Bonner was born on June 12, 1907, in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a child, she began her career in her father's
stock company. She later studied in
New York under Alex Koiransky and
Maria Ouspenskaya, and made her Broadway debut as the ingénue in
Let Freedom Ring. She had several later theatre roles, including parts in
Processional,
Trojan Incident,
Uncle Harry,
Liliom,
Medicine Show,
Laura,
Foolish Nation,
The Front Page, and
The Biggest Thief in Town. She also had some roles in television productions, such as
Suspense and
The Philco Television Playhouse, and in the radio serials
Nora Drake and
The Right to Happiness. Clark,
ad-libbing, put his arm around Bonner and said "Ann, speak to me. Is something the matter? What's wrong, darling? I love you." Then, realizing something was wrong, he turned to the wings and said "Bring down the curtain." A film editor in the audience, Harold Cornsweet, later said of the ad-libbed scene: "It was so realistic that people in the audience were crying." Bonner appeared in the
1955 film adaptation of
The Shrike, released after her death, as Dr. Barrow. ==References==