Ann Blyth, film star famed for ‘Mildred Pierce’, dies at 98

American actresses Ann Blyth and Joan Crawford on the set of Mildred Pierce directed by Hungarian-American Michael Curtiz. (Warner Bros. Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

Ann Blyth, who earned an Oscar nomination playing Joan Crawford’s malicious and deceitful teenage daughter in the classic 1945 melodrama “Mildred Pierce” and thrived in light and heavy roles during Hollywood’s Golden Age, died on Wednesday at age of 98, according to media reports.

Blyth, who trained as an opera singer and was comfortable in film musicals, dramas and even a farce in which she played a mermaid, died of natural causes, according to the reports.

She made more than 30 movies during a film career lasting from 1944 to 1957. Blyth was just 16 when she gave a tour de force performance in the film for which she is best remembered - “Mildred Pierce.” The movie also gave temperamental cinema legend Crawford her only career Academy Award.

Blyth more than held her own on screen as Crawford’s status-seeking, hateful and murderous daughter Veda, who competes with her mother for the same man, her stepfather, played by Zachary Scott. In one scene, Blyth slaps Crawford across the face, knocking her down.

“Get out before I kill you,” an angry Crawford tells Blyth.

The movie was directed by Michael Curtiz, whose other films included the classics “Casablanca,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

“He had a great confidence in me, which in turn helped me,” Blyth told the Los Angeles Times in 2013 of Curtiz.

“She just blew everybody away,” film historian Alan Rode told the Times, referring to Blyth. “It’s certainly Joan Crawford’s movie, but she is really the spine of the movie. She is the epitome of the film noir daughter from hell. It’s just an amazing performance that stands the test of time.”

“Mildred Pierce” was a hit with the public and critics, earning an Oscar nomination as best picture. Crawford won the Oscar as best actress, while both Blyth and co-star Eve Arden were nominated as best supporting actress but did not win.

Blyth’s career momentum was stymied after “Mildred Pierce” when she suffered a broken back in a toboggan accident.

Her versatility enabled her to shine in musicals like “Kismet” (1955) and “The Student Prince” (1954), spectacles like “The Golden Horde” (1951), comedies including “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid” (1948) co-starring William Powell, and dramas like “One Minute to Zero” (1952) with Robert Mitchum.

The petite, brunette actress appeared alongside other top male stars including Burt Lancaster in “Brute Force” (1947), Mickey Rooney in “Killer McCoy” (1947), Bing Crosby in “Top o’ the Morning” (1949), Mario Lanza in “The Great Caruso” (1951), Gregory Peck in “The World in His Arms” (1952) and Paul Newman in “The Helen Morgan Story” (1957), her last movie.

She had a lovely soprano voice and performed early in her career on the operatic stage. Blyth was a natural for film musicals, although for the songs in “The Helen Morgan Story” the studio insisted on dubbing her vocals with another singer.

She occasionally appeared in TV roles after his last film including “The Twilight Zone” in 1964 and ending with “Murder, She Wrote” in 1985.

Ann Marie Blyth was born on Aug. 16, 1928, in Mount Kisco, New York. She trained as a singer and actress as a child. While touring as a teenager with a Broadway play in Los Angeles, she was given a screen test that led to her Hollywood career.

Blyth had five children with her husband James McNulty, who died in 2007.

Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Bill Trott, Reuters