Ann Gillis

Known for ActingBorn 1927-02-12Died 2018-01-31Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Ann Gillis was born Alma Mabel Conner on February 12, 1927, in Little Rock, Arkansas. At age seven, she appeared in her first film, Men in White (1934), as an extra. During the next two years, she had uncredited appearances in six more films until she received her first major role in King of Hockey (1936). Warner Brothers Studios gave significant screen time to Gillis in this movie, in hopes that she would become another Shirley Temple. Although (like all child stars of the 1930s) she never achieved Temple's level of fame, for the next several years Gillis starred in many films, almost always playing a spoiled, bratty character. She had two rare sympathetic roles as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) and as the title character in Little Orphan Annie (1938). One scene in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer called for her to go into screaming hysterics when her character was trapped in a cave of bats, and Gillis delivered in a powerful performance that is probably the most memorable scene of her film career. As Gillis grew older, however, her career slowed down, and she left Hollywood in 1947. When she left Hollywood she married Paul Ziebold and had 2 sons. She then divorced, relocated to New York City and married Richard Fraser, a Scottish-born actor (they had a son born in 1958). During the 1950s and '60s, Gillis made sporadic television appearances, and in 1959, she hosted a national telecast presentation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Gillis and her husband moved to England in 1961, and they were living in London when they heard of a casting call for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) that called for an American actress living in the city. Gillis auditioned and got the role; it remains her final film to date. Ann moved to Belgium in 1972 where she met and married Belgian René Van Hulst (deceased 1999). She lived in Belgium from 1972 to 2014 and became a Belgian citizen, devoting much of her time to painting and music, she was an accomplished pianist and harpist. She moved to England, UK in December 2014 and passed away peacefully on 31/1/2018.Read more

Movies & web series

Espionage

Off to the Races

Sweetheart of Sigma Chi

Tough as They Come

Mr. Dynamite

2001: A Space Odyssey

Gay Blades

Little Orphan Annie

The Saint

Man of the World

Janie Gets Married

A Wave, a WAC and a Marine

Under Your Spell

All This, and Heaven Too

The Time of Their Lives

Bambi

Beau Geste

The Under-Pup

The Californian

Postal Inspector

Edison, the Man

Since You Went Away

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Glamour Boy

'Neath Brooklyn Bridge

Stage Door Canteen

The Great Ziegfeld

Nice Girl?

The Cheaters

Janie

In Society

Big Town After Dark

Little Men

Meet the Stewarts

Studio One

Man from Music Mountain

Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus

King of Hockey

My Love Came Back

You Can't Buy Luck

The Singing Cowboy