Anna Lee | |
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300px Anna Lee as Lila Quartermaine on General Hospital |
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Born | Joan Boniface Winnifrith 2 January 1913 Ightham, Kent, England |
Died | 14 May 2004 Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California |
(aged 91)
Years active | 1932–2002 |
Spouse | Robert Stevenson (1934–1944) (divorced) George Stafford (1944–1964) (divorced) Robert Nathan (1970–1985) (his death) |
Children | Five in total, including Venetia Stevenson (by Stevenson) Jeffrey Byron (by Stafford) |
Awards |
1983—Soapy Awards for Favorite Woman in a Mature Role in General Hospital |
Anna Lee, MBE (born Joan Boniface Winnifrith, 2 January 1913 – 14 May 2004) was an English actress.
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Lee studied at the Royal Albert Hall, then debuted with a bit part in the film His Lordship (1932). When she and her first husband, director Robert Stevenson, moved to Hollywood she became associated with John Ford, appearing in several of his films, notably How Green Was My Valley, Two Rode Together and Fort Apache. She worked for producer in the horror/thriller Bedlam (1946) and had a lead role opposite Brian Donlevy and Walter Brennan in Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die! (1943), a wartime thriller about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.
Lee made frequent appearances on television anthology series in the 1940s and 1950s, including Robert Montgomery Presents, The Ford Theatre Hour, Kraft Television Theatre, Armstrong Circle Theatre and Wagon Train.
She had a small, but memorable, role as Sister Margaretta in The Sound of Music. Sister Margaretta was a supporter of Maria in the abbey and was one of the two nuns who thwarted the Nazis by removing car engine parts, allowing the Von Trapps to escape. Lee also appeared in the 1962 classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? as next-door neighbour Mrs. Bates alongside Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. In 1994, she took the leading role of the feature film What Can I Do?, directed by Wheeler Winston Dixon.
In later years, she became known to a new generation as the matriarch Lila Quartermaine in General Hospital and Port Charles until her sacking in 2003, which was widely protested in the soap world and among General Hospital actors.[1] According to fellow GH actress Leslie Charleson, Lee was promised a job for life by former GH executive producer Wendy Riche; when Riche left the show, the new management fired Lee. Charleson said in 2007, "The woman was in her 90s. And then when the new powers-that-be took over they fired her, and it broke her heart. It was not necessary."[1]
One of her sons attested that the firing sapped Lee's will to live. She died not long afterwards of pneumonia. Lee was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
Anna Lee was born in Ightham, Kent, England, the daughter of a clergyman who encouraged her desire to act.
She married her first husband, the director Robert Stevenson, in 1934 and moved to Hollywood in 1939. They had two daughters, Venetia and Caroline. Venetia Stevenson, an actress as well, was married to Don Everly of the Everly Brothers and has three children, Edan Everly, Erin Everly and Stacy Everly. Lee and Stevenson divorced in March 1944 with both daughters staying with their father.
Lee met her second husband, George Stafford, as the pilot of the plane on her USO tour during World War II. They married on 8 June 1944 and had three sons, John, Stephen and Tim Stafford.[2] Tim is an actor better known by his stage name of Jeffrey Byron. Lee and Stafford divorced in 1964.
Lee's final marriage was to novelist Robert Nathan (The Bishop's Wife, Portrait of Jennie), on 5 April 1970, and to whom she was married until his death in 1985.
Lee was the goddaughter of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and lifelong friend of his daughter, Dame Jean Conan Doyle. Her brother Sir John Winnifrith was a senior British civil servant who became permanent secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture.
In the 1930s, Lee occupied a house at 49 Bankside in London; she was later interviewed by writer Gillian Tindall for a book written about the address, The House by the Thames, released in 2006. Since first built in 1710, the house had served as a home for coal merchants, an office, a boarding-house, a hangout for derelicts and finally once again a private residence in the 1900s. The house is listed in tour guides as a famous residence and has been variously claimed as possibly being home to Christopher Wren during the construction of St. Paul's Cathedral, and previously claimed residents included Catherine of Aragon and William Shakespeare.[3]
On 21 May 2004 she was posthumously awarded a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award; she was scheduled to receive the award for months, but died before she could receive it. Lee's son attended to accept the award on her behalf.
On 16 July 2004 General Hospital aired a tribute to Lee by holding a memorial service for Lila Quartermaine.
Anna Lee is a British television series produced by Brian Eastman and Carnival Films for London Weekend Television. Following a 1993 pilot, five two-hour programmes were produced in 1994, loosely based on the detective novels of Liza Cody. These were broadcast in the U.S. on the A&E cable network. The title role was played by Imogen Stubbs. Music was by Anne Dudley with theme song "Sister, Sister" and some additional songs by Luciana Caporaso (who appeared in the final episode). Considerable alterations were made from the original books so that sometimes they seem to share only their titles.
Anna Lee is an actress.
Anna Lee may also refer to:
George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues and has influenced guitarists including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, John Mayer and Stevie Ray Vaughan. In the 1960s, Guy played with Muddy Waters as a house guitarist at Chess Records and began a musical partnership with harmonica player Junior Wells.
Guy was ranked 30th in Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. His song "Stone Crazy" was ranked 78th in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. Clapton once described him as "the best guitar player alive".
Guy's autobiography, When I Left Home: My Story, was published in 2012.
Guy was born and raised in Lettsworth, Louisiana, United States. Guy began learning guitar on a two-string diddley bow he made. Later he was given a Harmony acoustic guitar, which, decades later in Guy's lengthy career was donated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Oh, there's no one there for me
Since my baby's love had been done with
All I do is think of you
I sit and cry, oh and I sing the blues
I sit and cry, and I sing the blues
Oh, there's no one to call me sweet names
And my heart, and my heart is filled with pain
Lord I don't know, I don't know what to do
I sit and cry and I sing the blues
I sit and cry and I sing the blues
Blues all in my bloodstream
Blues all in my home
Blues all in my soul
I got blues all in my bones
Oh no one to depend on
Since my baby, since my baby's love had been gone
Broken hearted and lonesome too
I sit and cry and I sing the blues
I sit and cry oh and I sing the blues
I sit and cry
I sit and I cry
I sit and I cry
I cry
I cry, cry, cry, cry, cry, oh
And I sing on, I sing on, I sing on the blues
Oh, I sing on, I sing on