Actress Ann Sheridan was the movies' sultry "Oomph Girl" of the 1940s and later Grandma Hanks on television's "Pistols 'n' Petticoats."
Her sister Kitty Kent, by dint of a practical joke, landed her shapely, titan-haired sister in Hollywood during the 1930s, launching her into famous film roles opposite Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney and Errol Flynn.
Kent submitted a picture of Sheridan in Paramount Pictures' "Search for Beauty" contest. Sheridan, then a student at North Texas State Teachers College in her native Denton, Tex., emerged the local winner and, in 1933, was on her way in films.
When she switched from Paramount to Warner Bros., a press agent dubbed her "The Oomph Girl." The term embarrassed her, but actor Paul Muni "told me it would further my career" and she acquiesced.
Among her films were "Angel With Dirty Faces," "Dodge City," "They Drive by Night," "City for Conquest," "The Man Who Came to Dinner," "Kings Row" (in which she co-starred with Ronald Reagan) and "The Opposite Sex."
One of her best received roles was as star of the wartime comedy opposite Grant — "I Was a Male War Bride" — seen frequently on television late shows.
More than once she "struck" studios that she felt paid her too little or gave her poor roles. In 1941 she went on a six month strike against Warner Bros. because she wanted more than the $600 a week they were paying. She lost and went back to work.
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