Ann Harding

Harding's boxoffice power declined sharply after 1935 partly as a result of her typecasting in virtuous roles and she retired two years later after marrying symphony conductor Werner Janssen. In 1942, however, she returned to the screen in the enjoyable mystery "Eyes in the Night," and subsequently kept intermittently busy in a series of maternal character roles through the mid 50s. Her best part during this time was as the wife of Oliver Wendell Holmes (played by Louis Calhern) in "The Magnificent Yankee" (1950), but the gracefully maturing Harding also played notable roles in "Those Endearing Young Charms" (1945) and "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" (1955).