Ann Rutherford was my kinda gal. Her speech teacher told her she’d never be anything, so she faked a resume, got a job on radio and then in 1935 became a huge star, acting in Westerns, romances and ten (!) movies as Polly Benedict, the girlfriend of Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney). Take that, speech teacher.
Then she quit acting in 1950 and did rich woman stuff (she was married to the guy who owned the May department store chain). And yeah, she was gorgeous:
Voted “Most Beautiful Girl Next Door, Ever” in a recent poll SOTI.
She was the top-billed star in her second film in 1935, when she was just 18.
Also – she didn’t entirely quit acting when she married in 1953 – she appeared in occasional TV episodes well into the 1960s, including 4 “Perry Mason” episodes (as defendant, murderer, defendant’s deceased first wife, annoying victim’s wife).