Ann Blyth, Oscar-nominated actress who played Joan Crawford's 'daughter from hell' in Mildred Pierce, dies at 98

Ann Blyth, one of the last surviving luminaries of Hollywood's Golden Age, died on Wednesday at age 98. Her family confirmed the death in a statement, saying she passed peacefully from natural causes, just two months shy of her 99th birthday.

Born Ann Marie Blyth in Mount Kisco, New York (sources place her birth year as either 1927 or 1928), she began performing on children's radio shows at age five and made her Broadway debut in Lillian Hellman's anti-Nazi play 'Watch on the Rhine' in 1941. A touring stop in Los Angeles caught the attention of Universal Studios, which signed her to a contract.

Breakout role in 'Mildred Pierce'

Blyth was 16 when she delivered a tour de force as Veda Pierce, the scheming, status-obsessed daughter of Joan Crawford's title character in Michael Curtiz's 'Mildred Pierce.' The film noir melodrama earned six Academy Award nominations in all, including Best Picture. Crawford won Best Actress (her only career Oscar), and both Blyth and co-star Eve Arden were nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

“He had a great confidence in me, which in turn helped me.”

The actress later recalled that Crawford personally did a screen test with her, a rare gesture from a star of that stature.

“I was the lucky one because Joan Crawford did the test with me, and it made a world of difference.”

Film historian Alan Rode described Blyth's performance as the spine of the movie.

“She just blew everybody away. It's certainly Joan Crawford's movie, but she is really the spine of the movie. She is the epitome of the film noir daughter from hell. It's just an amazing performance that stands the test of time.”

A versatile career cut short by accident

Blyth's momentum was temporarily derailed when she suffered a broken back in a toboggan accident shortly after filming wrapped. She returned to screens in 1947 as Burt Lancaster's wife in Jules Dassin's prison drama 'Brute Force.' Over the next decade she moved easily between genres: the comedic 'Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid' with William Powell (1948), the epic 'The Golden Horde' (1951), the seafaring romance 'The World in His Arms' opposite Gregory Peck (1952), and the war drama 'One Minute to Zero' with Robert Mitchum (1952).

Her trained soprano voice made her a natural fit for musicals. She starred as Enrico Caruso's wife in 'The Great Caruso' (1951) alongside Mario Lanza, singing 'The Loveliest Night of the Year.' Other musical highlights included 'The Student Prince' (1954), 'Rose Marie' (1954), and 'Kismet' (1955), the latter directed by Vincente Minnelli.

Final films and retirement

Blyth's last major film role came in 1957 when she reunited with Michael Curtiz for 'The Helen Morgan Story,' playing the troubled torch singer (though the studio had another soprano dub her singing). After appearing in more than 30 films between 1944 and 1957, she gradually stepped away from the cinema. She made occasional television appearances in the 1970s and 1980s, including episodes of 'The Twilight Zone' and 'Murder, She Wrote,' with her final screen credit in a 1985 'Murder, She Wrote' episode.

Blyth is survived by her five children with her late husband, Dr. James McNulty, who died in 2007, as well as 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. With her passing, the curtain falls on the last living Academy Award nominee from the 1940s competitive categories.