Saturday, June 20, 2009

Loving Lee


That erstwhile Lila Quartermaine, Miss Anna Lee, was our last Mystery Guest. Despite appearing in nearly 80 films, Anna Lee was best known for her role as the wealthy matriarch on General Hospital; she's also beloved by millions for her brief but charming appearance as Sister Margarhetta in The Sound of Music (1965). Her other most famous film appearance was as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford's concerned neighbor in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962); in a sad twist of irony, a car accident paralyzed Miss Lee from the waist down, and she spent the last two decades of her life acting from a wheelchair, echoing Crawford's Blanche Hudson.


The Kent-born actress once reflected on the longevity of most British actors; "I want to die with my boots on," she declared. She certainly achieved that goal; Miss Lee passed away in 2004 at the age of 91. She was awarded a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy, which was accepted on her behalf by her son.


The canny, clever normadesmond was the first to correctly name Miss Lee; we present him with a bale of wool from a black sheep - which, as Sister Margaretta so wisely pointed out, is just as warm as that from a white.

1 comment: