Annie Ross
Birth : 1930-07-26, Mitcham, Surrey, England, UK
Death : 2020-07-21
History
Annabelle McCauley Allan Short (25 July 1930 – 21 July 2020), known professionally as Annie Ross, was a British-American singer and actress, best known as a member of the jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.
Ross was born in Surrey, England, the daughter of Scottish vaudevillians John "Jack" Short and Mary Dalziel Short (née Allan). Her brother was Scottish entertainer and theatre producer and director Jimmy Logan. She first appeared on stage at age three. At the age of four, she travelled to New York by ship with her family; she later recalled that they "got the cheapest ticket, which was right in the bowels of the ship".
Shortly after arriving in the city, she won a token contract with MGM through a children's radio contest run by Paul Whiteman. She subsequently moved with her aunt, Scottish-American singer and actress Ella Logan, to Los Angeles, and her mother, father and brother returned to Scotland. She did not see her parents again until fourteen years later. At the age of seven, she sang "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" in Our Gang Follies of 1938, and played Judy Garland's character's sister in Presenting Lily Mars (1943).
Her adulthood film roles included Liza in the film Straight On till Morning (1972), Claire in Alfie Darling (1976), Diana Sharman in Funny Money (1983), Vera Webster in Superman III (1983), Mrs. Hazeltine in Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Rose Brooks in Witchery (1988), Loretta Cresswood in Pump Up the Volume (1990), Tess Trainer in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), and Lydia in Blue Sky (1994). She also appeared as Granny Ruth in the horror films Basket Case 2 (1990) and Basket Case 3: The Progeny (1991). She also had a bit part in Robert Altman's The Player in 1992. Ross also starred in Scottish Television's comedy-drama Charles Endell Esquire (1979).
She provided the speaking voice for Britt Ekland in The Wicker Man (1973), and Ingrid Thulin's singing voice in Salon Kitty (1976). On stage, she appeared in Cranks (1955; London and New York City), The Threepenny Opera (1972), The Seven Deadly Sins (1973) at the Royal Opera House, Kennedy's Children (1975) at Arts Theatre, London, Side by Side by Sondheim, and in the Joe Papp production of The Pirates of Penzance (1982).
Ross died in New York City on 21 July 2020 from emphysema and heart disease, four days before her 90th birthday.
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Told in Count Basie's own words, this biography sheds light on both the professional and the private life of the world-famous bandleader and pianist who became a jazz icon for his generation.
Self
The documentary tracks the diva's difficult progress as she emerges from the tough, testosterone-fuelled world of the big bands of the 30s and 40s, to fill nightclubs and saloons across the US in the 50s and early 60s as a force in her own right. Looking at the lives and careers of six individual singers (Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone and Annie Ross), the film not only talks to those who knew and worked with these queens of jazz, but also to contemporary singers who sit on the shoulders of these trailblazing talents without having to endure the pain and hardship it took for them to make their highly individual voices heard above the prejudice of mid-century America.
Herself
This documentary explores the life of jazz singer Anita O'Day. As a child, Anita had a tonsillectomy, during which her uvula was accidentally removed. The surgery prevents her from singing vibrato and holding long notes, but lends to her much-revered percussive style. Anita overcomes her vocal hurdle, as well as many others -- including poverty, heroin addiction and jail time for a drug arrest -- to become one of the most prolific and respected jazz vocalists of the 20th century.
Initial release: 30 April 2007
Lydia
Hank Marshall is a tough, square-jawed, straitlaced Army engineer and nuclear science expert, assigned to help conduct weapons testing in 1950s America. Hank has become a thorn in the side of the Army, though, for a couple of very different reasons. He is an outspoken opponent of atmospheric testing, though his superiors hold contrary views and want to squelch his concerns...and his reports. The other problem is his wife, Carly. She is voluptuous and volatile, wreaking havoc in his personal life and stirring up intrigue at each new Army base.
Tess Trainer
Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a coma. While at the hospital, the boy's grandfather tells his son, Howard, about his past affairs. Meanwhile, a baker starts harassing the family when they fail to pick up the boy's birthday cake.
Annie Ross
A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?
Granny Ruth
Henelotter ups the ante in the final part of his trilogy by introducing a new member to the family: the potentially monstrous fruit of hideously deformed Belial's loins. With the pair still enjoying relative anonymity and comfort in their new found home (presided over by Granny Roth), things however take a downward turn on a trip to the Georgia Clinic of Uncle Hal, which leads to an encounter with an especially nasty redneck sheriff and his similarly blinkered band of merry men.
Loretta Creswood
Mark Hunter, a lonely high school student, uses his shortwave radio to moonlight as the popular pirate DJ "Hard Harry." When his show gets blamed for a teen committing suicide, the students clash with high school faculty and the authorities.
Granny Ruth
Having eluded the authorities after a series of grisly murders, the pair find sanctuary at the palatial home of Granny Ruth, an eccentric philanthropist who rallies the cause of "Unique Individuals". But even amongst "friends" the pair soon find themselves having to confront their murderous past.
Rose Brooks
The deserted island hotel hides a dark and sinister secret. Hundreds of years ago a witch held sway there, dominating her coven and spreading an evil that has seeped deep into the earth. Two centuries later, a photographer and his virginal fiance sneak onto the island to research its gruesome history. Soon all will find themselves falling victim to a horror that has survived the ages....
Mrs. Hazeltine
Larry Donner, an author with a cruel ex-wife, teaches a writing workshop in which one of his students, Owen, is fed up with his domineering mother. When Owen watches a Hitchcock classic that seems to mirror his own life, he decides to put the movie's plot into action and offers to kill Larry's ex-wife, if Larry promises to murder his mom. Before Larry gets a chance to react to the plan, it seems that Owen has already set things in motion.
Vera
Aiming to defeat the Man of Steel, wealthy executive Ross Webster hires bumbling but brilliant Gus Gorman to develop synthetic kryptonite, which yields some unexpected psychological effects in the third installment of the 1980s Superman franchise. Between rekindling romance with his high school sweetheart and saving himself, Superman must contend with a powerful supercomputer.
Diana Sharman
Crime, drama. In Las Vegas, young Barry Nichols inadvertently steals a fortune from the Mob and is slashed to death by a limping hood. Later, his girlfriend Cass arrives in London with a stack of stolen credit cards looking for Ben Turtle, a talented pianist whose fingering is famous in the world of credit card crime. Their stormy relationship is hindered by hotel detective Keith Banks and assistant manager Diana Sharman. -- BFI synopsis from http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b69480238
Red Cross lady
During WWII, the United States set up army bases in Great Britain as part of the war effort. Against their proper sensibilities, many of the Brits don't much like the brash Yanks, especially when it comes to the G.I.s making advances on the lonely British girls. One relationship that develops is between married John, an Army Captain, and the aristocratic Helen, whose naval husband is away at war. Helen loves her husband, but Helen and John are looking for some comfort during the difficult times.
Kitty Kellermann (singing voice)
Kitty runs a brothel in Nazi Germany where the soldiers come to "relax". Recording devices have been installed in each room by a power hungry army official who plans to use the information to blackmail Hitler and gain power himself. A girl named Margherita discovers the little ploy and with Kitty's help plans to take on the dangerous task of exposing the conspiracy.
Caroline Newcliffe (uncredited/voice)
Wealthy big game hunter Tom Newcliffe has tracked and killed practically every type of animal in the world. But one creature still evades him, the biggest game of all - a werewolf.
Willow MacGreagor (voice) (uncredited)
Police sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. Stranger still, however, are the rituals that take place there.
Liza
Brenda moved to London to begin living those intoxicated fantasies that all young women imagine city life to offer. Soon after her arrival she begins a relationship with Peter with whom she is tremendously happy. When she becomes pregnant Peter's behaviour towards her alters as he reveals the most frightening and unpredictable side of his personality. He forces Brenda to listen to a series of recordings, exposing a past of shocking cruelty of sadistic murder.
Documentary film in which Marty Feldman looks at humour through the people who create it.
Singer (uncredited)
A group of tourists is given a tour of a movie studio lot. They see the various permanent sets that are used for different types of movies, and they appear to watch the filming of several productions in progress. Musical numbers from several previous Warner Bros. Technicolor shorts are edited into this short to create the illusion.
Rosie
Starstruck Indiana small-town girl Lily is pestering theatrical producer John Thornway for a role but he is reluctant.
Singer
The story of Cinderella with a children's cast.
Loch Lomond Singer
Alfalfa gives up being "King of the Crooners" to sing opera, but a nightmare of being under the thumb of an evil producer sends him back to his roots.
