Born Dawn Paris, this daughter of an ambitious stage mother was 14 months old when she made her first stage appearance; after some work as a child model, she was taken to Hollywood in the early '20s and began appearing onscreen in child roles (billed variously as Dawn O'Day, Lenn Fondre, and Lindley Dawn) in 1922. She appeared in many films, including early talkies, through her adolescence. Her career shifted gears in 1933; aged 15, she was given the lead role in Anne of Green Gables, and then assumed the character's name (Anne Shirley) as her screen-name. She played top roles in 37 more films through 1944, when she retired from acting. For her work in Stella Dallas (1937) she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. From 1937-42 she was married to actor John Payne; from 1945-48 she was married to producer Adrian Scott, one of the "Hollywood Ten" who were blacklisted for supposed Communist connections; and from 1949 until his death in 1976 she was married to screenwriter Charles Lederer.
by Rovi
biography
