Evelyn Ankers, a beautiful movie actress who was a staple of
Universal's horror films in the 1940s, was born in Chile to English
parents in 1918. Her parents repatriated the family back to England in
the 1920s, and it was in Old Blighty that Ankers developed a desire to
become an actress.
She began appearing in small roles in English movies in the mid 1930s
while she was still in school. She appeared in
Fire Over England (1937) with
Laurence Olivier and
Vivien Leigh and in
Bells of St. Mary's (1937). A
beauty with talent, she soon won starring roles in the low-budget
The Villiers Diamond (1938)
and
The Claydon Treasure Mystery (1938).
With war clouds darkening the skies over Europe, Ankers emigrated to
the United States and was signed to a contract by Universal in 1940.
She made her Universal debut in the Abbott and Costello comedy-horror
picture
Hold That Ghost (1941)
before appearing in the horror film classic
The Wolf Man (1941) opposite
Lon Chaney Jr.. Ankers found herself cast
into the horror picture ghetto, appearing in three more Chaney fright
films,
The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942),
Son of Dracula (1943) and
The Frozen Ghost (1945), during
a period in which she was cast ashore with a sarong-less
Jon Hall in
The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944).
She also appeared in support of
Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes in
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
and
The Pearl of Death (1944).
Ankers married B-movie hunk
Richard Denning in 1942 and made
a go articulating the anxieties of the home front while her husband was
off to war. Horror flicks were popular during World War II, but after
the cessation of hostilities in 1945, they went out of favor with
audiences. Ankers' career, mated to the genre at Universal, suffered.
She quit Universal in 1945 and freelanced at Columbia and Poverty Row's
Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) and Republic Pictures in dramas
and mysteries. Evelyn co-starred with her returned husband, Richard, in
the major release
Black Beauty (1946) for 20th Century Fox. For PRC, she headlined
Queen of Burlesque (1946) and
later co-starred with
Lex Barker in
Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949).
As the 1950s dawned, a decade of conformity and family values, Ankers
quit the movies for married life and motherhood after making
The Texan Meets Calamity Jane (1950),
in which she was first-billed. She was 32 years old. A decade later,
Ankers came out of retirement to make one final screen appearance, in
her hubby's
No Greater Love (1960).
Evelyn Ankers died of ovarian cancer on August 29, 1985, twelve days
after her 67th birthday.
No Greater Love(1960)as Helen Lund
Cheyenne(1955)as Robbie James
The 20th Century-Fox Hour(1955)as Millicent
Screen Directors Playhouse(1955)as Miss Loving
The Star and the Story(1955)as Ruth McCabe
Queen of Burlesque(1946)
The Mad Ghoul(1943)
Pantomime Quiz(1947)as Self
Screen Snapshots, Series 22, No. 6(1943)as Self
Legacy of Screams: The Evolution of Horror Movies(2025)as Self
Cinemassacre's Monster Madness(2007)as Gwen Conliffe, Elsa Frankenstein
Les vamps fantastiques(2003)
The American Nightmare(2000)as Self
Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man'(1999)
