Alabama Yesterdays: Cathy O'Donnell

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

The Many Faces of Cathy O'Donnell

I've done a blog post on Siluria native Cathy O'Donnell [born Ann M. Steely] in my series on film actresses from Alabama whose careers began before 1960. You can read that post for details on her life and work in both film and television. She had roles in a number of major films including The Best Years of Our Lives, Detective Story, The Man from Laramie and Ben Hur. Many film noir fans [and we are legion] have long admired her performance alongside Farley Granger in the classic They Live by Night.

Among her television roles was one appearance on Perry Mason, in "The Case of the Fickle Fortune." I happened to watch it recently and took some screen shots as the episode progressed. O'Donnell plays county employee Norma Brooks in love with a con man who has used her once, and returns to do it again.

As usual, this Perry Mason case is deliciously complicated. I'll let a commentator on the IMDB page for the episode set the stage:

"County tax man Ralph Duncan inventories a house after the owner died intestate. While there a woman stops by to question him about some items saying she had been the owner's maid. He finds a cache of old greenbacks, "shin plasters," worth $153,000. When he arrives home to show his wife Helen and cousin, Charlie Nickles, the surprising find, the money is gone. Unknown to Duncan, Nickles has the money and fences it to Lloyd Farrell, an import/export merchant. Farrell turns to another county employee, Norma Brooks, to find elderly, infirm Josiah Ames, who is near death. Farrell plants $148,000 of the money in Ames' effects, which are bequeathed to his accountant, Albert Keller. Upon seeing the story in the newspaper, Duncan consults Perry Mason, who speaks with Keller. After a woman calls Duncan he visits Farrell who he finds dead. Duncan is leaving the house as the police arrive so Duncan is arrested."

Got that?

Farrell cons poor Norma into planting the big bucks at Ames' house and convincing the old man to write the will naming his accountant as beneficiary.

More comments are below. If you are so inclined, you can read a lot of minutiae about this episode here.

This particular episode was original to the series and not based on one of the many Perry Mason novels by Earle Stanley Gardner.

When Farrell contacts Norma again after so long, she is cool at first.

However, her defenses soon crumble, and once again she is putty in Farrell's hands, thus setting her up to help with his money laundering scheme.

Mason [Raymond Burr] shows up at Norma's office as he begins to investigate the situation for Duncan.

Mason's questioning gets around to Farrell, and Norma confesses her past relationship to him.

Naturally, Norma can't understand how Farrell could be involved in anything illegal.

Norma, Mason and private detective Paul Drake [William Hopper] make a visit to Farrell's residence. Surprise, surprise, they find his dead body!

As the trial begins, Norma waits in the audience for her turn in the witness chair.

First, she has to face questioning by District Attorney Hamilton Burger [played by William Talman]

Now it's Perry Mason's turn. Norma does not wither under questioning by either Mason or Burger.

Later, during another witness's testimony, Norma loses her cool. She leaps up from her seat at one point and confesses before God and everyone in the courtroom that she didn't kill Farrell. That turns out to be true, but I wonder what price she had to pay for her role in Farrell's scheme.

The role featured another good performance by the Alabama native O'Donnell. A blog post on some of her film work can be found here.

Several veteran actors also appeared in this episode. Vaughn Taylor, who played Mason's client Ralph Duncan, had a long career from the 1930's into the 1970's. He was a familiar face on television in the 1950's and 1960's. Also familiar was the actress who played Helen Duncan, Virginia Christine. She appeared in roles from the 1940s until 1979, often on television. She is probably best remembered as Mrs. Olson in a long running series of commercials for Folger's Coffee.

The Boston Globe profiled O'Donnell early in her career in a December 17, 1946 issue

Source: Newspapers.com

The Birmingham News profiled O'Donnell in a Sunday feature for the February 27, 1955, issue

Source: Newspapers.com

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Film Actresses from Alabama Before 1960 (5): Cathy O'Donnell

I recently watched They Live by Night on Turner Classic Movies; I don't remember ever seeing this classic film noir before. The movie is based on Edward Anderson's 1937 novel, Thieves Like Us, which I read some years ago. The book is included in a Library of America collection of six crime novels, putting it alongside such impressive titles as James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice and Horace McCoy's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? In 1974 director Robert Altman filmed another version of the novel, using the novel's title. However, unlike the original film, that one did not star Alabama native Cathy O'Donnell.

O'Donnell was born Ann M. Steely on July 6, 1923, the first child of Harold G. and Ora L. Steely. Younger brother Joe was born two years later. At the time the family lived in Siluria Village, an unincorporated area for the workers at the Buck Creek Cotton Mills. Harold, apparently known as "Henry", was a teacher at Thompson High School and also operated the Siluria Community House, which included a silent movie theater. The facility eventually burned, but later served as the site of the Alabaster YMCA for several decades.

Young Ann probably attended first grade at Thompson Elementary, but the family soon moved to Greensboro. Henry died there in 1935, and Ora moved the two children to Oklahoma City when Ann was twelve. She graduated from Classen High School there and briefly studied at a business college. She entered Oklahoma City University, where she studied drama and appeared in some student productions. In 1944 she left the city and headed to Hollywood.

She first appeared uncredited as a night club patron in Wonder Man in 1945. Including that role, she acted in only 18 films in her career, but several were significant.

The following year she played the high school sweetheart of a double amputee in The Best Years of Our Lives. That film, which told the story of U.S.. servicemen adjusting to civilian life, won seven Oscars and was a major box office success.

Over the rest of her career O'Donnell starred with Farley Granger in two crime dramas, the aforementioned They Live By Night and Side Street. She also appeared opposite Kirk Douglas in Detective Story [1951] and James Stewart in The Man From Laramie [1955]. In her final film she had a sizable role in the 1959 epic Ben-Hur.

In the 1960's she guest-starred on such TV shows as Perry Mason, Bonanza, The Rebel and Zane Gray Theater.

In April 1948 O'Donnell married Robert Wyler, a film producer and older brother of director William Wyler. O'Donnell died from cancer complications in April 1970. The couple had no children. She is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. I have yet to determine what happened to her mother and younger brother.

This article gives more details about the Steely family in Alabama, based on research by Bobby Joe Seales:

Bryant, Joseph D. Long-ago Hollywood actress came from Shelby mill town. Birmingham News 8 June 2005