Ann Harding
Ann Harding (
August 7,
1901 -
September 1,
1981) was an American actress. Born
Dorothy Walton Gatley in
Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the daughter of a career army officer, she traveled often during her early life. The family finally settled in
New York, and young Dorothy attended
Bryn Mawr College. Following school, she got a job as a script reader, and began acting on
Broadway. In
1929 she made her film debut in
Paris Bound, opposite
Fredric March. In
1931 she was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actress for
Holiday.
Harding became stereotyped as the innocent young woman willing to sacrifice herself for others, and she eventually quit making movies when she married in 1937, although she was lured back in 1942 to make Eyes in the Night. In 1956 she again starred with March in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.