Tuesday 4 January 2011

Anne Francis Stars in Forbidden Planet 1930-2011

Anne Francis with Robbie the Robot in a still
to advertise Forbidden Planet
As Jennie and others noted yesterday the acting world lost Pete Postlethwaite, but the day before we lost one of the stars who warranted her own line in Science Fiction Double Feature the opening song over the titles of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Yes Anne Francis may have starred in Forbidden Planet (1956) but her career spanned almost 70 years from 1936-2004. Starting as a child model aged five to help her family through the great depression before taking to the Broadway stage at the age of 11.

He movie debut came in 1947 in This Time for Keeps but while Forbidden Planet  was her most famous film role she also starred as the TV detective Honey West in the show of the same name from 1965-6 for which she won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy.

Along the way she made appearance in The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Mission Impossible, Dallas, Murder She Wrote and Golden Girls amongst others. Her final appearance was in a 2004 episode of Without a Trace.

Twice married first in from 1952-55 to Bamlet Lawrence Price, Jr and then to Dr. Robert Abeloff from 1960-1964, with whom she had a daughter Jane Elizabeth in 1962. In 1970 she adopted Margaret "Maggie" West becoming one of the first single parents to adopt under a change in California state law. She had been suffering from lung cancer between 2007 and 2008 but died from complications due to pancreatic cancer.

However, of all the stars named in Science Fiction Double Feature only Thora Hird's daughter Janette Scott remains alive as in order Claude Raines, Michael Rennie, Leo G Carroll, George Pal, Dana Andrews Fay Wray and now Anne Francis have all passed on. Time for some late night, double feature, picture shows.

See also the following obituaries

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