"Mildred Pierce" Actress Mildred Pierce 1927-2026 Memorial Video

Anne Marie Blythe (August 16, 1927 – June 24, 2026), known professionally as Ann Blyth, was an American actress and singer whose career spanned five decades. She began her career in radio as a child before transitioning to Broadway, where she appeared in Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine (1941–42). 

Blyth signed with Universal Studios in the 1940s and made her film debut in Chip Off the Old Block (1944), followed by a series of musical comedies. Her breakout role came in Mildred Pierce (1945), where she appeared opposite Joan Crawford, as the scheming Veda Pierce, earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Blyth worked extensively in film throughout the 1940s and 1950s, appearing in notable films such as Brute Force (1947) and Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948). 

She later signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she appeared in musicals and other studio productions, including The Great Caruso (1951), The Student's Prince (1954), and The King's Thief (1955). Her final film role was in The Helen Morgan Story (1957).

After transitioning to theater and television in the late 1950s, she starred in productions such as Show Boat and appeared on shows like The Twilight Zone and Murder, She Wrote. Blyth retired from acting in 1985. 

Blyth died at her home in Rancho Santa Fe, California on June 24, 2026, at the age of 98. At the time of her death, Blyth was the earliest surviving Academy Award nominee, and one of the last surviving stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood.