Savage and Tom Neal in a publicity still for DetourĪlthough Savage and Neal did not see eye-to-eye (she found him 'childlike'), the duo would star together in Two Man Submarine and The Unwritten Code (both 1944) before their most famous film, the 1945 film noir Detour. She was a tireless seller of war bonds on two nationwide drives coordinated by Hollywood studios with the United States government. At this time, during World War II, Savage was also a popular pin-up model, including posing for a centerfold in Esquire shot by George Hurrell. Īlthough Columbia typically groomed its girls in the mold of Rita Hayworth, Savage's look echoed Ann Sheridan, although her customary blonde locks were reddened for Footlight Glamour (1943) 'so that the star, Penny Singleton, would be the only blonde on screen.' She joined Joan Davis and Jinx Falkenburg in Two Senoritas from Chicago (1943) and starred (as a brunette) in the first of several outings with Tom Neal in Klondike Kate (1943).

The two actresses featured together in What a Woman!, one of a dozen films with Savage released in 1943. Recalling Columbia mogul Harry Cohn as 'a friendly Uncle type', Savage remembered Cohn being intimidated by acid-tongued Rosalind Russell. Savage instead made a screen test with Columbia Pictures-after playing Lorna in a Reinhardt acting showcase of Odet's Golden Boy' -and was offered a contract. Savage was offered a screen test by Fox, but she decided not to turn up, as she knew the studio already had a bevy of pretty blondes. The Reinhardt school's manager, Bert D'Armand, became Savage's agent, and the two later married. Reinhardt oversaw her name change, and Berniece became Ann Savage. Her MGM test did not work out, prompting her to get her teeth capped and acquire theatre training at the Max Reinhardt workshop on Sunset Boulevard. Ann spent time among the more famous Hollywood kids of the day, such as Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Freddie Bartholomew, and Deanna Durbin. She attended 64th Street Grammar School and Mount Vernon Junior High and first stepped on a sound stage at the age of 17 at MGM Studios and was screen tested by Edgar Selwyn. Growing up around the corner from the Jewelry District, the Broadway movie palaces of downtown Los Angeles served as her babysitter while her mother worked selling jewelry. After he died when Berniece was four years old, her mother moved the two of them to Los Angeles. During her early years, her family moved often as her father, an officer in the United States Army, relocated from base to base. Ann Savage was born Bernice Maxine Lyon in Columbia, South Carolina.

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