Ann Sheridan (February 21, 1915 – January 21, 1967) was an American actress famous during The Golden Age of Hollywood. She also had the distinction of being a red-headed pin-up girl among the likes of Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable.
Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas, she first came to Hollywood at the young age of 18 after winning a beauty contest. Paramount was the studio that discovered her, but after a year and more than two dozen films they still hadn't managed to put her to any good use despite all her talent, sex appeal, glamour, and star qualities. Ann signed with Warner Bros. in 1936, and her Star-Making Role came two years later in Angels with Dirty Faces, opposite James Cagney. She became known as Warner's "Oomph Girl", an appellation which she purportedly detested.
She excelled in drama, had great timing for comedy, and was adept at anything the studio threw at her. Yet all her sex appeal and winning qualities didn't make her a bonafide star, as Warner's never quite knew how to brand her: Was she the girl-next-door? The sexpot? The sarcastic chick a la Joan Blondell? It didn't help that Ann was also picky when it came to her parts and would be constantly suspended by Warner's for refusing projects she didn't like.
As she aged through the late 1940s and '50s, Hollywood was no longer calling, so she moved to the stage and television. In the latter, she made guest appearances in such series as Wagon Train and Another World and starred in the 1966–67 Western-themed sitcom Pistols 'n' Petticoats.
Sheridan was married three times and had no children. She died from esophageal cancer in 1967, at the startlingly young age of 51.
Ann Sheridan on TV Tropes:
- Murder at the Vanities (1934) as Lou (extra)
- The Glass Key (1935) as Nurse
- Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) as Laury Ferguson
- Dodge City (1939) as Ruby Gilman
- They Made Me a Criminal (1939) as Goldie West
- They Drive by Night (1940) as Cassie Hartley
- Kings Row (1942) as Randy Monaghan
- The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) as Lorraine Sheldon
- George Washington Slept Here (1942) as Connie Fuller
- Edge of Darkness (1943) as Karen Stensgard
- Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) as Herself
- One More Tomorrow (1946) as Christie Sage
- Silver River (1948) as Georgia Moore
- I Was a Male War Bride (1949) as 1st Lt. Catherine Gates
- Woman on the Run (1950) as Eleanor Johnson
- Playhouse 90 (1 episode, 1957) as Kathy
- Wagon Train (1 episode, 1962) as Mavis Grant
- Another World (2 episodes 1965–66) as Katherine Corning
