'The Queen of Biography' Anne Edwards dies at 96

Pic Courtesy/The Statesman

Anne Edwards, known as 'The Queen of Biography' for her best-selling books on Vivien Leigh and Katharine Hepburn, as well as 14 other celebrity biographies, died in Beverly Hills, California, Deadline reported. She was 96 years old, and her daughter reported that she died of lung cancer at a senior care facility.

In addition to her biographies, the prolific author wrote eight novels, three children's books, two memoirs, and one autobiography. Edwards, a child actor on radio and stage, sold her first screenplay in 1949 when she was 22 (the western 'Quantez,' starring Fred MacMurray, was released in 1957).

Her debut novel, 'The Survivors,' was published in 1968, and her first biography, Judy Garland, in 1975. Her book, 'Vivien Leigh: A Biography' (1977), spent 19 weeks on The New York Times' hardback best-seller list. Edwards also penned biographies about Maria Callas, Ronald Reagan, Barbra Streisand, and Diana, Princess of Wales, as per Deadline.

Her scripting credentials include the British thriller 'A Question of Adultery' (1958), starring Julie London, which was released in the United States as 'The Case of Mrs Loring,' and she collaborated with Sidney Buchman on early and unused drafts of the screenplay for 'Funny Girl' (1968).

Her novels included 'Haunted Summer' (1974), about author Mary Shelley and poet Lord Byron, which was made into a film in 1988. Her family relocated to California in the late 1930s at the request of her uncle, Dave Chasen, whose West Hollywood restaurant, Chasen's, was a celebrity hotspot.

Survivors include her daughter, Catherine Edwards Sadler, a son, Michael Edwards, three grandsons; and three great-grandchildren. Her third husband, Stephen Citron, an author and songwriter whom she married in 1980, died in 2013.

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