- Collection Spotlights
- Australia's Prime Ministers
- Restoration of The Story of the Kelly Gang
- Mike and Stefani
- 1967 Referendum
- Australians in WWI
- For The Term of His Natural Life
- Jedda
- The Sentimental Bloke
- Kingsford-Smith
- Waltzing Matilda
- Theatre of the Mind
- Theatres & Cinemas
- Soldiers of the Cross
- Shirley Ann Richards
- Graham Kennedy
- A tribute to Charles Chauvel
- A tribute to Joan Long
- Lottie Lyell - Photo Play Artiste
Shirley Ann Richards 1918 - 2006
Shirley Ann Richards was one of Australia's most popular actors in the 1930s. Fresh-faced, bubbly, slinky and slyly humorous, she played the female lead in a number of runaway film successes for the Cinesound Studio.
You can listen to Neil Macdonald's oral history interview with Shirley Ann - covering highlights from her acting career, including collaborating on film projects with Australian filmmaker Ken Hall, her move to America and her first job at MGM .
She was born in Sydney in 1918 and came to prominence when Ken G Hall cast her as the pretty daughter of Cecil Kellaway in the 1937 film It Isn't Done. Kellaway played Hubert Blaydon, a simple Australian farmer who finds that he has inherited an English baronial estate. He takes his family to England where he finds that his honest simplicity conflicts with the harsh rules of high society. His daughter of course finds true love which doesn't run smoothly until the final scenes.
Richards was an outstanding success in the film and was signed to a contract by Cinesound. She featured in four of the studio's subsequent films: Tall Timbers (1937); Lovers and Luggers (1937); Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938); and Come up Smiling (Ants in His Pants) (1939). She also appeared in the wartime featurette 100,000 Cobbers.(1942).
In 1942, when Cinesound stopped making feature films, she relocated to Hollywood. She was forced to change her working name to Ann Richards, so as not to be confused with the established actress Anne Shirley. She went on to feature in many movies of the 1940s and 1950s including An American Romance (King Vidor, 1944), Love Letters (William Dieterle,1945), and Sorry, Wrong Number (Anatole Litvak,1948).
She was a keen writer and in 1971 published a collection of poems called The Grieving Senses.
Married to American director Edmond Angelo, she remained in fond touch with Australia. The National Film and Sound Archive has in its collection several oral history interviews with her. In these interviews she recalls her experiences as a young star in one of Australia's successful filmmaking periods. In 1985 she also featured in the documentary Don't Call me Girlie, which focused on women in Australian cinema.
