Remembering Ann Blyth: Hollywood star, devoted Catholic, pro-life advocate

Actress Ann Blyth, who passed away June 24 at age 98, is remembered as one of Hollywood's last Golden Age stars. Beyond her celebrated acting career, however, Blyth lived a life marked by her Catholic faith, devotion to family, and decades of charitable work, including support for the pro-life movement.

Blyth became one of Hollywood's most recognizable young actresses after earning an Academy Award nomination for Mildred Pierce at just 17. She went on to build a career spanning more than 30 films, sharing the screen with Bing Crosby, Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Howard Keel, Mario Lanza, and other stars of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Family remained central to Blyth's life throughout her career. Born in Mount Kisco, New York, in 1928 and raised in New York City by her Irish Catholic mother, she married obstetrician Dr. James V. McNulty in 1953. The couple raised five children together, and although she continued working in television, concerts, and musical theater, Blyth stepped away from filmmaking before turning 30 to devote more time to her family.

In a 1952 reflection published in Guideposts, Blyth said the foundation of her faith was laid long before Hollywood success. She credited her mother with teaching her to trust God's providence through both disappointments and blessings, recalling that although the family often struggled financially, her mother never lost sight of what mattered most. 

Instead, Blyth wrote, her mother taught her that “faith was the foundation for lasting joy, the chief cornerstone for building a whole life.” Whenever disappointments came, the two would stop at St. Boniface Church to pray together before returning home.

“Just have faith, my darling,” her mother would tell her. “Something better will come.”

Those lessons took on new meaning in 1946, shortly after Blyth completed filming Mildred Pierce. According to Blyth's account in Guideposts, a toboggan accident left the young actress with a broken back, and doctors questioned whether she would ever walk again. 

“My glowing world tumbled all about me!” Blyth wrote. “It seemed like the end of everything.”

During seven months in a body cast followed by months in a wheelchair, Blyth said her understanding of prayer changed.

“Now there were not the busy times of telling Him what I needed but, rather, times of listening communion, of gathering strength, when my human strength and courage seemed to ebb away,” she recalled.

Years later, Blyth reflected on that same period in an interview with AP News, saying that “a new sense of prayer began to unfold to me.” After recovering, she returned to acting with what she described in Guideposts as “an immense gratitude for simple things.”

Looking back, Blyth said that the experience had transformed her faith.

“At first I had clung to my mother's faith, leaned on her, step by step as she showed me the way,” she wrote. “Now, I had found my own rock.”

That faith continued to shape the rest of her life. According to the obituary published by her family, Blyth devoted her “time, talent and treasure” to numerous charitable causes, including the pro-life organization Right to Life, St. Ignatius in Philadelphia, schools, organizations serving children with special needs, and other charitable ministries. 

Blyth also lent her talents to Catholic media. She worked with Father Patrick Peyton's Family Theater Productions, appearing in several radio and television programs promoting family prayer. Among them was the 1953 television special The Triumphant Hour, in which she performed the hymn “Come Holy Ghost.”

In 1973, Blyth and her husband were invested as Lady and Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a papal order that recognizes distinguished service to the Catholic Church.

Her family wrote that “Faith and family were most important to her,” values they sought to pass on while raising their five children. They also remembered Blyth's love of simple pursuits later in life, recalling that she enjoyed tending her garden, knitting blankets, scarves, and sweaters for family and friends, and oil painting. Christmas was an especially important tradition in the McNulty home, where she and her family decorated so extensively that the display occasionally blew a fuse. According to her family, she continued decorating her home each Christmas until 2025.