1938. Ann Morriss is 19 years old and apparently being groomed for a career as a serious actress according to a piece in the April 1940 issue of Photoplay magazine:
The day Ann Morriss, whom you’ll see shortly in “Broadway Melody of 1940,” stormed the gates of M-G-M, talent scout Bill Grady stated that while she was distinctive looking (she isn’t beautiful, thank heavens), as well as talented, she did need more dramatic experience. “Come back in a year,” he told her.
Less than a year later Ann was back knocking at the gates. So M-G-M opened the gates and in walked Ann and straight into the lead of “The Chaser” with Dennis O’Keefe. She went to the preview and no one paid her the slightest attention. But afterwards – well, everyone knew they had an actress on their hands and they’d better do something about it. They did. They put her into “Honolulu,” “Spring Madness,” “Society Lawyer” and “The Women.” They built up her small part in the new “Broadway Melody” to a goodish size, so you know they must think well of her.
The article goes on to reference her “nice serious face” and to describe her as a “lady”:
…with her soft quiet voice and her naturally dignified manner. She ignores double meaning wisecracks because, as she says, she doesn’t know what they mean anyway, and she’d blush too red if she did.
In spite of that, MGM just can’t help putting her on the same production line as its dolly-bird starlets, promoting her in this cheesecake shot captioned:
TEXAS BEAUTY…Lovely Ann Morriss, latest discovery at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who made her film debut opposite Dennis O’Keefe in “The Chaser.” Miss Morriss is a product of the Little Theater.
In December 1940, she will marry director Edwin L Marin, and the September 1941 issue of Modern Screen magazine will announce that she’s expecting a baby.
Her IMDb filmography lists 42 credits, many in TV series, her final appearance on screen being in 1960.
Photo by Laszlo Willinger.
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