Ann Doran

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Ann Doran
Born	Ann Lee Doran July 28, 1911(1911-07-28) Amarillo, Texas, U.S.
Died	September 19, 2000 (aged 89) Carmichael, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1922–1988

Ann Lee Doran (July 28, 1911 – September 19, 2000) was an American character actress.

Early life and career

Born in Amarillo, Texas, Doran began acting at the age of four. She appeared in hundreds of silent films under assumed names to keep her father's family from finding out about her work. Rarely in a featured role (with the exceptions of Jean Andrews in Rio Grande (1938) and James Dean's dominating mother in Rebel Without a Cause (1955)), Doran appeared in more than five hundred motion pictures and on thousand episodes of television shows, including the American Civil War drama Gray Ghost.

Doran worked as a stand-in, then bit player, then incidental supporting player. By 1938 she was under contract to Columbia Pictures, where the company policy was to use the members of its stock company as often as possible. Thus, Doran appears in Columbia's serials (like The Spider's Web and Flying G-Men), short subjects (including those of The Three Stooges, Charley Chase, Andy Clyde, and Harry Langdon), B features (including the Blondie, Five Little Peppers, and Ellery Queen series), and major feature films. She became a favorite of Columbia director Frank Capra, and appears in many of his productions. Most of these appearances were supporting roles, although she did play leads in Columbia's Charley Chase comedies of 1938-40.

Doran (far right) takes the dignified approach as Curly Howard proceeds to shave a cream pie off her face in the Three Stooges film Three Sappy People.

When Columbia launched the boy-and-his-dog Rusty series in 1945, Doran was cast and prominently featured. Although the actor playing the boy's father changed several times, Doran continued constant as the boy's mother. Her steady, sensible maternal roles led to her being cast as James Dean's mother in Rebel Without a Cause. She guest starred in the CBS children's western My Friend Flicka, the story of a boy and his horse on a Wyoming ranch. She also guest starred in Ray Milland's CBS sitcom Meet Mr. McNutley. In 1960, she was cast as Martha Brown, the mother of horse rider Velvet Brown (played by Lori Martin) in the NBC family drama National Velvet.

Doran in her later years.

Three years later, she appeared in the 1965-1966 season as Zerelda James Samuel, the mother of Jesse and Frank James in the 34-episode ABC western series The Legend of Jesse James.

Later years and death

Doran continued to work in movies and television until shortly before her death of natural causes at the age of eighty-nine. She bequeathed $400,000 to the Motion Picture Country House, the retirement home for the movie industry.

Selected filmography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ann Doran

• Ann Doran at the Internet Movie Database
• Ann Doran at the TCM Movie Database
• Ann Doran at TV.com
• All Time Rebel {1955-2005 | 50th Anniversary} (Archived 2009-10-25)
• Ann Doran at Find a Grave