Ann Ayars

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Ann Ayars (born July 23, 1918 as Ann Pellicciotti in Los Angeles , California , USA ; † February 27, 1995 in Hemet , California, USA) was an American actress and opera singer ( soprano ).

life and work

Ann Pellicciotti was born the only child of a singing teacher and a piano teacher. As a child, she lived with her parents in Milan for three years , where she also visited Scala several times . She finished school at Beverly Hill High School. In the 1930s she began a music career in which she went on tour with the musical Rio Rita , with the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra , but also appeared on the radio. At some point during this time, she decided that the name Pellicciotti was rather disruptive to a career and took the name Ayars, her grandmother's maiden name.

During one of her appearances, she was discovered as an actress by Irving Kumin. He got her test shots at Warner Bros. , but they went badly because there were problems with her skin. Since he continued to believe in her, Kumin referred her to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . When they were looking for a good actress and singer for the short film Fiesta , she got the role. The first important role she got in a full-length film was that of Cookie Charles in Dr. Kildare's Victory (her next film, Nazi Agent , hit theaters earlier than Dr. Kildare's Victory, but was shot later). In the next Dr. Kildare film Born to Be Bad , she took on this role again. As Lew Ayres , the Dr. Kildare starred but was removed from the finished film due to conscientious objection, her role was also removed. After a few more films such as Reunion in France and And life goes on , she ended her acting career and went to the New York City Opera as a soprano .

There she was the leading soprano in the late 1940s and 1950s. She appeared, for example, as Jafade in Ariadne auf Naxos , Monica in Das Medium , Mimi in La Bohème or Violetta in La traviata . She had guest appearances in Philadelphia La Scala , but also in Glyndebourne in 1947 , where she appeared as Eurydice in Orpheus and Eurydice , and in 1948 at the King's Theater in Edinburgh in the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni . Through these appearances she received the role of Antonia in the British opera adaptation of Hoffmann's Tales by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in 1951 .

In the 1960s, she had guest roles on television series such as The People at Shiloh Ranch , Perry Mason , Batman or Cobra, Take Over . From 1968 she taught singing and piano at the college in San Jacinto . There she staged 19 operas until she retired in 1987.

Ann Ayars died of complications from diabetes in 1995 at the age of 75 .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Sara Hamilton: Round-Up of Pace Setters . In: Photoplay . July 1942, She Got What She Wanted, p. 88 (English, online at Archive.org [accessed May 3, 2020]).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Ann Ayara. In: The Powell & Pressburger Pages. Retrieved on May 3, 2020 (English, excerpt from Monk Gibbon: The Tales of Hoffmann, a study of the film , Saturn Press, London, 1951).
  3. ↑ Ann Ayars . In: Picture Show Annual . 1943, p.  92 (English, online at Archive.org [accessed May 3, 2020]).
  4. ^ Marion Cooper: 72 Exciting Hours . In: Hollywood . May 1942, p. 30 (English, online at Archive.org [accessed May 3, 2020]).
  5. ↑ Dr. Kildare's Victory (1942). In: AFI Catalog. American Film Institute , accessed May 3, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942). In: AFI Catalog. American Film Institute , accessed May 3, 2020 .
  7. ↑ a b c d Ann Ayars, 75; Opera Singer . In: Los Angeles Times . March 13, 1995 ( online at LATimes.com [accessed May 3, 2020]).
  8. ↑ Ann Ayars. In: The Opera Archive. Glyndebourne, accessed May 3, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Ayars, Ann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pellicciotti, Ann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actress and opera singer
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California , USA
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 1995
Place of death Hemet , California , USA