Ann Rutherford, an actress whose small role as Scarlett's younger sister Carreen in the 1939 film Gone With the Wind was her most enduring, has died. She was 94.
Rutherford, who also portrayed Mickey Rooney's teenage girlfriend in the Andy Hardy movies, died Monday night at her home in Beverly Hills, said her close friend and fellow actress Anne Jeffreys. Rutherford had been in declining health with heart problems.
As she became one of the last surviving cast members of Gone With the Wind, Rutherford made a second career out of attending festivals featuring the beloved Civil War epic.
Under contract with MGM, she was a regular in the hugely successful Andy Hardy series when studio head Louis B. Mayer informed her that his son-in-law, producer David O. Selznick, wanted to borrow her for Gone With the Wind.
Mayer called it "a nothing part" and planned to say no, Rutherford told the Los Angeles Times in 2010.
A fan of the Margaret Mitchell novel, Rutherford implored Mayer to reconsider. When she uncharacteristically burst into tears, he relented.
"I just wanted to watch the book come to life," she said in the Times interview.
