The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Page 33

Wednesday, July 25, 1979 A' LI 325 RIKAU AT NELSON Z3-4880 Ottawa Journal Page 33 More than 600 roles in 57-year acting career Never a star, but plenty of work By Venoa Scott HOLLYWOOD (UPI) Ann Doran made her debut at age 11 In a scene with Douglas Fairbanks and Wallace Beery in the silent 1922 version of Robin Hood and has been acting ever since. In the past 57 years Ann has played more than 600 roles in hundreds of movies and TV shows without ever seeing her name in lights, much less above the title. She was a foil for Charlie Chase, Andy Clyde, Harry Langdon, the Three Stooges and Edgar (slow burn) Kennedy while under contract to Columbia Pictures. Ann worked with Loretta Young, Barbara Stanwyck, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy, Rosalind Russell and Errol Flynn. She helped Kirk Douglas and Victor Mature make their first screen tests.

While others went on to considerable fame and great fortunes, Ann remained all but anonymous. Evidently she was born a character actress, the daughter of actress Rose Allen who played glamor girls in the ancient Bobby Vernon two-reelers. "I was on the set one day watching my mother work when a beautiful lady asked if I would like to play in another movie being made on the same lot," Ann recalled. "Mother agreed because it would keep me out of mischief. "The next day I found myself, a knobby-kneed, Dutch-bobbed blonde kid playing a page to the king in Robin Hood.

The king was Wallace Beery who scared me because he was bigger, louder and more profane than my father. "The lady who got me involved was Mary Pickford. I saw the old picture not long ago and couldn't tell myself from the eight other little pages." Today Ann, 68, looks back on a unique career in movies and TV which has seldom seen her unemployed, although there were the usual actor's dry spells. An energetic woman with a keen wit and boundless energy, Ann looks younger than her years. Ann lives alone in the heart of Hollywood in a home she has occupied for the past 27 years.

Her specialty over the years has been maiden aunts, nurses, mothers and mothers-in-law and, surprisingly, judges. Those parts, of course, came along in later years. "When I was a kid, I was put in westerns, usually playing orphans," she recalled. "I was always being rescued from terrible predicaments caught in barbed wire, endangered by stampeding cattle or tied to a windmill. "I left the business during that horrible pimply adolescence to go to high school in San Bernardino.

But, when Dad died in 1933, 1 went back to work in Zoo In Budapest with Loretta Young and Gene Raymond. It was my first talkie. Again, I was playing an orphan." There followed her contract years at Columbia and then Paramount. Her roles were medium-sized in action pictures, smaller In pot-boilers and infinitesimal in big budgeted films. Ann, however, did appear in some biggies Rebel Without a Cause, The High and The Mighty and in four of director Frank Capra's very best films.

"I never starred in a single picture," Ann said, smiling. "It bothered me for a time that I was only a supporting player until Mr. Capra, who spent as much time with character players as he did the stars, had a talk with me. 'BIRDS' by ROBERT KERR The Snow Goose cordially invites you and your friends to meet Robert Kerr at a preview of his first major exhibition. The distinctive carving and painting style of this Canadian Wildlife Artist has won many awards in both Canada and the United States.

Song birds, waterfowl and birds of prey will be represented. PREVIEW: THURSDAY, JULY 26rh :30 p.m. 8:00 p.m. EXHIBITION I SALE UNTIL AUGUST 16th. thiG snOCO GOOSe 40 elgin street OTTAWA.

ONT. CANADA. (613) 232-2213 I THE jkZn AMITWILLE Wk ftORRORJll wis- ur wk" NIGHTLY AT 7 00 00 SAT. ft SUN. AT tOO uSsJ 3 00 MM TOO 00 mm 151BojlGrrtBM.Pu.GMran bAtfiPaiHIWiife iHutinwIUIUtti uiiiiiRtlivsflHIIiW i III WARNING SOMI KINIS MAY BIGHTIN.

Tm tfmch Ontario 3liiH STARTS FRIDAY KMn mmi uw JULY 27TH "He told me the star Is the top of a table and wouldn't be worth anything without the underpinning legs of the character actors to support it. I never felt like a table leg but I guess that's what I've been for all these years. "I made a very good living and as time passed I decided I really didn't want to be a star. The burden was more than I wanted to take on." In television, as In movies, Ann is content with being a supporting player. She played mothers in Jesse James, Hey, Landlord and National Velvet.

In the Longstreet series Ann took on another rote that frequently comes her way, a housekeeper. She plays yet another housekeeper in the new NBC-TV Shirley series, starring Shirley Jones, which makes its debut this fall. "I've never been married and I have no kids, which I think is very circumspect," Ann said. "But on Mother's Day I get tons of cards from all kinds of people whose mother I played in movies and TV. "My days have been filled with activities in the industry.

I hold card No. 37 in the Screen Actors Guild. I joined when it was a very secretive, unpopular thing in Hollywood. "Since then I've been a board member of the Motion Picture and TV fund for 30 years. I've also spent 30 years on the Permanent Charities Committee.

I was secretary and vice president of SAG and a member of the board for 20 years. I'm an ex-president of the Pension and Welfare Fund. "When I was 65 I applied for Social Security. But that didn't last long. I'm still working and loving every minute of it." in 1 iBank Suroiylo 234-3403 mug rf Vff TTI PM I lSSOBeach Bunniesll NIGHTLY AT 0UHNSWAV AT SI LAURENT WAKNINU: MrUIBa MAT I I4S 034I1 FRIGHTEN- lmm.C IT'S IDUGHTOBEASAmnAOTYOF SIM.

Htm OUflNSWA AT tT lAUMNT 7H0MI SOMfKHI AT BANK A lit tUt DRJVE-M OPENS 8M P.M. KUNOTO AT PAAIOAU NIGHTLY SHOWINGS AT 6:45 8:50 DAILY SHOWINGS AT 1:30 3:25 5:20 7:15 9:10 OPENS UZIfiJ IRIttB 1 r-rwwwmv OANK. bl KUIT LIMIIS 521-2844 fastest fan in the west! tfo Villain ELMDALE "VILUAN" ft NIGHTLY AT VS 7:30 9:20 1 AMDATDWHtONLV -rz jk.wm AMh wry wrm DICK ft JANE" aOTBiiMiMBrmnun ItaTi' 1 1 Ann Doran: In new Fall series Bolshoi Ballet ever popular Jacob Stskind, Music and Drama Critic MONTREAL The Bolshoi Ballet has returned to Canada once again and proved to be as controversial as ever. In Montreal, at the Pldce des Arts, this week it is giving piggyback performances of the standard repertoire. Tuesday evening there were two performances of the complete Swan Lake, with two different casts, one at 6 p.m.

and the other at 10. I don't envy the pit musicians or the corps de ballet that had to go through two such ordeals in one night. Not having the strength to see both, I opted for the earlier performance, which starred Ludmilla Semeniaka as the Odette-Odile, Alexandr Godun-ov as the Prince and Mikhail Gabovich as the evil sorcerer. It was a stunning production and performance in spite of it's many flaws. The corps de ballets was obviously either young and Inexperienced or old and tired.

Young boys at the back were sneaking surreptitious glances at each other to know what to do next. Tired swan maidens were allowing their arms to strike conspicuously individual poses. People were stepping on each other's toes and there were entirely too many slips and falls on stage. But despite these obvious flaws the company put on a show that would be difficult to top. They presented their latest Swan Lake with choreography by Yuri Grigorovich, which has opened out some of the traditional cuts in the score and which has.

some strikingly different singing choreography. But no one really cares about the specifics of the dance movements in Swan Lake they want to see a breathtaking Odette-Odile and a staggeringly impressive prince. The performance I saw had both. Semeniaka is strongest as the Black Swan, with its hints of evil and icy coldness. She is less convincing as the White Swan, where one looks for more emotion and warmth.

But she dances like a real star and you cannot take your eyes off her for moment. She did only 30 fouettees instead of the more usual 32, but her spins were so flawless that you could not breathe as you watched. Godunov's Prince is dramatic, strong and marvellously masculine. His is the kind of male presence that has restored the credibility of ballet dancing on this continent. He seemed to tire as the evening progressed but still exuded the feeling of inner strength.

He is also a better actor than most Soviet male dancers. The scrappy house program did not identify any of the other dancers but if you ever catch this production watch out for the Court Jestor whose leaps are absolutely spectacular, and a blonde, young lady who looks strikingly like Julie Andrews and who dances with the rare poise and confidence of genius. The four cygnettes and the three swans were tacky but all of the character dancing was superb. A bit of a mixed bag but the highs were so high that the lows were soon forgotten by the crowd that gave the performance a standing ovation. Incidentally, the orchestra, a pick-up crew from the Toronto area, is excellent.

There are at least two former Montreal symphony first-desk wind players in It. I understand the Soviet conductor was rude to them during rehearsal so they gave him a razz berry at one of the performances In Hamilton but things have settled down since. THIS WEEK- ANSWER NO COVER CHARGE BATON ROUGE.