Anne Nagel (born Anna Marie Dolan; September 29, 1915 – July 6, 1966)[1] was an American actress. She played in adventures, mysteries, and comedies for 25 years. She also appeared in television series in the 1950s. One book described her as "one of Hollywood's true hard-luck gals".[2]
Early life
Born in Malden, Massachusetts,[note 1][3] Nagel was enrolled by her parents in Notre Dame Academy, with the expectation that she would become a nun.[2] Membership in the Shubert Theatre company turned her away from religious life.[2] In the meantime, Nagel's mother had divorced and re-married. When Nagel's new stepfather, Curtis Nagel, a Technicolor expert, was hired by Tiffany Pictures in Hollywood, he moved the family to California, where he employed his step-daughter in several experimental Technicolor shorts he had been asked to direct.[citation needed]
Career
In 1932 Nagel secured a bit part as a ballet girl in the Mack Sennett comedy feature Hypnotized, her "first documented feature credit".[2] She was one of 14 young women "launched on the trail of film stardom" August 6, 1935, when they each received a six-month contract with 20th Century Fox after spending 18 months in the company's training school. The contracts included a studio option for renewal for as long as seven years.[4] Nagel spent the next few years making uncredited appearances as a dancer or chorus girl.
In 1936, she signed with Warner Bros. and followed the usual path for young actresses under studio contract: incidental roles in major features, featured roles in minor features, and ingenue roles in westerns. She appeared in Here Comes Carter with Warner leading man Ross Alexander; they were married that year. A reviewer wrote "she was just one of those girls who has learned to croon for the microphone, and let the rest of the world go hang".
Warner did not pick up her option after one year, and she began freelancing. Most of her appearances in 1937 and 1938 were for Monogram Pictures, where she usually played leads.
From 1942 she worked mostly for the lower-budget independent companies: PRC, Monogram, Republic. She had two assignments with Columbia, the 1943 serial The Secret Code and the 1947 comedy feature Blondie's Holiday. By the late 1940s her roles were smaller and she often worked without screen credit. Nagel later worked on television in episodes of The Range Rider (1951) and Circus Boy (1957).
Radio
Vintage-radio buffs best know Anne Nagel as Britt Reid's confidante Lenore Case in The Green Hornet.[5] In 1943, she was the vocalist on the audience-participation musical quiz program Scramby Amby.[6]
Personal life and death
On September 17, 1936, Nagel married actor Ross Alexander,[7] who committed suicide in 1937 [note 2][2] when beset with heavy financial burdens he could not resolve.
Four years later, Nagel married Air Force Lt. Col. James H. Keenan on December 4, 1941.[8] The marriage ended in divorce on May 22, 1951.[9]
In December 1947, Nagel filed a lawsuit in Superior Court against Hollywood physician and surgeon Franklyn Thorpe (former husband of actress Mary Astor). In the suit, Nagel demanded $350,000 in damages and alleged that, while performing an appendectomy on her in 1936, Thorpe had removed other organs without her knowledge or consent, rendering her infertile. [10][2]: 21 Nagel claimed she was unaware of her infertility until January 1947, but Thorpe countered that she was "well aware of the nature of the surgery".[2]: 21
Nagel died at Sunray North Convalescent Hospital in Hollywood, California in 1966, aged 50, following surgery for liver cancer. She is buried, with no marker, in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.[2]: 22–23
^An Associated Press story about Nagel's filing papers to marry Keenan states "The actress...listed her maiden name as Anna Marie Donan, born in Malden, a Boston suburb..."
^Alexander "... went into his Van Nuys barn and reportedly fired a rifle into his mouth as his bride of four months sat quietly knitting in the house".
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