Anne Francis

Anne Francis (also known as Anne Lloyd Francis; September 16, 1930 – January 2, 2011) was an American actress known for her ground-breaking roles in the science-fiction film Forbidden Planet (1956) and the television action-drama series Honey West (1965–1966). Forbidden Planet marked a first in color, big-budget, science-fiction-themed motion pictures. Nine years later, Francis challenged female stereotypes in Honey West, in which she played a perky blonde private investigator who was as quick with body slams as witty one-liners. She earned a Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award nomination for her performance.^[1]

Francis was known largely for her physical assets, including a trademark mole near her lower lip. The beauty mark was even written into the script of one of her films.^[2] In 2005, TV Guide ranked Francis at number 18 on its "50 Sexiest Stars of All Time" list.^[3]

Early life

Francis was born in Ossining, New York, on September 16, 1930.^[4][5] Contrary to some sources, which erroneously claim she was born Ann Marvak (rather than Francis),^[1][6] her parents' marriage registration and census records from 1925 and 1930 confirm that their names were Philip Ward Francis and Edith (née Albertson) Francis.^[7][8] She was their only child.^{[citation needed]}

Francis entered show business as a child, working as a model at 5 years old to assist her family during the Great Depression. She made her Broadway debut at the age of 11.^[9][2]

Career

Movies

Francis made her first film appearances in This Time for Keeps (1947) and Summer Holiday (1948).^[10] She played supporting roles in the films So Young, So Bad (1950), Lydia Bailey (1952), The Rocket Man (1954), Susan Slept Here (1954), and Bad Day at Black Rock (1955); her first leading role was in Blackboard Jungle (1955). Her best-known film role is that of Altaira in Forbidden Planet (1956), a science-fiction classic that was nominated for a best-effects Oscar.^[11][12]

Her movie roles were then confined to low-budget efforts: a call girl in Girl of the Night (1960), a scheming trophy wife in Brainstorm (1965), as Jerry Lewis's wife in Hook, Line & Sinker (1969), and as co-star to a young Burt Reynolds in the adventure movie Impasse (1969). An exception was her role as chorine Georgia James in Funny Girl (1968).

Television

When motion-picture opportunities became scarcer for Francis near the close of the 1950s, she moved, successfully, to television. Beginning as a guest on The Untouchables and as the title character in The Doreen Maney Story, she appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone ("The After Hours" and "Jess-Belle"), two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Hooked" and "Keep Me Company"), and three episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ("What Really Happened", "Blood Bargain", and "The Trap"). In 1961, she appeared twice in Route 66, first in "Play it Glissando" and then "A Month of Sundays". Francis appeared in two episodes of the Western series The Virginian, two episodes of Columbo ("Short Fuse" and "A Stitch in Crime") and the episode "Incident of the Shambling Man" on the CBS Western Rawhide. She was cast in an episode of Gene Kelly's drama series, Going My Way, based on the 1944 film of the same name. During 1964, she guest-starred in "Hideout" and "Rachel's Mother" in The Reporter, as well as two successive appearances in The Man from U.N.C.L.E..^[13] She appeared in season four, episode 10 of Mission Impossible, titled "The Double Circle".

Honey West

Honey West was an action drama; the character was formally introduced in the April 21, 1965, episode of Burke's Law titled "Who Killed the Jackpot?", after which it was spun off as a series that lasted one season of 30 half-hour episodes. Honey was a shrewd, high-energy private investigator who collaborated with assistant Sam Bolt (John Ericson) in a company that was inherited from her father. At home, she cared for her pet ocelot named Bruce.

The show was cancelled due to budgetary considerations, and ABC executives imported the similarly themed hit British show The Avengers.

Late television career

Francis made a guest appearance in a 1967 episode of The Fugitive and in The Invaders the same year. She guest-starred in a 1973 episode of Barnaby Jones, "Murder in the Doll's House".^[14]

At the start of the final season of My Three Sons in 1971, Francis played bowling-alley waitress Terri Dowling, who married character Laird Fergus McBain Douglas of Sithian Bridge, Scotland, and returned to his homeland as a member of the nobility. (Fred MacMurray played the dual-character roles of Steve Douglas and Fergus McBain Douglas in this four-part story arc.) She appeared twice as a guest star on Columbo, once as the manipulated lover of the murderer ("Short Fuse", 1972)^[15] and once as the murder victim ("A Stitch in Crime", 1973).^[16]

In 1974, Francis appeared as Ida, the madame of a bawdy house on the series Kung Fu in the episode "Night of the Owls, Day of the Doves". In 1975, she appeared as Abby in an episode of Movin' On titled "The Price of Loving". In 1976, she appeared as Lola Flynn in an episode of Wonder Woman, entitled "Beauty on Parade". In 1977, she appeared as Lieutenant Commander Gladys Hope, the head nurse in two episodes of the World War II series Baa Baa Black Sheep. She portrayed Melissa Osborne in the episode "How Do I Kill Thee?" of The Eddie Capra Mysteries in 1978.^{[citation needed]}

During the 1980–81 season of Dallas, Francis had a recurring role as Arliss Cooper, the mother of Mitch and Afton Cooper. In 1982, she played an armored car robber and mother in "In the Best of Families" episode of CHiPs. The same year she had a cameo in the TV movie Mazes and Monsters starring Tom Hanks. She later played Mama Jo in the first few episodes (four total) of the 1984 TV-detective series Riptide.^[17] In that same year, she guest-starred in the premiere episode of Murder, She Wrote, credited as Anne Lloyd Francis; she went on to guest-star in two more episodes during the show's run. In December 1984, again credited as Anne Lloyd Francis, she guest-starred in the Christmas-themed S8 E13 of The Love Boat playing the mother of Kim Lankford's character, Carol, in the vignette "Noel's Christmas Carol". She appeared on episodes of Matlock and The Golden Girls.

In 1996, Francis appeared in the Wings episode "The Lady Vanishes", as Vera, a 1940s gun moll. In 1997, in the Home Improvement episode "A Funny Valentine", she appeared as Liddy, Tim Allen's high-school classmate's mother. She guest-starred in 1998 on The Drew Carey Show as the mother of Drew's girlfriend Nicki in the episodes "Nicki's Parents" and "Nicki's Wedding". Francis's final television acting role was in "Shadows", a 2004 episode of Without a Trace.^[10]

Personal life

Francis was married to United States Air Force pilot Bamlet Lawrence Price, Jr.,^[1] from May 1952 through April 1955, and to Robert Abeloff from 1960 through 1964. She never remarried after divorcing Abeloff.^[18][11]

Francis and Abeloff had one daughter, Jane Elizabeth Abeloff (born March 21, 1962).^[19] Francis later adopted Margaret "Maggie" West in 1970,^[20][21] one of the first adoptions granted to an unmarried person in California.^[1]

Francis studied flying toward the end of the 1960s, eventually earning her pilot's license.^[22]

In 1982, Francis published an autobiography, Voices from Home: An Inner Journey.^[23] On its cover, she wrote that the book "is my spiritual exposé. It is about our essence of being, the inner workings of mind and spirit which contribute to the growth of the invisible and most important part of us."^[24] A subsequent biography titled Anne Francis: The Life and Career was written by Laura Wagner and published by McFarland & Company in 2011.^[25]

A smoker for much of her adult life, Francis said that she quit the habit in the mid-1980s, but was diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer in 2006.^[11]

Francis died from complications due to pancreatic cancer on January 2, 2011, at a retirement home in Santa Barbara, California.^[5] Her ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.^[26]

Partial TV/filmography

• 1947 This Time for Keeps as Bobby Soxer (uncredited)
• 1948 Summer Holiday as Elsie Rand
• 1948 The Pirate as Nina, Showgirl (uncredited)
• 1948 Portrait of Jennie as Teenager In Art Gallery (uncredited)
• 1950 So Young, So Bad as Loretta Wilson
• 1951 The Whistle at Eaton Falls as Jean
• 1951 Elopement as Jacqueline "Jake" Osborne
• 1952 Lydia Bailey as Lydia Bailey
• 1952 Dreamboat as Carol Sayre
• 1953 A Lion Is in the Streets as "Flamingo" McManamee
• 1954 The Rocket Man as June Brown
• 1954 Susan Slept Here as Isabella Alexander
• 1954 Rogue Cop as Nancy Corlane
• 1955 Bad Day at Black Rock as Liz Wirth
• 1955 Battle Cry as Rae
• 1955 Blackboard Jungle as Anne Dadier
• 1955 The Scarlet Coat as Sally Cameron
• 1956 Forbidden Planet as Altaira Morbius
• 1956 The Rack as Aggie Hall
• 1956 The Great American Pastime as Betty Hallerton
• 1957 The Hired Gun as Ellen Beldon
• 1957 Don't Go Near the Water as Lieutenant Alice Tomlen
• 1959 "Rawhide" as Rose Whitman (TV Show)
• 1959 The Ten Commandments (TV movie)
• 1960 The Untouchables (TV series) as Doreen Maney
• 1960 The Crowded Sky as Kitty Foster
• 1960 Girl of the Night as Robin "Bobbie" Williams
• 1960 Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV series) (Season 5 Episode 38: "Hooked") as Nyla Foster
• 1961 Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV series) (Season 7 Episode 5: "Keep Me Company") as Julia Reddy
• 1961 Route 66 (TV series) as Arline Simms (season two, episode one)
• 1960-1963 The Twilight Zone (TV series) as Jess-Belle Stone / Marsha White
• 1963 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (TV series) (Season 1 Episode 16: "What Really Happened") as Eve Raydon
• 1963 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (TV series) (Season 2 Episode 5: "Blood Bargain") as Connie Breech
• 1963-1965 Burke's Law as Suzanne Foster (season one, episode five "Who Killed Wade Walker?") / as Honey West (season two, episode 30 "Who Killed the Jackpot?")
• 1964 Death Valley Days (TV series) as Pearl Hart (episode from March 17, 1964, titled "The Last Stagecoach Robbery")
• 1964 The Virginian (TV series) as Victoria Greenly
• 1964 The Man From U.N.C.L.E. as Gervaise Ravel (season one, episode three "The Quadripartite Affair" and season one, episode seven "The Giuoco Piano Affair")^[13]
• 1965 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (TV series) (Season 3 Episode 18: "The Trap") as Peg Beale
• 1965 The Satan Bug as Ann Williams
• 1965 Honey West (TV series) as Honey West
• 1965 Brainstorm as Lorrie Benson
• 1967 The Invaders (TV series) as Annie Rhodes (season two, episode two "The Saucer")
• 1968 Funny Girl as Georgia James
• 1969 More Dead Than Alive as Monica Alton
• 1969 Hook, Line & Sinker as Nancy Ingersoll
• 1969 Impasse as Bobby Jones
• 1969 The Love God? as Lisa LaMonica
• 1970 Lost Flight (TV movie) as Gina Talbott
• 1970 Wild Women (TV movie) as Jean Marshek
• 1970 Dan August as Gina Talbott (season one, episode one "Murder by Proxy")
• 1970 The Intruders (TV movie) as Leora Garrison
• 1971 The Forgotten Man (TV movie) as Marie Hardy Forrest
• 1971 Steel Wreath (TV movie) as Angel
• 1971 Columbo (Columbo, season one, episode "Short Fuse")
• 1972 Fireball Forward (TV movie) as Helen Sawyer
• 1972 Haunts of the Very Rich (TV movie) as Annette Larrier
• 1972 Pancho Villa as Flo
• 1972 Gunsmoke (TV Series, season-18 episode "Sarah") as Sarah
• 1973 Columbo as Nurse Sharon Martin (season two, episode "A Stitch in Crime")
• 1973 Cannon as Peggy Angel (season three, episode "Murder by Proxy”)
• 1973 Barnaby Jones as Miriam Woodridge (season one, episode "Murder in a Dolls House")
• 1974 Cry Panic (TV movie) as Julie
• 1974 The F.B.I. Story: The FBI Versus Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number One (TV movie) as Colette
• 1975 The Last Survivors (TV movie) as Helen Dixon
• 1975 A Girl Named Sooner (TV movie) as Selma Goss
• 1976 Banjo Hackett: Roamin’ Free (TV movie) as Flora Dobbs
• 1976 Survive! as Anne
• 1976 ‘’Wonder Woman’’ as Lola Flynn (season one, episode “Beauty On Parade”)
• 1978 Little Mo (TV movie) as Sophie Fisher
• 1978 Born Again as Patty Colson
• 1979 The Rebels (TV movie) as Mrs. Harris
• 1979 Beggarman, Thief (TV movie) as Teresa Kraler
• 1980 Detour to Terror (TV movie) as Sheila
• 1980 Dan August: The Jealousy Factor (TV movie) as Nina Porter
• 1981 Dallas 4 episodes as Arliss Cooper
• 1981 CHIPs season 5 episode 18 (In the Best of Families) as Susan Wright
• 1982 Mazes and Monsters (TV movie) as Ellie
• 1983 O'Malley (TV movie) as Amanda O'Malley
• 1983 Charley's Aunt (TV movie) as Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez
• 1984 Riptide 6 episodes as Mama Jo
• 1985 Return as Eileen Sedgeley
• 1986 A Masterpiece of Murder (TV movie) as Ruth Beekman
• 1987 Laguna Heat (TV movie) as Helene Long
• 1987 Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story (TV movie) as Marjorie Post Hutton
• 1988 My First Love (TV movie) as Terry
• 1989 The Golden Girls as Trudy McMahon (1989, season four, episode 19 "Til Death Do We Volley")
• 1990 Little Vegas as Martha
• 1992 Love Can Be Murder (TV movie) as Maggie O'Brien
• 1992 The Double 0 Kid as Maggie O'Brien
• 1994 Burke's Law as Honey Best (season one, episode three "Who Killed Nick Hazard?")
• 1995 Lover's Knot as Marian Hunter
• 1996 Wings S7E22 “The Lady Vanishes” as Vera
• 1996 Have You Seen My Son (TV movie) as Catherine Pritcher
• 1997 Conan the Adventurer as Gagool (season one, episode nine "The Curse of Afka")
• 1998 The Drew Carey Show as Charlene Fifer (season 3, episode 18 “Nikki’s Parents”)
• 1999 Fantasy Island as Cassie (season one, episode 13 "Heroes")
• 2004 Without a Trace as Rose Atwood (season two, episode 20 "Shadows")^[27]

References

External links

• Anne Francis at the Internet Broadway Database
• Anne Francis at IMDb
• Anne Francis at AllMovie
• obituary, guardian.co.uk, January 3, 2011; accessed July 26, 2015.