Ann Doran

Ann Doran (July 28, 1911 – September 19, 2000) was an American character actress, who worked in more than 1500 motion pictures and television episodes. Today's audiences know her as Carol Stark, the mother of James "Jim" Stark (James Dean) in Rebel Without a Cause, and as a featured actress in short comedies with The Three Stooges and Charley Chase. She was an early member of the Screen Actors Guild and served on the board of the Motion Picture & Television Fund for 30 years.

Early years Ann Lee Doran was born in Amarillo, Texas to silent-film actress Rose Allen (born Carrie A. Barnett) and John R. Doran. She attended high school in San Bernardino, California.

Film career According to a 1979 interview, the actress made her debut at 11 years old. Seldom cast in leading roles, Doran appeared in more than 500 motion pictures and 1,000 episodes of television series, such as the American Civil War drama Gray Ghost.

Doran entered the field of motion pictures as a stand-in, then bit player, then incidental supporting player. In 1936 she was featured in two of the last feature films produced by independent studio Chesterfield Pictures, Missing Girls and Red Lights Ahead (the latter film a rare lead for Columbia Pictures' short-subject star Andy Clyde).

Columbia Pictures Red Lights Ahead led to a contract with Columbia, where Doran became a familiar face. Columbia's company policy was to use the members of its stock company as often as possible. Thus, Doran appears in Columbia's serials (such as The Spider's Web and Flying G-Men), 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 appeared in many of his productions, notably You Can't Take It With You, in which she leads a group of neighbors battling a tycoon who evicted them. Most of these appearances were supporting roles, although she had the ingenue lead in the Charles Starrett western Rio Grande (1938) and was featured in the Boris Karloff thriller The Man They Could Not Hang (1939).

She was most prominent in Columbia's two-reel comedies, which had smaller casts and accordingly gave supporting players more to do. She worked with The Three Stooges, Andy Clyde, Harry Langdon, Tom Kennedy, Walter Catlett. Roscoe Karns, Vera Vague, and especially Charley Chase. Her first appearance with Chase was as a gangster's moll in Time Out for Trouble (1938); Chase admired her comic timing and gave her ingenue leads in his subsequent shorts.

Freelance career Ann Doran's tenure at Columbia ended when Frank Capra angrily left the studio to make Meet John Doe (1941), and cast Doran as the wife of soda jerk-turned-John Doe Club activist Bert Hansen. Though her character speaks some of the film's most pivotal lines of dialogue, including an impassioned suicide-preventing plea in the final scene, her appearance in the film is uncredited. It is possible that Columbia studio chief Harry Cohn resented Ann Doran's following Capra, and dropped her from his contract roster.

Now away from Columbia, Ann Doran began freelancing and worked steadily for other companies. Her first freelance job after Columbia was for the low-budget Producers Releasing Corporation, where she had the ingenue lead in Criminals Within (1941). Never a glamour-girl ingenue, Doran always projected a sensible, down-to-earth quality that suited her plain-Jane looks, and she was always content to play supporting roles. "I'm happy in the leak light," she told the Los Angeles Times in 1981. With the spotlight on the star, "whatever leaked over the side, that's what I got." She continued to play character roles, large and small (including one as a Nazi agent in the 1942 Michael Shayne mystery Blue, White and Perfect).

When Columbia needed a comic actress to fill out a girls' baseball team in the Andy Clyde short Lovable Trouble (1941), Ann Doran got the call. This renewed her affiliation with the Columbia shorts department, where she was always welcome. She continued to work at Columbia off and on for the next several years, but never again under contract and always on a freelance basis.

Columbia filmed two boy-and-his-dog stories with juvenile star Ted Donaldson in 1945–46. When the Donaldson films became a full-fledged series (featuring the dog Rusty) in 1947, Doran was cast as Donaldson's mother in the next six films. Her maternal roles led to her being cast as James Dean's mother in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).

Television Doran played Charlotte McHenry, the housekeeper on Shirley, Agnes Haskell, Eddie Haskell's mother and, in a separate appearance, Mrs. Bellamy, in Leave It to Beaver and Mrs. Kingston, the housekeeper, on Longstreet.

Doran guest-starred on television programs including three appearances in the role of Bonnie Landis in Public Defender, starring with fellow Texan Reed Hadley. She appeared in the anthology series Crossroads in the 1956 episode "The White Carnation", along with Elinor Donahue, James Best and J. Carrol Naish. In 1952, she appeared in an episode of The Lone Ranger titled "Hidden Fortune".

Doran was cast in the children's Western series My Friend Flicka, the story of a boy and his horse on a ranch in Wyoming. She also appeared in episodes of Ray Milland's sitcom Meet Mr. McNutley and Kenneth Tobey's aviation adventure series Whirlybirds. Doran guest-starred on Perry Mason in "The Case of the Prodigal Parent" (1958), "The Case of the Lurid Letter" (1962) and "The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito" (1963) as well as in Rawhide in the episode "Incident of the Challenge".

Doran was cast twice in 1959–1960 in episodes of the series Colt .45, starring Wayde Preston. In 1960, she was cast as Martha Brown, the mother of horse rider Velvet Brown (Lori Martin) in the family drama National Velvet. She made one appearance on McHale's Navy as Mrs. Martha "Pumpkin" Binghamton, wife of Captain Binghamton (Joe Flynn). In 1963 Doran appeared as Minerva Lewis on The Virginian in the episode "Run Away Home." Doran was cast twice as Mrs. Elliott and Hugh Beaumont as Mr. Elliott, parents of Steve Elliott (Mike Minor), in Petticoat Junction.

Three years later, she appeared in the first episode of The Legend of Jesse James as Zerelda James Samuel, the mother of Jesse and Frank James.

Death Doran died at age 89 on September 19, 2000, at a senior-citizens complex in Carmichael, California. Following her death, her remains were cremated and scattered at sea.

Ann Doran was a tireless worker for the motion picture industry. In 1960 she became the recording secretary for the Screen Actors Guild, and in 1990 she received the guild's Ralph Morgan Award, named after one the organization's founders, for distinguished service. During her long career she saved most of her salaries, and she bequeathed $400,000 to the Motion Picture Country House, the industry's retirement home in Woodland Hills, California.

Filmography Films Year Title Role Notes 1922 Robin Hood Page to Richard Uncredited 1934 One Exciting Adventure Girl Servants' Entrance Marie, the Maid Uncredited 1935 Night Life of the Gods Girl in Pool Way Down East Rosie – Hired Girl Case of the Missing Man Dental Nurse Uncredited Bad Boy Telegraph Clerk Mary Burns, Fugitive Newspaper girl 1936 Dangerous Intrigue Floor Nurse Uncredited Ring Around the Moon Kay Duncan Lady of Secrets Reporter Uncredited The Little Red Schoolhouse Mary Burke Mr. Deeds Goes to Town Girl on Bus Uncredited Let's Sing Again Alice Alba Palm Springs Schoolgirl Uncredited Missing Girls Ann Jason Red Lights Ahead Mary Wallace 1937 The Devil's Playground Bit Part Uncredited When You're in Love Secretary The Go Getter Maizie – the Maid Girls Can Play Alice, Secretary Marry the Girl Marge, a Secretary It's All Yours Stewardess Uncredited Stella Dallas Minor Role I'll Take Romance Opera Cast Nothing Sacred Telephone Girl She Married an Artist Model Paid to Dance Rose Trevor Alternative title: Hard to Hold The Shadow Shaw Sister 1938 Little Miss Roughneck Girl Uncredited Penitentiary Blanche Williams Women in Prison Maggie Start Cheering Green's Secretary Uncredited Extortion Margie Blake Holiday Kitchen Maid Uncredited The Main Event Telegraph Clerk Highway Patrol Estelle City Streets Nurse Uncredited You Can't Take It with You Maggie O'Neill The Spider's Web Mason's Secretary Serial The Lady Objects Miss Hollins Blondie Elsie Hazlip Rio Grande Jean Andrews Lead role Smashing the Spy Ring Madelon Martin 1939 Homicide Bureau Nurse Uncredited Flying G-Men Hamilton's Secretary Serial My Son Is a Criminal Taxicab Company Secretary Uncredited Let Us Live Secretary Juror Romance of the Redwoods Blind Alley Agnes Good Girls Go to Paris Bridesmaid Uncredited Coast Guard Nurse The Man They Could Not Hang Betty Crawford A Woman Is the Judge Luella Uncredited Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Paine's Secretary Three Sappy People Countess Short, Uncredited 1940 The Green Hornet Josephine Weaver Allen Serial, [Ch. 3], Uncredited His Girl Friday Newspaper Office Worker Uncredited Five Little Peppers at Home Nurse Forgotten Girls Inmate Untamed 1st Nurse Manhattan Heartbeat Shop Girl's Friend Girls of the Road Jerry Glamour for Sale Myrtle Uncredited Her First Romance Student 1941 Murder Among Friends Dr. Turk's Nurse Uncredited Meet John Doe Bert Hansen's wife Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery Sheila Cobb Penny Serenade Dotty "Dot" Criminals Within Linda Dive Bomber Helen – Joe's Date Uncredited Sun Valley Serenade Waitress Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day Nurse at Party The Kid from Kansas Julie 'Smitty' Smith Sing Another Chorus Bronx Dame Uncredited Buy Me That Town Woman New York Town Demonstrator in Department Store 1942 Blue, White and Perfect Miss Hoffman Mr. Wise Guy Dorothy Melton Yankee Doodle Dandy Receptionist Uncredited They All Kissed the Bride Helene – the Drew's Maid Beyond the Blue Horizon Margaret Chase My Sister Eileen Receptionist Street of Chance Miss Peabody Smith of Minnesota Uncredited 1943 The Hard Way Dorshka Air Force Mrs. Mary Quincannon Slightly Dangerous Salesgirl The More the Merrier Miss Bilby So Proudly We Hail! Lt. Betty Peterson Gildersleeve on Broadway Matilda Brown Old Acquaintance Music Store Saleslady Uncredited True to Life Radio Kitty 1944 The Story of Dr. Wassell Praying Woman Mr. Skeffington Maria, a nursemaid Henry Aldrich's Little Secret Helen Martin I Love a Soldier Jenny Butler Here Come the Waves Ruth 1945 Roughly Speaking Alice Abbott Pride of the Marines Ella Mae Merchant Alternative title: Forever in Love 1946 The Strange Love of Martha Ivers Bobbi St. John Our Hearts Were Growing Up Monica Lonsdale Uncredited 1947 The Perfect Marriage Secretary Ellen My Favorite Brunette Miss Rogers Seven Were Saved Mrs. Rollin Hartley Fear in the Night Lil Herlihy For the Love of Rusty Ethel Mitchell The Crimson Key Paris Wood Second Chance Doris Greene The Son of Rusty Ethel Mitchell Variety Girl Hairdresser Uncredited Magic Town Mrs. Weaver Road to the Big House Agnes Clark 1948 Reaching from Heaven Martha Kestner The Return of the Whistler Sybil Barkley Uncredited My Dog Rusty Ethel Mitchell Hazard Nurse The Babe Ruth Story Reporter Uncredited The Walls of Jericho Gossip Pitfall Maggie Rusty Leads the Way Ethel Mitchell Sealed Verdict Ellie Blaine, Red Cross date The Snake Pit Valerie No Minor Vices Mrs. Faraday Uncredited He Walked by Night Dispatcher 1949 The Accused Miss Rice – Nurse Rusty Saves a Life Ethel Mitchell The Clay Pigeon Miss Collins – Naval Nurse Uncredited Big Jack Sarah Oakes The Fountainhead Wynand's Secretary One Last Fling Vera Thompson Air Hostess Virginia Barton Calamity Jane and Sam Bass Mrs. Lucy Egan The Kid from Cleveland Emily Barrows Novak Holiday in Havana Marge Henley Beyond the Forest Edith Williams Uncredited Rusty's Birthday Ethel Mitchell 1950 Riding High Nurse Uncredited No Sad Songs for Me Louise Spears Never a Dull Moment Jean Morrow Lonely Heart Bandits Nancy Crane The Jackpot Miss Alice Bowen Uncredited 1951 Gambling House Della Tomahawk Mrs. Carrington The Painted Hills Martha Blake Her First Romance Mrs. Foster The People Against O'Hara Betty Clark, Policewoman Starlift Mrs. Callan – Nurse Uncredited 1952 Here Come the Nelsons Clara Randolph Love Is Better Than Ever Mrs. Levoy Rodeo Mrs. Martha Durston Uncredited Paula Mrs. Smith, welfare worker The Rose Bowl Story Mrs. Addie Burke 1953 So This Is Love Mrs. James Moore Island in the Sky Moon's wife Uncredited The Eddie Cantor Story Lillian Edwards I Love Lucy Audience Member 1954 The High and the Mighty Mrs. Joseph Them! Child Psychiatrist Uncredited The Bob Mathias Story Mrs. Lillian Mathias 1955 The Desperate Hours Mrs. Walling Uncredited Rebel Without a Cause Carol Stark 1957 Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend Sarah Devlin The Man Who Turned to Stone Mrs. Ford Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend Sarah Devlin Uncredited Band of Angels Mrs. Morton Young and Dangerous Mrs. Clara Clinton Bombers B-52 Sylvia Slater Uncredited 1958 The Deep Six Elsie – Mike's Wife The Female Animal Nurse The Rawhide Trail Mrs. Cartwright Day of the Badman Martha Mordigan Violent Road Edith Miller Life Begins at 17 Virginia Peck Voice in the Mirror Mrs. Devlin It! The Terror from Beyond Space Mary Royce The Badlanders Stagecoach Passenger – Mother Uncredited Step Down to Terror Mrs. Duprez Joy Ride Grace 1959 Warlock Mrs. Richardson Uncredited Riot in Juvenile Prison Bess Monahan Cast a Long Shadow Charlotte Calvert The FBI Story Mrs. Ballard Uncredited A Summer Place Mrs. Talbert 1963 Captain Newman, M.D. Mrs. Pyser 1964 The Carpetbaggers Reporter The Brass Bottle Martha Kenton Where Love Has Gone Mrs. Geraghty Kitten with a Whip Mavis Varden 1965 Mirage Tenant in Apartment 3R Uncredited 1966 Not with My Wife, You Don't! Doris Parker 1967 The Hostage Miss Mabry Rosie! Old Lady 1968 Live a Little, Love a Little Landlady Uncredited 1969 Once You Kiss a Stranger Lee's Mother The Arrangement Nurse Costello Uncredited Topaz Mrs. Forsyth 1970 There Was a Crooked Man... Mrs. Lomax 1971 The Hired Hand Mrs. Sorenson 1976 The Gumball Rally Mrs. Ontley Flood! Emma Fisher TV movie 1981 All Night Long Grandmother Gibbons First Monday in October Storekeeper 1986 Wildcats Mrs. Chatham Alternative title: First and Goal

Television Year Title Role Notes 1952 Adventures of Superman Mrs. King 1 episode 1953 The Danny Thomas Show Teacher 1954 Ramar of the Jungle Irene Loring 1955 Brave Eagle Whispering Grass 1956 Father Knows Best Dorothy Tyler 1957 December Bride Miss Moore 1958 M Squad Mrs. Rainey Perry Mason Mrs. Claire Durrell in "The Case of the Prodigal Parent" Official Detective Charlotte Episode: "The Cover-Up"1959Frontier DoctorMa "Dallas" Bell1 episodeBourbon Street BeatMary Dumont1 episode, "The Tiger Moth"The Donna Reed ShowMrs Adams1 Episode: "The Report Card" 1960 General Electric Theater Tourist Episode: "Adam's Apples" Wagon Train Aunt Lizzie 1 episode 1960–1962 National Velvet Martha Brown 58 episodes 1963–1970 The Virginian Various 5 episodes 1965 McHale's Navy Mrs. Binghamton 1 episode 1966–1967 Hey, Landlord Marcy Banner 2 episodes 1967, season 5 Petticoat Junction Mrs. Elliott 1966–1968 Bonanza Lisa Stanley / Mrs. Walker 1968 The Guns of Will Sonnett Margaret Stover 1 episode 1970 The Bold Ones: The Lawyers Mrs. Grimbi Ironside Dora Copeland 1971–1972 Longstreet Mrs. Kingston 23 episodes 1972 The Odd Couple Loretta Spoon 1 episode 1973 Emergency! Mrs. Perigrew and Hannah 2 episodes Barnaby Jones Nurse Nora Randall 1 episode 1974 The Rookies Mrs. Coleman 1 episode Little House on the Prairie Mrs. Tyler 1 episode 1975 M*A*S*H Nurse Meg Cratty 1 episode 1977 Peter Lundy and the Medicine Hat Stallion Grandma Lundy TV movie 1978 Fantasy Island Emma Howard 1 episode 1979 Eight Is Enough Ms. Ryder 1 episode 1980 Shirley Charlotte McHenry 13 episodes 1982 Father Murphy Abby 1 episode 1983 Tales of the Unexpected Mary Deacon 1984 Knots Landing Mercy 1985 Highway to Heaven Mrs. Bradley 2 episodes 1986 The A-Team Nora 1 episode Trapper John, M.D. Mrs. McAndrew 1987 The Twilight Zone Mrs. Clark 1988 Hunter Mrs. Rawling 1 episode (final appearance)