TV/Movie Actress Anna Lee (1913-2004)

LOS ANGELES (AP) - LOS ANGELES (AP) - Anna Lee, whose nearly 70-year acting career in movies and television spanned from her breakthrough role in “How Green Was My Valley” to an extended run on “General Hospital,” died Friday of pneumonia, her son said. She was 91. Paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident just a year after she began playing Lila Quartermaine in ABC’s “General Hospital,” Lee acted in a wheelchair for more than two decades until she left the soap last year, Byron said.

Born in Kent, England, Lee studied acting in London and was known as “the British bombshell” when touring with the London Repertory Theatre, her son said.
In the early 1930s she moved to California to work in Hollywood, and appeared in more than 60 films including “The Sound of Music” (1965), “Fort Apache” (1948) and “King Solomon’s Mines” (1937).

Nearing retirement age, Lee’s stint on ABC’s “General Hospital” rejuvenated her, Byron said. “That was really a great elixir for her. Without a doubt it gave her much more longevity later in life,” he said. Lee was married three times, first to Robert Stevenson, the director of films including “The Love Bug” and “Mary Poppins.” She was married to George Stafford for two decades and wed writer Robert Nathan in 1970. Nathan died in 1985.

Wow. She lived a good long time.

I remember her from “General Hospital” (when I used to watch it) and she always seemed so nice. I was always thrilled when I saw her in older movies too. Pretty cool.

It’s sad to hear of her passing.

Ahh. I picked up King Solomon’s Mines in a Best Buy discount bin a couple of years ago, IMDBed the cast after watching it and was delighted to see Ms. Lee was still alive.

It can’t have been a coincidence that her character’s name on General Hospital (and also Port Charles, apparently) was Quartermaine, can it?

Don’t forget her in “Bedlam” http://imdb.com/title/tt0038343/

One of the few times that studio-system Hollywood portrayed the 18th Century without turning it into a silly costumer (admittedly, although John Wilkes is a character and they didn’t show the orgies at the Kit Kat Club, it’s still grotesquely faithful to Hogarth)

In fact, the government censors in Great Britain found it so culturally offensive that it was banned there.

No obit in the NY or L.A. Times yet, she must have died after closing.