Ann Dvorak

Profiled in "Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames" by Ray Hagen and Laura Wagner (McFarland, 2004).

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6321 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

During World War II in England, she served in the Mechanised Transport Corps (MTC), a uniformed female civilian organization operating with the support of the Ministry of Transport. In this unit, she drove an ambulance around London in addition to trucks. She resigned her position in the Spring of 1941 when her husband Leslie Fenton was wounded during Operation Chariot, the legendary raid on St. Nazaire while serving in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. While he was coalescing, she joined the Women's Land Army, a civilian organization whose members worked in the fields to harvest enough crops to keep the nation fed.

Her parents divorced when she was 8. She did not hear from her father after that for fourteen years, when she put out a letter in 1934 asking for information leading to his whereabouts. Six other men responded claiming to be her father before he did. He was living in Philadelphia at the time and had no idea she was in the movies.

Ann Dvorak was the daughter of silent film star Anna Lehr and silents director Edwin McKim. She entered films at the start of sound, as a dance instructor for the lavish MGM musicals. She came to international prominence in Scarface (1932) with Paul Muni, but often complained about the lack of quality of her films, which led to arguments with her bosses at Warners.

She married British actor Leslie Fenton in 1932, and came to Britain to make a few films. She contributed to the British war effort driving an ambulance.

Attended St. Catherine's Convent in Manhattan on Madison Avenue followed by the Clark School For Girls on West End Avenue. Later she was enrolled at the Page School for Girls in Highland Park, California, located at North Pasadena (now Figueroa) and Avenue 45. Dvorak graduated in 1927 at 15 years of age.

Although most sources give Ann Dvorak's birth date as August 2, 1912, the New York City Birth Index confirms that Anna McKim was born on August 2, 1911. Throughout her career, Ann would claim 1912 as the year of her birth, though in later years she would begin listing 1911.

Direct descendant of U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun (1825-1832).

She was an avid bibliophile and had a large and valuable collection of first editions dating back to 1703.