Anne Edwards, "a prodigious and peripatetic author who published bestselling books about the actresses Vivien Leigh and Katharine Hepburn as well as 14 other celebrity biographies, eight novels, three children's books, two memoirs and one autobiography," died January 20 at age 96, the New York Times reported.
A child performer on radio and the stage, Edwards sold her first screenplay in 1949, when she was 22 (the movie Quantez, released in 1957); her first novel (The Survivors) in 1968; and her first biography (of Judy Garland) in 1975. Her Vivien Leigh: A Biography (1977) spent 19 weeks on the Times's hardcover bestseller list.
Known as the "Queen of Biography," Edwards also wrote biographies of, among others, Sonya Tolstoy, Maria Callas, Ronald Reagan, Barbra Streisand, and Diana, Princess of Wales. Her novels included Haunted Summer (1974), about the author Mary Shelley and the poet Lord Byron, which was adapted into a film in 1988.
Her family moved to California in the late 1930s at the invitation of an uncle, Dave Chasen, a comedian whose West Hollywood restaurant, Chasen's, drew celebrities. Edwards appeared onstage in children's acting, singing, and dancing ensembles and tap-danced on radio, but, as she wrote in her autobiography, Leaving Home (2012), "My dream was never to be a star (or even a supporting player) but to write."
Her screenwriting credits include the British thriller A Question of Adultery (1958), starring Julie London, which was released in the U.S. as The Case of Mrs. Loring; as well as early and unused drafts of the screenplay for Funny Girl (1968).
Edwards, who was president of the Authors Guild in 1981, lamented the dearth of women working in creative roles in Hollywood when she was starting out.
Regarding her autobiography, Edwards said in 2013: "There comes a time, and I am at that age, when you have to take your life in your arms and hold it to you to keep it breathing. It was a necessity.... Writing is a lifeline to me. I need it to breathe."
