1927-02-12 ( 98 years old ) in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
Ann Gillis was born Alma Mabel Conner on February 12, 1927, in Little Rock, Arkansas. At age seven, she appeared in her first film, Men in White (1934), as an extra. During the next two years, she had uncredited appearances in six more films until she received her first major role in King of Hockey (1936). Warner Brothers Studios gave significant screen time to Gillis in this movie, in hopes that she would become another Shirley Temple. Although (like all child stars of the 1930s) she never achieved Temple's level of fame, for the next several years Gillis starred in many films, almost always playing a spoiled, bratty character. She had two rare sympathetic roles as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) and as the title character in Little Orphan Annie (1938). One scene in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer called for her to go into screaming hysterics when her character was trapped in a cave of bats, and Gillis delivered in a powerful performance that is probably the most memorable scene of her film career. As Gillis grew older, however, her career slowed down, and she left Hollywood in 1947. When she left Hollywood she married Paul Ziebold and had 2 sons. She then divorced, relocated to New York City and married Richard Fraser, a Scottish-born actor (they had a son born in 1958). During the 1950s and '60s, Gillis made sporadic television appearances, and in 1959, she hosted a national telecast presentation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Gillis and her husband moved to England in 1961, and they were living in London when they heard of a casting call for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) that called for an American actress living in the city. Gillis auditioned and got the role; it remains her final film to date. Ann moved to Belgium in 1972 where she met and married Belgian René Van Hulst (deceased 1999). She lived in Belgium from 1972 to 2014 and became a Belgian citizen, devoting much of her time to painting and music, she was an accomplished pianist and harpist. She moved to England, UK in December 2014 and passed away peacefully on 31/1/2018.
Movies
2001: A Space Odyssey
1968-04-02
Big Town After Dark
1947-12-12
Sweetheart of Sigma Chi
1946-11-16
The Time of Their Lives
1946-08-13
Janie Gets Married
1946-06-22
Gay Blades
1946-01-25
The Cheaters
1945-07-15
A Wave, a WAC and a Marine
1944-10-07
Janie
1944-09-02
In Society
1944-08-16
Since You Went Away
1944-06-30
Man from Music Mountain
1943-10-30
Stage Door Canteen
1943-06-24
'Neath Brooklyn Bridge
1942-11-20
Bambi
1942-08-14
Tough as They Come
1942-06-05
Meet the Stewarts
1942-05-21
Glamour Boy
1941-12-05
Mr. Dynamite
1941-03-01
Nice Girl?
1941-02-21
Little Men
1940-11-29
My Love Came Back
1940-07-13
All This, and Heaven Too
1940-07-05
Edison, the Man
1940-05-10
The Under-Pup
1939-08-31
Beau Geste
1939-07-24
Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus
1938-12-02
Little Orphan Annie
1938-12-02
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1938-02-11
The Californian
1937-07-18
You Can't Buy Luck
1937-04-30
Off to the Races
1937-02-05
King of Hockey
1936-12-19
Under Your Spell
1936-11-06
Postal Inspector
1936-08-16
The Singing Cowboy
1936-05-11
The Great Ziegfeld
1936-04-08
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