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Ann Rutherford in a publicity photo

Ann Rutherford (born November 2, 1920) is a Canadian-American actress in film, radio, and television. She has had a long career starring and co-starring in films, playing Polly Benedict on the big screen of the 1930s and 1940s, and on The Bob Newhart Show as Newhart's character's mother-in-law.

Her first film role was in Waterfront Lady in 1935. She appeared in eighteen films between 1935 and 1937. It was in 1937 that her first notable role came as Andy Hardy's girlfriend, Polly Benedict, in You're Only Young Once. In the long-running, Academy Award-winning Andy Hardy film series, she played Polly twelve times, with the last appearance being in Andy Hardy's Double Life in 1942.

She was born Therese Ann Rutherford to a former Metropolitan Opera tenor and an actress in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. At an early age, she performed in various radio shows. She began her film career in starring roles in Waterfront Lady for Mascot Pictures in 1935. Mascot merged with Republic Pictures, and Miss Rutherford soon established herself as a popular leading lady of Westerns with Gene Autry and John Wayne. Afterward, she was placed under contract with MGM. At MGM, she appeared in such films as A Christmas Carol (1938) and Pride and Prejudice (1940). She was loaned to Selznick International to appear as Careen O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939).

From 1937 until 1942, she portrayed Polly Benedict in the very successful Andy Hardy series. She also starred in a series of mystery/comedies with Red Skelton (Whistling in the Dark (1941), Whistling in Dixie (1942), and Whistling in Brooklyn (1943).

She left MGM to freelance in the early 1940s, starring in such films as Orchestra Wives (1942) (with the Glenn Miller Orchestra), Two O'Clock Courage (1945) and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947).

She retired from films in 1950, but returned to her old studio in 1972 to make They Only Kill Their Masters. Ironically (given the film's grisly name), the film was shot on the old Andy Hardy set.

On radio, Ann Rutherford replaced Penny Singleton as Blondie.

She was supposed to make a comeback out of retirement to play Rose Calvert in the 1997 blockbuster movie Titanic (1997), but turned down the role, which went to Gloria Stuart.

In October 2004, she made a guest appearance with many fans at the Margaret Mitchell Birthday in Jonesboro, Georgia, to honor Gone With the Wind, and she even signed autographs and reminisced old times at this historic event.

On November 2, 2005, Rutherford celebrated her 85th birthday surrounded by her fans & friends at a luncheon in Beverly Hills, California. Neither Evelyn Keyes (who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease) nor Olivia de Havilland, her two surviving Gone with the Wind co-stars, was able to attend.

Rutherford was married twice. On Christmas Eve, 1942, she married David May, and the couple, had a girl, Gloria May, in 1943. They were divorced in 1953, and in that same year, she married William Dozier, who went on to produce the Batman TV series. Dozier died in 1991.

• Melody Trail (1935)
• Waterfront Lady (1935)
• The Fighting Marines (1935)
• The Singing Vagabond (1935)
• The Oregon Trail (1936)
• The Lawless Nineties (1936)
• Doughnuts and Society (1936)
• Comin' 'Round the Mountain (1936)
• The Harvester (1936)
• The Lonely Trail (1936)
• Down to the Sea (1936)
• Annie Laurie (1936)
• You're Only Young Once (1937)
• Live, Love and Learn (1937)
• The Bride Wore Red (1937)
• Public Cowboy No. 1 (1937)
• The Devil Is Driving (1937)
• Carnival in Paris (1937)
• Dramatic School (1938)
• Out West with the Hardys (1938)
• Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
• Judge Hardy's Children (1938)
• Of Human Hearts (1938)
• Andy Hardy's Dilemma: A Lesson in Mathematics... and Other Things (1938)
• A Christmas Carol (1938)
• Judge Hardy and Son (1939)
• Gone with the Wind (1939)
• Dancing Co-Ed (1939)
• These Glamour Girls (1939)
• Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939)
• Angel of Mercy (1939)
• The Hardys Ride High (1939)
• Four Girls in White (1939)
• Keeping Company (1940)
• Wyoming (1940)
• Pride and Prejudice (1940)
• Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940)
• The Ghost Comes Home (1940)
• Badlands of Dakota (1941)
• Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941)
• Whistling in the Dark (1941)
• Washington Melodrama (1941)
• Andy Hardy's Private Secretary (1941)
• Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942)
• Whistling in Dixie (1942)
• Orchestra Wives (1942)
• The Courtship of Andy Hardy (1942)
• This Time for Keeps (1942)
• Flag of Mercy (1942)
• Whistling in Brooklyn (1943)
• Happy Land (1943)
• The Bermuda Mystery (1944)
• Bedside Manner (1945)
• Two O'Clock Courage (1945)
• Inside Job (1946)
• Murder in the Music Hall (1946)
• The Madonna's Secret (1946)
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
• Adventures of Don Juan (1948)
• Operation Haylift (1950)
• They Only Kill Their Masters (1972)

• Ann Rutherford at the Internet Movie Database