Andrea Leeds Biography

After briefly attending UCLA, doll-faced brunette actress Andrea Leeds entered films as a bit player. Billed under her given name of Antoinette Lees, she played her first leading roles in the short-subject vehicles of Hal Roach comedian Charley Chase. As Andrea Leeds, she was brilliant as the neurotic, suicidal aspiring actress in Stage Door (1937), earning the unqualified praise of her co-workers (which included such tough judges as Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers) as well as an Academy Award nomination. Leeds was signed by Samuel Goldwyn in 1938, appearing as antiseptic heroines in The Goldwyn Follies (1938), They Shall Have Music (1939) and The Real Glory (1939). Unlike her Stage Door character, Andrea Leeds was more than willing to give up acting when opportunities for good roles began drying up; she retired from films completely upon marrying wealthy sportsman Robert S. Howard. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi