Anne Nagel

Anne Nagel

Sad-eyed, brunette American actress Anne Nagel was the daughter of one of the early Technicolor experts. Already a Hollywood habitue, Nagel made her film bow at age 21 in I Loved You Wednesday. She signed a contract with Warner Bros., appearing as everything from western ingenues to murder suspects. In 1935 she married another Warners contractee, leading man Ross Alexander. After Alexander's sudden, inexplicable suicide in 1937, Nagel was quietly dropped by Warners, then was optioned by Universal. Busiest in the early '40s, she appeared in numerous Universal serials (Don Winslow of the Navy [1940]) and horror films (Man Made Monster [1940]). She was cast as Madame Gorgeous, the circus aerialist mother of Gloria Jean in W.C. Fields' Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), but nearly her entire part (including a spectacular death scene) ended up on the cutting room floor. Leaving Universal in 1943, Nagel freelanced at such minor operations as PRC and Republic. Her final film roles were supporting at best, often uncredited (e.g. as one of the "team wives" in the 1949 baseball biopic The Stratton Story). Retiring from films in 1949, Anne Nagel died of cancer in 1966 at the age of 53. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide