Ann Carter (June 16, 1936 – January 27, 2014) was an American child actress, who worked with dozens of film stars, compiling an "unimaginably distinguished résumé" despite an acting career which lasted only slightly more than a decade. She is best known for her starring role as Amy Reed in the film The Curse of the Cat People (1944), and also acted alongside stars including Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Bing Crosby, Fredric March, and Barbara Stanwyck among others.

Biography

Carter was born in Syracuse, New York on June 16, 1936, and at the age of three moved with her mother Nancy to Palm Springs, California for the benefit of Nancy's health. Her father, Bert Carter, was an executive with "the Dodge division of Chrysler Corporation" (working there for 38 years) and commuted back and forth between California and Detroit "where he was working for Chrysler on defense-related projects." After briefly residing with her maternal Aunt Stell "(short for Estelle)" and Uncle Jack in "Glendale, on Idlewood," Carter and her mother moved "to a place near Olympic and Robertson in West Los Angeles, with [her father] there again part-time."

Carter's mother "had always been very interested in the theater," but was disallowed from pursuing her own career by her own father, Ann's grandfather. According to her mother, Ann was discovered at the age of four while she was living in Los Angeles. As she and her mother were riding on a bus, Carter explains:


someone from 20th Century-Fox saw me and told my mom that I should be introduced to producer-director Herbert Brenon. I was and, through Mr. Brenon, I got to try out for a one-line part in Fox's Last of the Duanes... – and I got the part!

Some 60 years later, Carter confesses that she doesn't recall much personally about Last of the Duanes, which was shot in April–May, 1941, but was subsequently told "exactly what happened" by her "very focused" mother.

In her first fantasy film, and most notable early role, she played Veronica Lake's young daughter in I Married a Witch (1942), an experience which "made [a big] impression" on the then-five year old actress. A scene she remembers clearly, which later "ended up on the cutting room floor," she 'flew' "down a staircase on a broomstick," specially fitted with a "little seat" crafted specifically for her. She also recalls the make-up artists "combing my hair over one eye to make me look like Veronica Lake," known, according to Tom Weaver, for her 'Peek-A-Boo-Bang'.

In one amusing incident, Carter beat out her contemporary Margaret O'Brien for a part because her mother had dressed her in white gloves. During the interview with the movie's makers, O'Brien became so distracted by Carter's gloves that she muffed the interview.