Ann Gillis

Acting

Born February 12, 1927, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Ann Gillis was born Alma Mabel Conner on February 12, 1927, in Little Rock, Arkansas. At age seven, she appeared in her first film, Men in White (1934), as an extra. During the next two years, she had uncredited appearances in six more films until she received her first major role in King of Hockey (1936). Warner Brothers Studios gave significant screen time to Gillis in this movie, in hopes that she would become another Shirley Temple. Although (like all child stars of the 1930s) she never achieved Temple's level of fame, for the next several years Gillis starred in many films, almost always playing a spoiled, bratty character. She had two rare sympathetic roles as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) and as the title character in Little Orphan Annie (1938). One scene in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer called for her to go into screaming hysterics when her character was trapped in a cave of bats, and Gillis delivered in a powerful performance that is probably the most memorable scene of her film career. As Gillis grew older, however, her career slowed down, and she left Hollywood in 1947. When she left Hollywood she married Paul Ziebold and had 2 sons. She then divorced, relocated to New York City and married Richard Fraser, a Scottish-born actor (they had a son born in 1958). During the 1950s and '60s, Gillis made sporadic television appearances, and in 1959, she hosted a national telecast presentation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Gillis and her husband moved to England in 1961, and they were living in London when they heard of a casting call for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) that called for an American actress living in the city. Gillis auditioned and got the role; it remains her final film to date. Ann moved to Belgium in 1972 where she met and married Belgian René Van Hulst (deceased 1999). She lived in Belgium from 1972 to 2014 and became a Belgian citizen, devoting much of her time to painting and music, she was an accomplished pianist and harpist. She moved to England, UK in December 2014 and passed away peacefully on 31/1/2018.

Filmography

• 19682001: A Space Odyssey — Poole's Mother
• Espionage — Nurse
• Man of the World — Susan Forrester
• The Saint — Beryl Carrington, Wilma
• Studio One
• 1947Big Town After Dark — Susan Peabody LaRue
• 1946Gay Blades — Helen Dowell (as Anne Gillis)
• 1946Janie Gets Married — Paula Rainey
• 1946Sweetheart of Sigma Chi — Sue
• 1946The Time of Their Lives — Nora O'Leary
• 1945The Cheaters — Angela Pidgeon
• 1944A Wave, a WAC and a Marine — Judy (as Anne Gillis)
• 1944In Society — Gloria Winthrop
• 1944Janie — Paula Rainey
• 1944Since You Went Away — Becky Anderson (uncredited)
• 1943Man from Music Mountain — Penny Winters
• 1943Stage Door Canteen — Ann Gillis
• 1942'Neath Brooklyn Bridge — Sylvia
• 1942Bambi — Adolescent Faline (voice) (uncredited)
• 1942Meet the Stewarts — Jane Goodwin
• 1942Tough as They Come — Frankie Taylor
• 1941Glamour Boy — Brenda Lee
• 1941Mr. Dynamite — Joey aka Abigail
• 1941Nice Girl? — Nancy Dana
• 1940All This, and Heaven Too — Emily Schuyler
• 1940Edison, the Man — Nancy Grey
• 1940Little Men — Nan
• 1940My Love Came Back — Valerie Malette
• 1939Beau Geste — Isobel Rivers (as a Child)
• 1939The Under-Pup — Letty Lou
• 1938Little Orphan Annie — Annie
• 1938Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus — Fluerette de Cava
• 1938The Adventures of Tom Sawyer — Becky Thatcher
• 1937Off to the Races — Winnie Mae
• 1937The Californian — Rosalia as a Child
• 1937You Can't Buy Luck — Peggy (uncredited)
• 1936King of Hockey — Peggy O'Rourke
• 1936Postal Inspector — Little Alice (uncredited)
• 1936The Great Ziegfeld — Mary Lou as a Child (uncredited)
• 1936The Singing Cowboy — Lou Ann Stevens
• 1936Under Your Spell — Gwendolyn (uncredited)