Ann Gillis

Ann Gillis was born Alma Mabel Conner on February 12, 1927, in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Although (like all child stars of the 1930s) she never achieved Temple's level of fame, for the next several years Gillis starred in many films, almost always playing a spoiled, bratty character.

At age seven, she appeared in her first film, Men in White (1934), as an extra.

During the next two years, she had uncredited appearances in six more films until she received her first major role in King of Hockey (1936). Warner Brothers Studios gave significant screen time to Gillis in this movie, in hopes that she would become another Shirley Temple.

She had two rare sympathetic roles as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) and as the title character in Little Orphan Annie (1938). One scene in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer called for her to go into screaming hysterics when her character was trapped in a cave of bats, and Gillis delivered in a powerful performance that is probably the most memorable scene of her film career.

As Gillis grew older, however, her career slowed down, and she left Hollywood in 1947. When she left Hollywood she married Paul Ziebold and had 2 sons.

During the 1950s and '60s, Gillis made sporadic television appearances, and in 1959, she hosted a national telecast presentation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

She then divorced, relocated to New York City and married Richard Fraser, a Scottish-born actor (they had a son born in 1958).

Lived in Belgium from 1972 to 2014, marrying Belgian René Van Hulst (deceased 1999) and devoting much of her time to painting and music and finally becoming a Belgian citizen. She moved to the UK in December 2014.