Ann Todd (American actress)
American actress (1931-2020)
Ann Todd (born Ann Todd Phillips, later Ann Basart or Ann Phillips Basart; August 26, 1931 – February 7, 2020) was an American child actress. She was credited in four films as Ann E. Todd. As an adult, she became a music reference librarian at University of California, Berkeley.
Early years
Todd was born in 1931 in Denver, Colorado, to Burrill L. and Alberta C. (née Mayfield) Phillips. She had a younger brother, Stephen (1937–1986). She was a distant relative of Mary Todd Lincoln. Due to the privations of the Great Depression, she was raised by her maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Ulysses Mayfield, her adoptive name was Ann Todd Mayfield. (A Newspaper Enterprise Association story published June 13, 1940, refers to Mrs.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ann Todd (American actress)” is american actress (1931-2020). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Todd, American and actress, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american actress (1931-2020)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2850383. VIAF identifies the subject as 311691874. The Library of Congress control number is n87911824. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1931, 2020, 1937 and 1986.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ann Todd (American actress)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ann Todd (American actress) primary sources, Ann Todd (American actress) archive and Todd research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ann Todd (American actress)”?
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- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ann Todd (American actress)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.