sarah Knowles |
References
- "Cathy O'Donnell" (July 5, 2021) Wikipedia - accessed July 6, 2021
External links
- Cathy O'Donnell at IMDB.com
- Cathy O'Donnell] at Findagrave.com