Actress From Hollywood’s Golden Age Dies: Ann Blyth Was 98

Ann Blyth, an Academy Award nominee, has died. She was 98. 

Per ABC News, Blyth’s daughter, Eileen McNulty, confirmed that her mother died last week of “natural causes.” She passed at her home in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Her family was by her side at the time of her death.

The actress was two months shy of her 99^th birthday.

A New York native, Blyth was acting on Broadway as a teenager in 1941 when Universal Studios offered her a contract. 

Hollywood came next. Blyth’s performance as Veda Pierce in the 1945 film, Mildred Pierce, earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She was just 16 at the time. Another actress from the film, Eve Arden, was also nominated in the same category. The award was won by Anne Revere for her role in National Velvet. Blyth made her film debut one year prior in Chip Off the Old Block, a teen musical.

Her film roles included Brute Force, A Woman’s Vengeance, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, and Top o’ the Morning, amongst other roles. Away from the big screen, Blyth had television success, making appearances in The Twilight Zone, Quincy, M.E., Murder, She Wrote and more.

In the late 1950s, Blythe made the decision to mostly move away from her movie career in an effort to spend more time with her husband James McNulty, and their five children. Her last movie role was as Helen Morgan in 1957’s The Helen Morgan Story. Though she largely moved away from acting in films, she kept active not only television but also in touring musicals, including The King and I and The Sound of Music.

Following her Murder, She Wrote appearance in 1985, Blythe retired from acting. 

She was honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and received the Living Legacy Award from the Women’s International Center in 2003.