Evelyn Ankers, Star of ‘40s Action Films, Dies

Evelyn Ankers, a statuesque actress who made more than 35 films opposite such dissimilar protagonists as Rembrandt, Frankenstein and the Invisible Man, died of cancer Wednesday at her home on Maui.

She had lived in Hawaii for many years with her husband, actor Richard Denning.

The daughter of a British mining engineer who was working in Chile when she was born in 1918, Miss Ankers became a child actress in London. She went to New York with her mother on the September day in 1939 when Great Britain declared war on Germany.

Her first film was “Rembrandt,” made in England in 1936 with Charles Laughton in the title role.

She worked briefly on the Broadway stage (“Ladies in Retirement”) and then came west, where she was consigned to a series of horror and action pictures in which she portrayed stylishly coiffed heroines set upon by monsters.

Her reaction to their advances earned her the sobriquet of “The Screamer.”

Among the films she made were “The Ghost of Frankenstein,” “Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror,” “The Captive Wild Woman,” “Son of Dracula,” “The Invisible Man’s Revenge” and “Pearl of Death.”

Nearly all were made in the 1940s. Her last commercial venture was “The Texan Meets Calamity Jane” in 1950. She made a final film, “No Greater Love,” for the Lutheran Church in 1960.

She is survived by Denning, who played the role of the governor in the “Hawaii Five-O” television series; a daughter, Diana Dwyer, and two granddaughters.