Ann Savage

About Ann Savage

Who is it?: Actress, Soundtrack
Birth Day: February 19, 1921
Birth Place:  Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Died On: December 25, 2008(2008-12-25) (aged 87)\nHollywood, California, U.S.
Birth Sign: Pisces
Occupation: Actress
Years active: 1943-2007
Spouse(s): Clark Tennesen (m. 1939–1941) Cleland Huntington (m. 1944–1945) Bert D'Armand (m. 1943–1969) (his death)

Ann Savage Net Worth

Ann Savage was born on February 19, 1921 in  Columbia, South Carolina, United States, is Actress, Soundtrack. For one tough cookie who achieved major cult stardom with her hard-bitten blonde looks and "Perfect Vixen" tag, Ann Savage in real life was a lovely, spirited, gentle-looking lady. She may have peaked only briefly in 1940s Hollywood low-budgeters, but she made the most of it during that fairly short tenure. Out of the dozens of movies under her belt, one film part shot her to femme fatale infamy and, to this day, remains her biggest claim to fame. It took only four (some accounts say six) days to shoot, but Detour (1945) stands out as one of the best examples of surreal film noir, and the unforgettable dialogue and riveting teaming of Ann and sulky co-star Tom Neal are the primary reasons for its enduring fame.An only child, Ann was born Bernice Maxine Lyon in Columbia, South Carolina, on February 19, 1921. Her father was a US Army officer and the family traveled with him to his various duty stations, including Dallas and New Orleans, until settling in Jacksonville, Florida. He died when she was only four years old. Ann's mother, a jewelry buyer, took the two of them to Los Angeles before Ann was 10 years old. Appearing in local theater productions, the young girl trained at Max Reinhardt's acting school. The school's manager happened to be Bert D'Armand, who later became her agent. They married in 1945.She changed her name to "Ann Savage" before even stepping onto a sound stage and it was a workshop production of "Golden Boy" that led to her initially signing up at Columbia Pictures. The first glimpse of Ann came as an extra in MGM's The Great Waltz (1938) and she gradually earned on-camera experience in unbilled parts in such war-era movies as The More the Merrier (1943) and Murder in Times Square (1943). She rose to featured and co-star status in such lightweight Columbia films as Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943), Footlight Glamour (1943) and Saddles and Sagebrush (1943).Although Ann played devilish dames in The Unwritten Code (1944), Apology for Murder (1945) and The Last Crooked Mile (1946), it was venomous Vera, the blackmailing, tough-talking, cigarette-dangling, good-for-nothing who bullies hapless wanna-be tough-guy musician (Tom Neal) into her schemes in Detour (1945) that truly summed up her "bad girl" charisma. At the inducement of Columbia Pictures honcho Harry Cohn, Savage and Neal made four films together (the last being "Detour"). The other three were Klondike Kate (1943), Two-Man Submarine (1944) and The Unwritten Code (1944) (the two would reunite years later in a 1955 TV episode of the series Gang Busters (1952)).Ann was one of the more popular WWII pinups. After appearing in a photo layout in "Esquire" magazine in 1944 that was shot by renowned studio photographer George Hurrell Sr., she became a favorite with the troops, making numerous personal appearance tours at various military bases in order to raise war bonds. Freelancing after leaving Columbia, Ann appeared in a host of other second-string pictures, including One Exciting Night (1944), The Spider (1945), The Dark Horse (1946), Renegade Girl (1946), Jungle Flight (1947), Satan's Cradle (1949), Pygmy Island (1950) and Woman They Almost Lynched (1953), which would be her last film for over three decades. While she certainly demonstrated talent and range, she was unable to rise out of the "B" mold. This led her to look at TV for a time in the 1950s as a possible medium, guesting on such shows as The Ford Television Theatre (1952), City Detective (1953), Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1951), Death Valley Days (1952) and Fireside Theatre (1949).Ann semi-retired in the late 1950s and moved from Hollywood to Manhattan with husband Bert, who by now had traded his agent business for the financing and professional trading world. She occasionally appeared on local TV and in industrial films. The couple traveled extensively until his sudden death in 1969. A grief-stricken Ann returned to Hollywood to be near her mother, sharpened her legal secretarial skills by working as a docket clerk with Bert's attorneys in Los Angeles (Loeb & Loeb) and became an avid speed-rated pilot in her spare hours.Elsewhere the veteran actress continued to delight her fans with her appearances at "film noir" festivals, nostalgia conventions and special screenings of her work. Refusing to appear in exploitive material, Ann turned down much work. In later years she appeared very sporadically--in the movie Fire with Fire (1986) and an episode of Saved by the Bell (1989). Out of nowhere the resilient octogenarian was cast by Canadian director Guy Maddin, a film noir fan, to play a shrewish mother in the highly acclaimed My Winnipeg (2007), earning "bad girl" raves all over again.Named an "icon and legend" by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2005, Ann was applauded for her body of work by "Time" Magazine twice in 2007. She died at a Hollywood nursing home at age 87 on Christmas Day in 2008 following multiple stroke complications.
Ann Savage is a member of Actress

💰 Net worth: Under Review

Some Ann Savage images

Biography/Timeline

1939

Savage was "a popular World War II pin-up model, an Esquire centerfold shot by George Hurrell [and] a tireless barnstorming seller of War Bonds on two tours". She was briefly married to Clark Tennesen between 1939 and 1941, before marrying her agent (and the Max Reinhardt school manager) Burt (or Bert) D'Armand c. 1942–45. The two lived in New York from the late 1950s until his sudden death in 1969.

1943

Although Columbia typically groomed its girls in the mould of Rita Hayworth, Savage's look echoed Ann Sheridan, although her customary blonde locks were reddened for Footlight Glamour (1943) "so that the star, Penny Singleton, would be the only blonde on screen." She joined Joan Davis and Jinx Falkenberg in Two Senoritas from Chicago (1943), and starred (as a brunette) in the first of several outings with Tom Neal in Klondike Kate (1943).

1944

Although Savage and Neal did not see eye-to-eye (she found him "childlike") the duo would star together in Two Man Submarine and The Unwritten Code (both 1944), before their most famous film, the 1945 film noir Detour. Reminiscing in the 1980s about her career as a stalwart B movie Actress, Savage dismissed most of her roles as "mindless", saying: "The actresses were just scenery. The stories all revolved around the male actors; they really had the choice roles. All the actresses had to do was to look lovely, since the dialogue was ridiculous". Detour, she felt, was different. The two leads underwent role Reversal, with Savage's Vera blackmailing Neal's Al, in a style described by her manager Kent Adamson as "vicious and predatory… very sexually aggressive".

1950

Savage eventually started appearing in commercials and industry films before essentially withdrawing from acting in the mid-1950s.

1964

She attended 64th Street Grammar School, and Mount Vernon Junior High, and "first stepped on a soundstage at the age of 17" at MGM Studios, screen tested by Edgar Selwyn, "Ann spent time among the more famous Hollywood kids of the day like Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Freddie Bartholomew and Deanna Durbin." Her MGM-test did not work out, prompting her to "get her teeth capped" and "[a]cquir[e] theatre training at the Max Reinhardt workshop" on Sunset Boulevard. Reinhardt oversaw her name-change, and Bernice became Ann Savage. The Reinhardt school's manager, Bert D'Armand, would also become Savage's agent, and the two would later marry. Savage was offered a screen test by Fox, but she "decided not to turn up as she knew the studio already had a bevy of pretty blondes".

1979

After her husband's death, Savage returned to Los Angeles to be near her mother, and "took odd jobs to Finance flying lessons," becoming a licensed pilot in 1979. Her manager quoted her as saying that she "loved flying because it put her 'closer to God and Bert'." She also became "part-owner of a small tool company," and later "took a secretarial course" and became "a docket clerk receptionist and then a secretary at the law firm [Loeb & Loeb] in Los Angeles."

1980

When Detour entered the public domain, it was frequently syndicated on television channels, and released in numerous VHS incarnations. Gaining cult status and garnering critical acclaim as "arguably film noir's greatest low-budget feature", this exposure earned Savage a new, younger, following. From the 1980s, Savage also attended a number of film festivals, helping to bolster her personal status, and leading her to emerge once more as "a glamorous figure-about-Hollywood at film festivals and galas".

1983

In 1983, she attended a screening of Detour held as a tribute to Director Edgar Ulmer and met up there with Ulmer's widow, Shirley.

1986

Savage's exposure and the praise heaped on Detour led to her appearing in the 1986 film Fire with Fire and in a guest role on the television show Saved by the Bell.

2005

In 2005, Savage was elevated to the status of "icon and legend" by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2007, TIME magazine named Savage's role as Vera in Detour one of the "Top 10 Movie Villains", and Detour itself as one of the hundred best movies. In 2010, McFarland and Co. published Savage Detours: The Life and Work of Ann Savage, by Kent Adamson and Lisa Morton.

2007

In 2007, she "enjoyed a comeback", and rave reviews when Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin cast her as his mother in his "personal portrait of his hometown", My Winnipeg (2008). Maddin, according to Savage's manager, is a fan of Detour, while Savage's role in his film—"a part that had been tipped to bring her an Academy Award"—also "introduced her to a legion of new fans, including Steven Spielberg, John Travolta and Martin Scorsese". Maddin has stated that he cast Savage because she "would have scared the pants off Bette Davis". My Winnipeg was critically acclaimed and won prizes from both the Toronto Film Critics Association and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, as well as the Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival and a Genie Award nomination.

2008

Remaining blonde "throughout her eighties", and continuing to attend "film festivals and galas", Savage had a series of strokes and became a resident of the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in California. She died in her sleep on December 25, 2008, aged 87. Her cremated remains were interred with beloved husband D'Armand at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery (in Los Angeles, California). Her "personal and career memorabilia" will become part of the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin, alongside the archives of Robert De Niro, David Mamet, David O. Selznick and Gloria Swanson (among others).

2014

Savage instead made a screen test with Columbia Pictures — after playing Lorna in a Reinhardt acting showcase of Odet's Golden Boy" — and was offered a contract. Recalling Columbia mogul Harry Cohn as "a friendly Uncle type", Savage remembered Cohn being intimidated by acid-tongued Rosalind Russell. The two actresses featured together in What a Woman!, one of a dozen films with Savage to be released in 1943.