Ann Blyth

Anne Marie Blythe was born on 16 August 1927 in Mount Kisco, New York, to Harry Blythe and Annie Nan Lynch Blythe. After her father left, she, her sister Dorothy and their mother moved to an East 31st Street walk-up in New York City. She performed on children's radio from age five and joined the New York Children's Opera Company at nine. At 14 she appeared on Broadway as Babette in Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine (1941-42). A Los Angeles tour stop brought a Universal Studios contract. She shortened her stage name to Ann Blyth for films.

Blyth debuted in Chip Off the Old Block (1944) and other Universal teenage musicals before her loan-out as Veda in Mildred Pierce (1945), which brought an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. After recovering from a broken back suffered tobogganing, she worked in Brute Force, Killer McCoy, Another Part of the Forest, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid and The Great Caruso. She signed with MGM in December 1952 and starred in Rose Marie, The Student Prince, The King's Thief, Kismet and Slander, ending her film career with The Helen Morgan Story (1957). Later she toured in musical theatre and guest-starred on television, including The Twilight Zone and Murder, She Wrote (1985), her final screen credit. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6733 Hollywood Boulevard.

Blyth married Dr. James McNulty on 28 June 1953; singer Dennis Day, McNulty's brother, had introduced them. Bridesmaids included Joan Leslie, Jane Withers and Betty Lynn. The couple raised five children and later had ten grandchildren. McNulty died in La Jolla in 2007 at 89. Both Roman Catholics, they were named Lady and Knight of the Holy Sepulchre in 1973. Blyth largely stepped back from steady film work after marriage to raise her family while continuing selected stage, concert and television appearances.

Ann Blyth died of natural causes at her home in Rancho Santa Fe, California, on 24 June 2026, at the age of 98. Reports from The Hollywood Reporter, People, AP and Reuters confirmed the date and place. Coverage noted that she had been among the last surviving major stars of Golden Age Hollywood and the earliest surviving Academy Award nominee.

Blyth is remembered above all as Veda Pierce in Mildred Pierce, a teenage performance that still defines screen portrayals of filial cruelty. Studio musicals with Mario Lanza and MGM colleagues extended her range as a singing actress, while later theatre and television work kept her before audiences into the mid-1980s. Her Walk of Fame star and late-life tributes underscored a career that began on New York radio and Broadway and closed as a quiet emblem of classic Hollywood longevity.