Anne Seymour; Busy Veteran of Radio, TV, Stage and Film

Anne Seymour, who came from a rich theatrical background and lengthened that legacy considerably with her own career, has died of respiratory complications at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Los Angeles.

The stage, film and television veteran who could be heard almost nightly during radio’s Golden Age in the 1930s and ‘40s was 79 when she died Thursday.

Descended from Irish comedians, English actresses and American opera singers, Miss Seymour first appeared professionally in outdoor theaters in New England in 1928. Her Broadway debut was as an understudy in “Mr. Moneypenny” that same year, while her final Broadway appearance came 30 years later when she created the role of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s mother, Sara, in “Sunrise at Campobello.”

In between were roles in “Hay Fever,” “Saturday’s Children,” “The Intimate Strangers,” “The Sorcerer,” “Troilus and Cressida,” “Time Out for Ginger,” Ethel Barrymore’s 1931 revival of “School for Scandal” and dozens more.

More recently she had appeared in neighborhood theaters, including a 1982 appearance in “Close Ties” at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles. She also was seen locally as The First Woman of Corinth in “Medea,” opposite her longtime friend Dame Judith Anderson.

During the 1930s, while living most of the time in New York, she wrote, directed or performed in nearly every major radio program on every network. Among them were “Portia Faces Life,” “The Ford Theatre,” “Grand Hotel,” “Against the Storm,” “The Magnificent Montague,” “Mr. Keene, Tracer of Lost Persons,” “Bulldog Drummond,” “Inner Sanctum,” “Grand Central Station,” “Our Gal Sunday,” “Armstrong Theater of Today” and “The FBI in Peace and War.”

Her first film was “All the King’s Men” in 1949 in which she played Lucy Stark. Other motion pictures included “The Whistle at Eaton Falls,” “Desire Under the Elms,” “All the Fine Young Cannibals,” “Misty,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and her last, “Shoeless Joe,” which has not been released.

Her television career started in 1952 and evolved into regular appearances on such pioneer small-screen series as “Studio One,” “Robert Montgomery Presents,” “Kraft Television Theater,” “The Jackie Gleason Show,” “Naked City” and “Perry Mason,” as well as more recent credits on “Cagney and Lacey” and “Closer Ties.”

She is survived by her brother.