Under the stage name Dawn O’Day, she began to model and appear on stage at one year of age, and garnered her first film role when she was only five.

In 1934 at the age of 16, she appeared in the title role of the motion picture version of Anne of Green Gables, she was so enraptured by the role that she took the name of the character — Anne Shirley. Her popularity increased up until 1938, when she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Stella Dallas.

Unfortunately, her career never took off after that. In 1940, she reprised her namesake’s role in Anne of Windy Poplars to no avail. In the midst of World War II, having spent much of her life entertaining and with over 60 film roles to her credit, Shirley decided to retire from acting. Only 27 at the time, she was newly divorced from actor John Payne, and had a child to raise. Their daughter, Julie Payne, is a TV and movie veteran whose newest project is a role in American Wedding, the third film in the American Pie series, set to open on August 1, 2003.

Anne Shirley, a.k.a. Dawn Paris and Dawn O’Day, passed away in 1993.