Anne Revere Career Summary:
Occupational inheritance: No
Social Class: Upper-middle; father stockbroker
Education: Wellesley College; studied at American Lab Theater
Stage debut:
Broadway debut: 1931; age 28
Film debut: 1934; age 31
Oscar awards: 1, Supp. Actress Award
Oscar nominations: 3 Supp. Actress noms
Other awards: Tony Award, “Toys in the Attic,” 1960; age 57
Career span (screen): 1934-1951 (17 years); then blacklisted
Last film: Preminger
Marriage: theater director, Samuel Rosen, 1935-1984 (his death)
Politics: Democrat; blacklisted
Death: 1990; age 87
Born in New York City on June 25, 1903, Anne Revere was a direct descendant of American Revolution hero Paul Revere. Her father was a stockbroker, and she was raised on the Upper West Side and in Westfield, New Jersey.
Wellesley College
In 1926, she graduated from Wellesley College. Despite her unsuccessful attempts to join dramatic groups in high school and in college, she eventually was successful at Wellesley and studied dramatics there. She went on to enroll at the American Laboratory School to study acting with Maria Ouspenskaya and Richard Boleslavsky.
Revere gained acting experience in regional and stock theater troupes. She made her Broadway debut in 1931 in The Great Barrington.
Three years later, she went to Hollywood to reprise her stage role in the film adaptation of Double Door.
Tony Award: 1960
She returned to Broadway to create the role of Martha Dobie in the original 1934 production of The Children’s Hour, and in later years, she appeared on the New York stage in As You Like It, The Three Sisters, and Toys in the Attic, for which she won the 1960 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a play.
Revere worked steadily in films, appearing in nearly three dozen between 1934 and 1951.
She frequently was cast in the role of a matriarch and played mother to Elizabeth Taylor, Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, John Garfield, and Montgomery Clift.
Oscar Records
She was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress three times and won for her performance in National Velvet. Additional screen credits included The Song of Bernadette (first nomination), Gentleman’s Agreement (third and last nomination) The Keys of the Kingdom, Body and Soul, and A Place in the Sun.
In 1951, Revere resigned from the board of the Screen Actors Guild. At the time, she was an active member of the American Communist Party. She later pleaded the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
A Place in the Sun, directed by Stevens, was her last film role for two decades. She returned to the screen in Preminger’s Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon.
In 1962, TV director Joseph Hardy fought for Revere to appear in the popular soap opera A Time for Us. ABC finally agreed to cast Revere in the role and after that Revere appeared frequently in soap operas like A Flame in the Wind, The Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow, and Ryan’s Hope.
Revere and her husband, theatre director Samuel Rosen moved to New York and opened an acting school, and she continued to work in summer stock and regional theater and on television.
Revere married Rosen in 1935, and they remained wed until his death in 1984.
Revere was a Democrat who supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election.
Revere died of pneumonia on December 18, 1990 at her home at Locust Valley, New York, age of 87.
