Ann Prentiss

Ann Prentiss

Birth : 1939-11-27, San Antonio, Texas, USA

Death : 2010-01-12

History

Ann Prentiss (November 27, 1939 – January 12, 2010) was an American actress. She was born Ann Elizabeth Ragusa in San Antonio, Texas, to Paulene (née Gardner) and Thomas J. Ragusa. Her father was of Sicilian descent. Her elder sister, Paula Prentiss, is also an actress. Prentiss had many supporting roles in films and television series in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including Get Smart's "The Little Black Book", Hogan's Heroes' "The Missing Klink" (1969), and Baretta's "Half a Million Dollar Baby". She provided the voice of an alien species in the comedy film My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988), co-starring alongside Kim Basinger and Dan Aykroyd. Her other film roles included appearances in Any Wednesday (1966), If He Hollers, Let Him Go! (1968), The Out-of-Towners (1970), and California Split (1974), opposite George Segal and Elliott Gould. Ann Prentiss was convicted in a California court of a 1996 assault against her father and a subsequent threat against members of her family. The district attorney claimed that Prentiss, while incarcerated on the assault charge, had attempted to hire another inmate to kill three people, including her father and actor/director Richard Benjamin, the husband of her sister. On July 23, 1997, the court sentenced her to 19 years in prison. Prentiss died on January 12, 2010, while serving her prison sentence.

Profile

Ann Prentiss

Movies

My Stepmother Is an Alien
The Voice of the Bag (voice)
Trying to rescue her home planet from destruction, a gorgeous extraterrestrial named Celeste arrives on Earth and begins her scientific research. She woos quirky scientist Dr. Steve Mills, a widower with a young daughter. Before long, Celeste finds herself in love with Steve and her new life on Earth, where she experiences true intimacy for the first time. But when she loses sight of her mission, she begins to question where she belongs.
California Split
Barbara Miller
Carefree single guy Charlie Waters rooms with two lovely prostitutes, Barbara Miller and Susan Peters, and lives to gamble. Along with his glum betting buddy, Bill Denny, Charlie sets out on a gambling streak in search of the ever-elusive big payday. While Charlie and Bill have some lucky moments, they also have to contend with serious setbacks that threaten to derail their hedonistic betting binge.
The Lie
Elaine Fredericks
An Ingmar Bergman script. Produced for Swedish Television as "Reservatet" (1970) and for BBC as "The Lie" (1971). An American couple is trapped in their marriage and way of life. Locked up in their bourgeois inferno.
The Out-of-Towners
Airline Stewardess
George & Gwen Kellerman make a trip to New York, where George is going to start a new job, it turns out to be a trip to hell.
In Name Only
Jill Willis
In this romantic comedy, an unwed couple who run a wedding planning business discover, to their horror, that the Justice of the Peace who had officiated their first three weddings was only an actor. Hilarity ensues as they set about trying to get these marrieds married...again.
If He Hollers, Let Him Go!
Thelma Wilson
James Lake (Raymond St. Jacques) is an escaped black convict imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit. Leslie Whitlock (Kevin McCarthy) offers James money to kill his wife, Ellen (Dana Wynter). He declines and tries to look up his old flame Lily (Barbara McNair), but discovers his own brother is now married to the sultry nightclub singer. James returns to Leslie, and the trio travel towards a mountain retreat. James and Ellen escape and try to find the murderer who had framed James years before. He experiences prejudices from police and civilian alike before the trail leads to the dead girl's stepfather.
Assignment to Kill
Hotel Party Girl in Red Dress (uncredited)
A private eye is hired by an insurance company to investigate a shipping magnate suspected of deliberately sinking his own ships for the insurance money. He finds himself involved in a web of deception, double-crossing and murder.
Any Wednesday
Miss Linsley
Ellen Gordon, a New York executive's mistress falls for the executive's young business associate when the young man is accidentally sent to use the apartment where the executive and his mistress get together every Wednesday. More complications arise when the executive's wife shows up with plans to redecorate the apartment.