Anne Nagel

One book described her as "one of Hollywood's true hard-luck gals".

• Name — Anne Nagel • Birth Name — Anna Marie Dolan • Born — 29 September 1915 • Birthplace — Malden, Massachusetts, U.S. • Died — 6 July 1966 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Resting Place — Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California • Other Names — Ann Nagel • Occupation — Actress • Years Active — 1932–1957

Born in Malden, Massachusetts, Nagel was enrolled by her parents in Notre Dame Academy, with the expectation that she would become a nun. Membership in the Shubert Theatre company turned her away from religious life. In the meantime, Nagel's mother had divorced and re-married. When Nagel's new stepfather, Curtis Nagel, a Technicolor expert, was hired by Tiffany Pictures in Hollywood, he moved the family to California, where he employed his step-daughter in several experimental Technicolor shorts he had been asked to direct.

In 1932 Nagel secured a bit part as a ballet girl in the Mack Sennett comedy feature Hypnotized, her "first documented feature credit". She was one of 14 young women "launched on the trail of film stardom" August 6, 1935, when they each received a six-month contract with 20th Century Fox after spending 18 months in the company's training school. The contracts included a studio option for renewal for as long as seven years. Nagel spent the next few years making uncredited appearances as a dancer or chorus girl. In 1936, she signed with Warner Bros. and followed the usual path for young actresses under studio contract: incidental roles in major features, featured roles in minor features, and ingenue roles in westerns. She appeared in Here Comes Carter with Warner leading man Ross Alexander; they were married that year. A reviewer wrote "she was just one of those girls who has learned to croon for the microphone, and let the rest of the world go hang". Warner did not pick up her option after one year, and she began freelancing. Most of her appearances in 1937 and 1938 were for Monogram Pictures, where she usually played leads. • Illustration — Betty Ross Clarke and Anne Nagel in A Bride for Henry (1937) Anne Nagel was signed by Universal Pictures in 1939, and worked there steadily for four years. Her most famous Universal credits are probably the W.C. Fields comedy Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941, as Gloria Jean's movie-stuntwoman mother) and the serials The Green Hornet (1940) and The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1941), reprising her radio role of Lenore Case. She also was featured in Black Friday (1940), The Invisible Woman (1940), and Man Made Monster (1941), among many other films. From 1942 she worked mostly for the lower-budget independent companies: PRC, Monogram, Republic. She had two assignments with Columbia, the 1943 serial The Secret Code and the 1947 comedy feature Blondie's Holiday. By the late 1940s her roles were smaller and she often worked without screen credit. Nagel later worked on television in episodes of The Range Rider (1951) and Circus Boy (1957).

Vintage-radio buffs best know Anne Nagel as Britt Reid's confidante Lenore Case in The Green Hornet. In 1943, she was the vocalist on the audience-participation musical quiz program Scramby Amby.

On September 17, 1936, Nagel married actor Ross Alexander, who committed suicide in 1937 when beset with heavy financial burdens he could not resolve. Four years later, Nagel married Air Force Lt. Col. James H. Keenan on December 4, 1941. The marriage ended in divorce on May 22, 1951. In December 1947, Nagel filed a lawsuit in Superior Court against Hollywood physician and surgeon Franklyn Thorpe (former husband of actress Mary Astor). In the suit, Nagel demanded $350,000 in damages and alleged that, while performing an appendectomy on her in 1936, Thorpe had removed other organs without her knowledge or consent, rendering her infertile. Nagel claimed she was unaware of her infertility until January 1947, but Thorpe countered that she was "well aware of the nature of the surgery". Nagel died at Sunray North Convalescent Hospital in Hollywood, California in 1966, aged 50, following surgery for liver cancer. She is buried, with no marker, in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

• Film • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1932 — Hypnotized — Ballerina / Performer — Uncredited • 1933 — I Loved You Wednesday — Ruby - the Hat Check Girl — Uncredited • 1933 — College Humor — Student — Uncredited • 1933 — Sitting Pretty — Girl at Window — Uncredited • 1934 — Coming Out Party — Suzanne — Uncredited • 1934 — Stand Up and Cheer! — Dancer — Uncredited • 1935 — George White's 1935 Scandals — Chorine — Uncredited • 1935 — Redheads on Parade — Queen of Redheads — Uncredited • 1935 — Music Is Magic — Chorine — Uncredited • 1935 — Everybody's Old Man — Clerk — Uncredited • 1936 — Bullets or Ballots — Bank secretary — Uncredited • 1936 — Hot Money — Ruth McElniney • 1936 — China Clipper — Secretary • 1936 — Love Begins at 20 — Miss Perkins - Ramp's Secretary • 1936 — Guns of the Pecos — Alice Burton • 1936 — Down the Stretch — Hat Check Girl — Uncredited • 1936 — Here Comes Carter — Linda Warren • 1936 — Polo Joe — Girl at Polo Field — Uncredited • 1936 — King of Hockey — Kathleen O'Rourke • 1937 — The Case of the Stuttering Bishop — Janice Alma Brownley • 1937 — Hoosier Schoolboy — Mary Evans — Top billing with Mickey Rooney • 1937 — Three Legionnaires — Sonia • 1937 — The Devil's Saddle Legion — Karan Ordley • 1937 — The Footloose Heiress — Linda Pierson • 1937 — Escape by Night — Linda Adams • 1937 — A Bride for Henry — Sheila Curtis — Starring opposite Warren Hull • 1937 — The Adventurous Blonde — Grace Brown • 1937 — She Loved a Fireman — Girl at Dance — Uncredited • 1938 — Saleslady — Mary Dakin Spencer • 1938 — Mystery House — Gwen Kingery • 1938 — Under the Big Top — Penelope (AKA Penny) • 1938 — Gang Bullets — Patricia Wayne • 1939 — Convict's Code — Julie Warren • 1939 — Should a Girl Marry? — Margaret • 1939 — Unexpected Father — Beulah - showgirl • 1939 — The Witness Vanishes — Laura the Secretary — Uncredited • 1939 — Call a Messenger — Frances O'Neill • 1939 — Legion of Lost Flyers — Paula Wilson • 1940 — The Green Hornet — Lenore "Casey" Case — 13-chapter Serial • 1940 — My Little Chickadee — Miss Ermingarde Foster - Schoolteacher — Uncredited • 1940 — Black Friday — Sunny Rogers • 1940 — Ma! He's Making Eyes at Me — Miss Lansdale • 1940 — Hot Steel — Rita Martin • 1940 — Winners of the West — Claire Hartford — Serial • 1940 — Down Argentine Way — Linda • 1940 — Diamond Frontier — Jeanne Kruger • 1940 — Irene — Irene O’Dare • 1940 — The Green Hornet Strikes Again! — Lenore Case — Serial • 1940 — The Invisible Woman — Jean • 1941 — Meet the Chump — Miss Burke • 1941 — Man Made Monster — June Lawrence • 1941 — Mutiny in the Arctic — Gloria Adams • 1941 — Never Give a Sucker an Even Break — Madame Gorgeous • 1941 — Appointment for Love — Jennifer — Uncredited • 1941 — Road Agent — Lola • 1942 — Sealed Lips — Mary Morton • 1942 — Don Winslow of the Navy — Misty Gaye — Serial • 1942 — Stagecoach Buckaroo — Nina Kincaid • 1942 — The Mad Doctor of Market Street — Mrs. William Saunders • 1942 — The Dawn Express — Nancy Fielding • 1942 — The Mad Monster — Lenora Cameron • 1942 — The Secret Code — Jean Ashley — Serial • 1943 — Women in Bondage — Deputy District Director — Alternative title: Hitler's Women • 1946 — Murder in the Music Hall — Attendant at Mission • 1946 — Traffic in Crime — Ann Marlowe • 1946 — The Trap — Marcia • 1947 — Blondie's Holiday — Bea Mason (Class of '32) — Credited as Ann Nagel • 1947 — The Hucksters — Teletype Operator — Uncredited • 1947 — The Spirit of West Point — Mrs. Blaik • 1948 — Homecoming — Guest — Uncredited • 1948 — One Touch of Venus — Reporter — Uncredited • 1948 — An Innocent Affair — Gladys - Receptionist • 1948 — Bungalow 13 — Henrietta — Uncredited • 1948 — Family Honeymoon — Irene Bartlett — Uncredited • 1948 — Every Girl Should Be Married — Woman — Uncredited • 1949 — The Stratton Story — Mrs. Piet — Uncredited • 1949 — Mighty Joe Young — Brunette at Bar — Uncredited • 1949 — Prejudice — Miss Bennett • 1950 — Armored Car Robbery — Mrs. Marsha Phillips — Uncredited • Television • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1951 — The Range Rider — Aunt Ginny — 2 episodes • 1957 — Circus Boy — Louisa Cody — 1 episode, (final appearance)