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Anna Lee: Memoir of a Career on General Hospital and in Film
Born Joan Boniface Winnifrith on January 2, 1913, Anna Lee is best known for her portrayal of General Hospital 's Lila Quartermaine, a character who she brought to life for over two decades. From her early years in England to her final days in Hollywood, she recounts details of her extraordinary life in her memoir. Expressed in her energetic style, Anna Lee tells of her childhood as the daughter of an English clergyman and her early determination to become an actress. She writes of her teenage struggles to realize her dream, two failed marriages, and the difficulties she faced raising a family while maintaining her career. Finally, we see the picture of a mature Anna Lee--a successful actress playing a role she loved while enjoying an ideal marriage to writer Robert Nathan. Personal remembrances from her family and General Hospital co-stars round out this touching, entertaining self-portrait of the actress' life. A complete filmography and list of television appearances is also included.
- GenresNonfiction
322 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2007
About the author
Anna Lee
1 bookActress Anna Lee (1913-2004) was born in the village of Ightham, Kent, England. She starred in numerous films during her long and successful career.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 10, 2024
Oh, sweet Anna Lee. How difficult it is to rate this book because if it were from an author in her 60s it would deserve one or two stars for failing to tell enough stories while just skimming over major career highlights. But this book is from a woman that was in her early 90s (almost finished before she died and it had to be completed by her son). So I'll give it three stars, but in terms of a memoir it's minimal--more like a quick look at her IMDb list and tossing in a few asides, mostly about her time entertaining troops in World War II. There are even times when it seems like she's going through a list and admits she doesn't remember anything about making a certain film or TV show.
Anna--born Joan Boniface Winnifrith--and her coauthor attempt to paint the actress as a proper gentle woman who naively allowed men to take advantage of her and worked until her dying day to make up for the money her men misspent. In truth the picture that comes through is of a somewhat naughty woman who traded her desire for love in exchange for being a responsible mother. It was shocking to read that she sent three of her five children off to live with others at different times--one to an orphanage while Anna was making movies in Hollywood!
It's difficult to understand the thinking of any film star, and in this case this daughter of an Anglican minister decided to become Catholic while at the same time sleeping around and cheating on her husbands. We get long chapters on her flying from country-to-country in World War II, having affairs and being away from her family for a few months. While it's refreshing that the actress admits to her sexual dalliances, to do it at the cost of ignoring her children seems disgusting, not to mention the hypocrisy of her continued claims of allegiance to Catholicism.
One of the most revealing things about the book is how many movies she made when young. However, the projects she is best known for simply get a few paragraphs. Her Sound of Music appearance gets only a half-page mention. Do these authors not realize we want to hear all about her being in one of the most famous movies of all time?
Once she gets to General Hospital late in her career Anna claims to be just about penniless from an abusive and lazy second husband who wasted her movie earnings, and a much older third husband who doesn't have health insurance. There are a few details about her work on the soap opera but not enough to satisfy any fan.
There are a few surprises--she met a lot of famous people along the way, including her childhood friend Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as experiencing a fire that destroyed her life's accumulated possessions, and her decision to leave her successful film career to move to Montana to become a wild west housewife for that crazy second husband. Then her sudden late-in-life inability to use her leg without any prognosis is a shock.
But overall, there aren't enough stories to sustain a fully fleshed-out memoir. This is written the way idealistic Lila Quartermaine would spin positive. So in Anna's memory I will give her more credit than due for simply surviving life with a positive spin on very difficult years, some of which she brought upon herself due to her bad choices. It's almost as if she lived a real-life soap opera.
Anna--born Joan Boniface Winnifrith--and her coauthor attempt to paint the actress as a proper gentle woman who naively allowed men to take advantage of her and worked until her dying day to make up for the money her men misspent. In truth the picture that comes through is of a somewhat naughty woman who traded her desire for love in exchange for being a responsible mother. It was shocking to read that she sent three of her five children off to live with others at different times--one to an orphanage while Anna was making movies in Hollywood!
It's difficult to understand the thinking of any film star, and in this case this daughter of an Anglican minister decided to become Catholic while at the same time sleeping around and cheating on her husbands. We get long chapters on her flying from country-to-country in World War II, having affairs and being away from her family for a few months. While it's refreshing that the actress admits to her sexual dalliances, to do it at the cost of ignoring her children seems disgusting, not to mention the hypocrisy of her continued claims of allegiance to Catholicism.
One of the most revealing things about the book is how many movies she made when young. However, the projects she is best known for simply get a few paragraphs. Her Sound of Music appearance gets only a half-page mention. Do these authors not realize we want to hear all about her being in one of the most famous movies of all time?
Once she gets to General Hospital late in her career Anna claims to be just about penniless from an abusive and lazy second husband who wasted her movie earnings, and a much older third husband who doesn't have health insurance. There are a few details about her work on the soap opera but not enough to satisfy any fan.
There are a few surprises--she met a lot of famous people along the way, including her childhood friend Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as experiencing a fire that destroyed her life's accumulated possessions, and her decision to leave her successful film career to move to Montana to become a wild west housewife for that crazy second husband. Then her sudden late-in-life inability to use her leg without any prognosis is a shock.
But overall, there aren't enough stories to sustain a fully fleshed-out memoir. This is written the way idealistic Lila Quartermaine would spin positive. So in Anna's memory I will give her more credit than due for simply surviving life with a positive spin on very difficult years, some of which she brought upon herself due to her bad choices. It's almost as if she lived a real-life soap opera.
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December 9, 2023Inscribed to me by Anna's son, Jeffrey Byron 7-15-07
I gave a copy of this book to my mom too.
I gave a copy of this book to my mom too.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews