Ann Harding

She had a daughter named Jane from this marriage who was born in 1928 and died in December 2005.

She married Werner Janssen, a symphony conductor, in 1937 and divorced him in 1962. She adopted Grace Kaye later.

Ann Harding was born Dorothy Walton Gatley at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio in Texas, United States, on August 7, 1902.

Her father was a career army officer named General George G. Gatley and her mother was Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ Crabb. She had an elder sister named Edith.

After settling down in East Orange, New Jersey, she attended the ‘East Orange High School’ and graduated from the same.

She studied drama at the ‘Baldwin School’ in Byrn Mawr, Pennsylvania for one year. While studying there, she acted in ‘Macbeth’ in the role of Macduff and Cornelia Otis Skinner played the role of Lady Macbeth.

Ann Harding started her career as a clerk for the ‘Metropolitan Life Insurance Company’ as she could not attend college due to financial difficulties. She also took up a script writer and a reader’s job at the ‘Famous Players Lasky’ film company.

Her first professional appearance was with the ‘Princeton Players’ in ‘Inheritors’.

She made her debut in Broadway in 1921 in the play ‘Like a King’.

Her first major success came with ‘Tarnish’ in 1923 which was a great hit.

During the 1920s she acted in 10 plays which included ‘Thoroughbreds’, ‘Stolen Fruit’, ‘A Woman Disputed’ and ‘Taming of the Shrew’.

Ann Harding was honored with two stars on the ‘Hollywood Walk of Fame’ for her contribution to motion pictures and on the ‘Hollywood Boulevard’ for her contribution to television.

She received an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Actress’ category for the film ‘Holiday’.