Marguerite Gwynne Trice, known professionally as Anne Gwynne, was a stunning strawberry blonde model and actress born on December 18, 1918, in Waco, Texas. She was the daughter of Pearl and Jefferson Benjamin Trice, a clothing manufacturer, and the family moved to St. Louis, Missouri when she was still a child. After studying drama at Stephens College, Anne accompanied her father to Los Angeles, where she found work in local community productions and supplemented her income as a swimsuit model for Catalina.
A Universal studio talent agent discovered her in one of her theatre endeavors, and the 20-year-old was tested and signed in 1939. Anne initially appeared in a few bit parts as chorus girls or nurse types before earning her first female lead in the western Oklahoma Frontier (1939) opposite cowboy star Johnny Mack Brown. She continued to work as a gorgeous co-star/second lead for handsome leading men such as Richard Arlen and Robert Stack.
However, Anne is best remembered for her roles in horror films, particularly as a decorative lure for the monstrous antics of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Lon Chaney Jr. in movies like Black Friday (1940),The Black Cat (1941),The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942),Weird Woman (1944),House of Frankenstein (1944),and Murder in the Blue Room (1944).
Despite her striking looks and talent, Anne's film career was marked by limited success, and she often found herself relegated to second-string film fare. Nevertheless, she remained popular with servicemen as a WWII wall pin-up and transitioned to TV and commercials as her film career waned. She co-starred in TV's first filmed series, the noirish crime series Public Prosecutor (1947),and guested on action-filled 50's programs like "Ramar of the Jungle," "Death Valley Days," and "Northwest Passage."
Anne's later film appearances included The Blazing Sun (1950),Call of the Klondike (1950),and Breakdown (1952),which was executive produced by her husband Max M. Gilford. She returned to horror films one more time in the quickly dismissed Teenage Monster (1957),playing a caring mother whose home is hit by a meteor, resulting in the death of her husband and the monstrous mutation of her son.
After a decade of retirement, Anne made a brief, matronly appearance in the film Adam at Six A.M. (1970). She was married to Gilford in 1945 and had two children, including daughter Gwynne Gilford, who is married to actor Robert Pine and has a son, actor Chris Pine. Anne's health began to deteriorate in the '90s, and she passed away on March 31, 2003, at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, due to complications from a stroke.
