Biography for
Ann Savage More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

19 February 1921, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

Date of Death

25 December 2008, Hollywood, California, USA (complications from a stroke)

Birth Name

Bernice Maxine Lyon

Mini Biography

For a tough cookie who achieved cult stardom with her hard-bitten blonde looks and "Perfect Vixen" tag, Ann Savage in real life was a lovely, spirited, gentle-looking lady. She may have peaked only briefly in 40s Hollywood lowbudgets, but she made the most of it during that fairly short tenure. Out of the dozens of movies under her belt, one film noir part that came her way in 1945 shot her to femme fatale infamy and, to this day, remains her claim to fame. It took only four to six days to shoot, but Detour (1945) stands out as one of the best examples of surreal film noir and the unforgettable dialogue and riveting teaming of Ann and sulky co-star Tom Neal are the primary reasons for its enduring fame.

An only child, Ann was born Bernice Maxine Lyon in Columbia, South Carolina, on February 19, 1921. Her father was a U.S. Army officer who was stationed from base to base, including Dallas and New Orleans, until settling in Jacksonville, Florida. He died when she was only four years old. Ann's mother, a jewelry buyer, took the two of them to Los Angeles before Ann was 10 years old. Appearing in local theater productions, the young hopeful trained at Max Reinhardt's acting school. The school's manager happened to be Bert D'Armand, who later became her agent. They subsequently married in 1945.

She changed her name to "Ann Savage" before even stepping onto a soundstage. It was a workshop production of "Golden Boy" that led to a contract at Columbia Pictures. The first glimpse of Ann came as an extra in MGM's The Great Waltz (1938). During the war years, she gained on-camera experience in unbilled parts in such movies as The More the Merrier (1943) and Murder in Times Square (1943) before rising to featured and co-star status in such lightweight Columbia films as Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943), Footlight Glamour (1943) and Saddles and Sagebrush (1943).

Although she laid out some devilish dames in The Unwritten Code (1944), Apology for Murder (1945) and The Last Crooked Mile (1946), it was her black-mailing, cigarette-dangling, good-for-nothing Vera who bullies a luckless, tough-guy musician (Tom Neal) into her schemes in Detour (1945) that truly summed up her 'bad girl' career. At the inducement of mogul 'Harry Cohn', Savage and Neal made four films together with their last, Detour (1945), hitting the jackpot. These were Klondike Kate (1943), Two-Man Submarine (1944) and The Unwritten Code (1944). The two actors would reunite years later in a 1955 episode of "Gangbusters".

Ann was one of the more popular WWII pinups of her time. After appearing in Esquire magazine in 1944, which was shot by renowned studio photographer George Hurrell Sr., Ann became a favorite with the troops making numerous personal appearance tours at various military bases in order to raise war bonds. Freelancing after leaving Columbia, Ann appeared in a host of other second-string pictures, including One Exciting Night (1944), The Spider (1945), The Dark Horse (1946) and Renegade Girl (1946), Jungle Flight (1947), Satan's Cradle (1949), Jungle Jim in Pygmy Island (1950), and Woman They Almost Lynched (1953), which would be her last film for over three decades. While she certainly demonstrated the talent and range, she was unable to rise above the "B" typecast. This led her to look at TV for a time in the 1950s as a possible medium, guesting on such shows as "Ford Theater", "City Detective", "Schlitz Theater", "Death Valley Days" and "Fireside Theater".

She semi-retired in the late 1950s and moved from Hollywood to Manhattan with husband Bert, who by now had traded his agent business with financing and professional trading. She occasionally appeared on local TV and in industrial films. The couple traveled extensively until his sudden death in 1969. A grief-stricken Ann returned to Hollywood to be near her mother, sharpened her legal secretarial skills by working as a docket clerk with Bert's attorneys in L.A. (Loeb & Loeb), and became an avid speed-rated pilot in her spare hours. At the same time she continued to delight her fans with her appearances at "film noir" festivals, nostalgia conventions and special screenings of her work. Refusing to appear in exploitive material, Ann resisted much work. In later years she appeared very sporadically -- in the movie Fire with Fire (1986) and an episode of "Saved by the Bell". Out of nowhere the resilient octogenarian was cast by Canadian director Guy Maddin, a film noir fan, to play a shrewish mother in the highly acclaimed film My Winnipeg (2007), earning "bad girl" raves all over again.

Named an "icon and legend" by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2005, and applauded for her body of work by Time Magazine twice in 2007, actress Ann Savage persevered as a dramatic actress through a collective will and determination in a career that surpassed six decades. She died at a nursing home of complications after suffering multiple strokes at age 87 on Christmas Day in 2008.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Spouse

Bert D Armand'	(1947 - 30 December 1969) (his death)
Cleland Huntington	(June 1944 - July 1945) (divorced)
Clark Tennesen	(1938 - 1940) (divorced)

Trivia

Was a speed rated pilot and at one time flew her own plane - a 250 Comanche, winning several tournament awards.

Her husband, financier Bert D'Armand, died in 1969. Ann returned to Los Angeles, flying planes, working various jobs and making public appearances with her personal print of Detour (1945).

Made three other pictures with her Detour (1945) co-star Tom Neal. They had a rather chilly working relationship. The volatile Neal, who once severely pummeled actor Franchot Tone over the affections of actress Barbara Payton, was later jailed for involuntary manslaughter in the 1960s for shooting his third wife to death in the head. He got six years despite maintaining it was an accident.

In 1992, the Library of Congress named Detour (1945) as the first film noir and "B- movie" inducted into the National Registry of Film.

In May of 2007, Time called her walking nightmare portrayal of Vera in Detour (1945) one of the Top "10 All-Time Best Villains", included alongside James Cagney in White Heat (1949) Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear (1962)and Arnold Schwarzeneggar in The Terminator.

Warner Brothers briefly considered John Garfield to play the lead opposite Ann in Detour (1945). Tom Neal was cast when PRC bought the script by Martin Goldsmith.

Buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery alongside her third husband, Bert D'Armand.

Her manager was Kent Adamson.

Personal Quotes

No one would wish to be remembered for things like Two-Man Submarine (1944) or Saddles and Sagebrush (1943), which were typical of the kind of pictures I did. The part in Detour (1945) seemed like the opportunity every actress longs for. When I first read the script by Martin Goldsmith, I knew that I was going to be part of something very exciting.