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.