- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJoan Boniface Winnifrith
- Nicknames
- The Queen of the Quota Quickies
- The British Bombshell
- Height1.63 m
- The daughter of a clergyman, Anna Lee was born Joan Boniface Winnifrith and encouraged to pursue an acting career by her father. After training at London's Royal Albert Hall, she took to the boards and later began appearing in English films, first as an extra, then working her way up to featured roles and finally earning the unofficial title "The Queen of the Quota Quickies". Lee and her husband, director Robert Stevenson, relocated to Hollywood in the late 1930s, and Lee began starring in stateside productions as well as becoming a fixture of the John Ford stock company (she appeared in Qu'elle était verte ma vallée (1941), Le Massacre de Fort-Apache (1948) and a half-dozen others). In 1970, she became the seventh wife of novelist, poet and playwright Robert Nathan (Le portrait de Jennie (1948), Honni soit qui mal y pense (1947)); they married three months after they met. Now widowed, Lee continued despite adversity, regularly playing wealthy Lila Quartermaine on the soap opera Hôpital central (1963). She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire at the 1982 Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to drama. On May 14, 2004, Anna Lee passed away from pneumonia at age 91 at her home in Beverly Hills, California.- IMDb mini biography by: Tom Weaver <TomWeavr@aol.com>
- SpousesRobert Nathan(April 5, 1970 - May 25, 1985) (his death)George Stafford(June 8, 1944 - 1964) (divorced, 3 children)Robert Stevenson(December 6, 1934 - March 9, 1944) (divorced, 2 children)
- Children
- ParentsBertram WinnifrithEdith Maude Digby-Roper
- Was paralyzed from the waist down in an automobile accident, and acted in a wheelchair for more than two decades.
- Goddaughter of Dame Sybil Thorndike and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
- During World War II, Lee performed with Jack Benny and others in USO tours entertaining troops in North Africa and Europe. General George S. Patton awarded her a special medal for her efforts.
- Passed away just a week before she was to have received a Daytime Emmy Award for lifetime achievement. Her actor son, Jeffrey Byron, accepted on her behalf at the New York ceremony.
- Was good friends with Maureen O'Hara and Roddy McDowall.
- I want to die with my boots on. English actors have a great reputation for longevity.
- [on working with John Wayne in La Maison des 7 péchés (1940)] Marlene [Marlene Dietrich] didn't want a blonde in the picture--other than herself. So it was the first time I had to rinse [color] my hair. John Wayne was a lovely man, what I would call a typical American--very nice, very modest. His stature as a star never came up, although we worked together many times over the years. On our first encounter, we were engaged in conversation and he asked me if I was a Republican. Since I was new to this country, I thought he was asking if I was a publican, which is a person who keeps a publichouse for drinking beer. I told him I was not a publican, but that I did enjoy beer. [Laughs] That really confused him!
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