--- name: "Ann Sothern" canonical: "https://film.one/person/ann-sothern" roles: ["Actor"] born: "22 January 1909" died: "15 March 2001" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-20T02:02:09.274108+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Ann Sothern Actor. Born 22 January 1909 in Valley City, North Dakota, USA. Died 15 March 2001. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 22 January 1909, Valley City, North Dakota, USA - **Died:** 15 March 2001 - **Also known as:** Harriet Byron, Harriette Lake, Joan Larrabee, Foxy McNamara, Ann Southern, Harriette Arlene Lake - **Golden Globes:** 1 Golden Globe (1 won) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Sothern, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q235289, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815433/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/87685 ## Fi1m on Ann Sothern > Sothern's trade was the woman who talks fast, knows exactly what she is worth and is not sure anyone else does. Ten *Maisie* films fixed her as a wisecracking showgirl; the drier supporting work she did afterwards is where we would send you first. Watch her at the dinner table in *A Letter to Three Wives* (1949). Rita Phipps writes radio serials for a living, her husband George teaches school for a fraction of what she earns, and the sponsor who pays for all of it, Mrs Manleigh, has come to eat. Sothern spends the evening apologising: for the money, for the serials, for the sponsor, for her own competence. The words are all deference and the woman saying them plainly is not, and that gap is where Sothern did her best work. Kirk Douglas gets the speech about what radio advertising does to the people who listen, and the film stops so that he can make it; we found we were watching her face instead, and minding on her behalf. She got there the long way. She was an extra in silent films from 1927 under her own name, Harriette Lake, went to Broadway for musicals in the early 1930s, came back to Hollywood with a new name and contracts at Columbia and RKO, and did not become anybody in particular until MGM handed her Maisie Ravier in 1939. Maisie was a Brooklyn chorus girl, brassy and resourceful, and Sothern played her ten times through 1947 and again on radio. The trick of those films was the turn: Maisie arrives vulgar and accident-prone and leaves charming and well-groomed, and Sothern could make the change inside a single picture without it looking like two different women. *Brother Orchid* (1940), made at Warner Bros in the middle of the run, is the supporting part from that stretch most worth looking up. The cost of playing one woman ten times is that the public stops seeing anyone else, and after 1950 the film parts thinned out. Television took her in: *Private Secretary* (1953–57), opposite Don Porter, then *The Ann Sothern Show* (1958–61), then guest turns with Lucille Ball on *The Lucy Show*. Sothern's own verdict on the early films was harder than ours. Watching them again late in life, she said she was amazed at how poor an actress she had been, and put whatever success they had down to glamour rather than acting. Glamour does not get you through the Manleigh dinner. Timing does, and hers was exact. Her last role was Tisha Doughty in *The Whales of August* (1987), a supporting part beside veteran stars, and then she stopped. We have not reviewed it and will not pretend to. Start instead with *A Letter to Three Wives*, where she is quick and dry and makes a woman saying sorry look like a woman who means nothing of the kind. Save *Maisie* for a wet afternoon. She would have told you the same, and then apologised for it. ## Biography Ann Sothern (born Harriette Arlene Lake) was an American actress whose career in stage, radio, film and television spanned nearly six decades. She began in bit parts in late-1920s films and made her Broadway debut in 1930, later starring in musicals. In 1939 she was cast by MGM as Maisie Ravier in a series of comedies that ran until 1947 and included a radio spin-off. Sothern appeared in *A Letter to Three Wives* (1949) as Rita Phipps. She starred in the CBS sitcom *Private Secretary* from 1953 to 1958 and in *The Ann Sothern Show* from 1958 to 1961, receiving three Primetime Emmy nominations for the former. Later film roles included *The Whales of August* (1987), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She died in 2001. *Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *A Letter to Three Wives* (1949), Fi1m 79, as Rita Phipps — [page](https://film.one/film/a-letter-to-three-wives.md) ## Complete filmography (104) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *That's Entertainment! III* (1994), as (archive footage) (uncredited) - *The Whales of August* (1987), as Tisha Doughty - *A Letter to Three Wives* (1985), as Ma Finney - *The Little Dragons* (1980), as Angel - *Flying High* (1978), series, as Miss Kirkeby - *The Manitou* (1978), as Mrs. Karmann - *Captains and the Kings* (1976), series, as Mrs. Finch - *That's Entertainment, Part II* (1976), as (archive footage) - *Medical Story* (1975), series, as Mrs. Metulski - *Crazy Mama* (1975), as Sheba - *Golden Needles* (1974), as Finzie - *The Killing Kind* (1974), as Thelma Lambert - *The Weekend Nun* (1972), as Mother Bonaventure - *The Great Man's Whiskers* (1972), as Aunt Margaret Bancroft - *Fol-de-Rol* (1972), as Queen Gertrude - *A Death of Innocence* (1971), as Annie La Cossit - *Congratulations, It's a Boy!* (1971), as Ethel Gaines - *The Chicago Teddy Bears* (1971), series, Actor - *Alias Smith and Jones* (1971), series, Actor - *The Greatest Mother of 'em All* (1969), as Dolly Murdock - *Love, American Style* (1969), series, as Mrs. Devlin - *Chubasco* (1968), as Angela - *The Outsider* (1967), as Mrs. Kozzek - *The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.* (1966), series, as Aunt Magda - *Family Affair* (1966), series, Actor - *My Mother the Car* (1965), series, as Gladys Crabtree - *The Legend of Jesse James* (1965), series, as Widow Fay - *Sylvia* (1965), as Mrs. Argona / Grace Argona - *Lady in a Cage* (1964), as Sade - *The Best Man* (1964), as Sue Ellen Gamadge - *The Lucy Show* (1962), series, as Rosie Harrigan - *The Alfred Hitchcock Hour* (1962), series, as Helen Cox - *The Virginian* (1962), series, as Della Spencer - *The DuPont Show with June Allyson* (1959), series, as Martha - *Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse* (1958), series, Actor - *The Ann Sothern Show* (1958), series, as Katy O'Connor - *The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour* (1957), series, as Susie MacNamara - *MGM Parade* (1955), series, Actor - *Lady in the Dark* (1954), as Liza - *The Blue Gardenia* (1953), as Crystal Carpenter - *Private Secretary* (1953), series, as Susie McNamara - *The Ford Television Theatre* (1952), series, as Christine Emerson - *Schlitz Playhouse of Stars* (1951), series, as Liz Quiz - *Shadow on the Wall* (1950), as Dell Faring - *Nancy Goes to Rio* (1950), as Frances Elliott - *A Letter to Three Wives* (1949), as Rita Phipps — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/a-letter-to-three-wives.md) - *Words and Music* (1948), as Joyce Harmon - *April Showers* (1948), as June Tyme - *The Judge Steps Out* (1947), as Peggy - *Undercover Maisie* (1947), as Maisie Ravier - *Up Goes Maisie* (1946), as Maisie Ravier - *Maisie Goes to Reno* (1944), as Maisie Ravier - *Twenty Years After* (1944), as (archive footage) - *Cry 'Havoc'* (1943), as Pat - *Swing Shift Maisie* (1943), as Maisie Ravier - *Thousands Cheer* (1943), as Ann Sothern - *Three Hearts for Julia* (1943), as Julia Seabrook - *You, John Jones!* (1943), as Mary Jones - *Panama Hattie* (1942), as Hattie Maloney - *Maisie Gets Her Man* (1942), as Maisie Ravier - *Lady Be Good* (1941), as Dixie Donegan Crane - *Ringside Maisie* (1941), as Maisie Ravier - *Maisie Was a Lady* (1941), as Maisie Ravier - *Dulcy* (1940), as Dulcy Ward - *Gold Rush Maisie* (1940), as Maisie Ravier - *Brother Orchid* (1940), as Florence 'Flo' Addams - *Congo Maisie* (1940), as Maisie Ravier - *Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President* (1939), as Ethel Turp - *Fast and Furious* (1939), as Garda Sloane - *Hotel for Women* (1939), as Ellen Connelly - *Maisie* (1939), as Maisie Ravier / Mary Anastasia O'Connor - *Trade Winds* (1938), as Jean Livingstone - *She's Got Everything* (1937), as Carol Rogers - *There Goes the Groom* (1937), as Bettina Louise "Betty" Russell - *Danger – Love at Work* (1937), as Antoinette "Toni" Pemberton - *Super-Sleuth* (1937), as Mary Strand - *Fifty Roads to Town* (1937), as Millicent Kendall - *There Goes My Girl* (1937), as Connie Taylor - *Dangerous Number* (1937), as Eleanor - *Smartest Girl in Town* (1936), as Frances Cooke - *Walking on Air* (1936), as Kit Bennett - *My American Wife* (1936), as Mary Cantillon - *Don't Gamble with Love* (1936), as Ann Edwards - *Hell-Ship Morgan* (1936), as Mary Taylor - *You May Be Next!* (1936), as Fay Stevens - *Grand Exit* (1935), as Adrienne Martin / Adeline Maxwell - *The Girl Friend* (1935), as Linda Henry - *Hooray for Love* (1935), as Patricia Thatcher - *Eight Bells* (1935), as Marge Walker - *Folies Bergère de Paris* (1935), as Mimi - *Kid Millions* (1934), as Joan Larrabee - *The Party's Over* (1934), as Ruth Walker - *Blind Date* (1934), as Kitty Taylor - *The Hell Cat* (1934), as Geraldine Sloane - *Melody in Spring* (1934), as Jane Blodgett - *Let's Fall in Love* (1933), as Jean - *Broadway Thru a Keyhole* (1933), as Singer - *Whoopee!* (1930), as Goldwyn Girl (uncredited) - *Madam Satan* (1930), as Zeppelin Reveler (uncredited) - *The March of Time* (1930), as Chorus Girl (uncredited) - *Good News* (1930), as Student - *Song of the West* (1930), as Bit Part - *The Show of Shows* (1929), as Performer in 'Meet My Sister' & 'Bicycle Built for Two' Numbers (as Harriet Lake) - *Broadway Nights* (1927), as Showgirl (uncredited) ## Gallery - ![Photo of Ann Sothern as Susie McNamara from the television program Private Secretary. (1954)](https://film.one/media/person/1236334/gallery-5ff621b9b4d9.jpg) Photo of Ann Sothern as Susie McNamara from the television program Private Secretary. (1954) — NBC Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Ann_Sothern_Private_Secretary_1954.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Ann Sothern](https://film.one/media/person/1236334/gallery-dc22e7920c02.jpg) Ann Sothern — CBS Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Ann_Sothern_1960.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Ann Sothern](https://film.one/media/person/1236334/gallery-00b521acac81.jpg) Ann Sothern — Image via TMDB - ![Ann Sothern](https://film.one/media/person/1236334/gallery-f690d3887410.jpg) Ann Sothern — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1988: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *The Whales of August* ### Golden Globes — 1 won - 1959: Golden Globe Awards (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ann-sothern