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Andrea Leeds

Known For
Acting

Known Credits
19

Gender
Female

Birthday
August 18, 1914 (111 years old)

Place of Birth
Butte, Montana, USA

Andrea Leeds

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Andrea Leeds (August 18, 1914 – May 21, 1984) was an American film actress. A popular supporting player of the late 1930s, Leeds was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Stage Door (1937). She was progressing to leading roles, when she retired from acting following her marriage in 1939, and was later a successful horse breeder.

She began her film career in 1933 playing bit parts and using her given name. As Andrea Leeds she played her first substantial role in the film Come and Get It (1936) and achieved another success with her next film It Could Happen to You! (1937).

As part of an ensemble cast that included Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers and Lucille Ball, Leeds was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as an aspiring actress in Stage Door (1937). She read for the role of Melanie in Gone with the Wind, however the role was given to Olivia de Havilland.

Her wholesome quality led to her being cast in The Goldwyn Follies (1938) playing "Miss Humanity" – a woman considered by a jaded Hollywood executive to represent the ideal American woman. The film was not a success and received poor reviews.

She next appeared in two films opposite Joel McCrea (who earlier played her brother in Come and Get It), Youth Takes a Fling (1938) and They Shall Have Music (1939), for the first time playing the lead female role. She continued to play the romantic female lead in an adventure film set in the 1906 Philippines, The Real Glory, opposite Gary Cooper and David Niven, and opposite Don Ameche in the first Technicolor biography of Stephen Foster, Swanee River (1939).

Her final film, Earthbound (1940), was a fantasy murder mystery in which Leeds' character solves the murder of her husband, aided by his ghost.

These films were relatively successful and Leeds remained a popular actress. In 1939 she married Robert Stewart Howard, son of California businessman and racehorse owner Charles S. Howard, and decided to leave films to devote herself to raising a family. Her father-in-law owned and raced Seabiscuit, and with her husband she became a successful horse owner/breeder.

Known For

Acting

1988The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Windas Self (archive footage)
1940Earthboundas Ellen Besborough
1939Swanee Riveras Jane McDowell Foster
1939The Real Gloryas Linda Hartley
1939They Shall Have Musicas Ann Lawson
1938Youth Takes a Flingas Helen Brown
1938Letter of Introductionas Kay Martin
1938The Goldwyn Folliesas Hazel Dawes
1937Stage Dooras Kay Hamilton
1937It Could Happen to Youas Laura Compton
1936Come and Get Itas Evvie Glasgow
1936My Man Godfreyas Socialite at Scavenger Hunt (uncredited)
1936Forgotten Facesas Salesgirl
1936Song of the Trailas Betty Hobson
1936Sutter's Goldas Nurse
1936The Count Takes the Countas Gloria Grayson
1935Dante's Infernoas Anna
1934Elinor Nortonas Nurse
1933Meet the Baronas College Girl (uncredited)

Production