Anne Seymour (actress)
Anne Seymour (September 11, 1909 – December 8, 1988) was an American film and television character actress. Personal life. Anne Seymour Eckert was born in Manhattan to William Stanley and May Davenport (née Seymour) Eckert (1883–1967) an actress and later curator of the Museum of the City of New York. She was the seventh generation of a theatrical family traceable to 18th century Ireland. Seymour, her mother (May Davenport Seymour), and her brother (Bill Seymour) were all active in radio concurrently. Her great-uncle was character actor Harry Davenport, and her cousins were writer James Seymour and actor  John Seymour. Seymour never married, and had no children. Education. After attending St. Mary's for "her conventional education", Seymour studied at the American Laboratory Theatre. Death. She died of heart failure at age 79 in Los Angeles, and is interred in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. Career. Stage. Seymour's first professional activity as an entertainer came with the Jitney Players, for which she earned $15 per week. She was in four Broadway productions. She played in "At the Bottom" and "Puppet Show", both in 1930, and in "The School for Scandal" in 1931. Almost three decades later , she played Mrs. Sara Delano Roosevelt in "Sunrise at Campobello". Radio. Seymour debuted on radio in Cincinnati in 1932. According to the 06/25/1938 issue of WLS Radio's "Stand By" magazine Seymour was living in the north side of Chicago. In the early 1940s, she played Prudence Dane, the leading female role in the "historic serial" "A Woman of America" and starred as Mary Marlin in "The Story of Mary Marlin", both on NBC. She was also a member of the casts of "Joyce Jordan, Girl Interne", "Tom Bradley", "Against the Storm", and "King Arthur, Junior". Television. Seymour's first  venture in television was a three-month role in "Follow Your Heart," an NBC soap opera. "I hated every minute of it," she said. She also "had a running part on a CBS soap opera called "The First Hundred Years."" She played Mrs. Barr in season 1, episode 15 of "My Three Sons" in 1961. She later starred in "Empire", a 1962–63 series set in the modern American West. Turning her talents to comedy, she was a regular in "The Tim Conway Show" in 1970. She was a guest star on many American television series in the 1960s and 1970s . She appeared in two episodes of "Perry Mason"; in 1963 she played Hettie Randall in "The Case of the Festive Felon", and in 1964 she played Bonnie Mae Wilmet in "The Case of the Bullied Bowler". She portrayed Amelia Tarbell in "Pollyanna" (1960), Esther in the episode "Final Escape" of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1985), and Miss Tilford in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". In a 1965 episode of "Hazel" entitled "A 'Lot' to Remember", she played Laura Kirkland. She played Ms. Frost in "A Visit to Upright", a 1972 episode of "Bonanza", as well as three different characters in four  episodes of "Gunsmoke": "Snow Train Parts 1 & 2", "The Wake", and "Kitty's Injury". In the spring of 1970, she was a regular cast member of the situation comedy "The Tim Conway Show", playing airport and airline owner Mrs. K. J. Crawford during the shows 12-episode run. She guest-starred in the episode "Involvement" of "Emergency!" that first aired on January 24, 1976 (Season 5, Episode 17). She played the role of Millie Eastman, a retired head nurse of Rampart General who tried to commit suicide by overdosing on pills. During her recovery at Rampart, she is placed in  a semi-private room with Jean Clark (Dawn Lyn) to whom she starts mentoring for emotional support. Film. An early film appearance by Seymour was in "All the King's Men" (1949) as Mrs. Lucy Stark. She played the role of Grandma Beebe in the 1961 children's film classic "Misty", a screen adaptation of Marguerite Henry's children's book, "Misty of Chincoteague". Her last performance was in 1988, in the feature film "Field of Dreams", which was released after her death.