Anna Chappell (née Oksanen; September 15, 1925 – July 31, 2005) was a Canadian-American actress. She appeared in two feature films: Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1983) and The Man in the Moon (1991), and was a longtime resident of Shreveport, Louisiana, where she was a prolific theater actress.

Biography

Chappell was born Anna Oksanen ^{[1] [2]} in 1925 to Finnish parents Carl and Aino Oksanen. ^{[1] [2]} Although born in Finland, Chappell relocated to Toronto, Canada in her early childhood. ^[3] Both her parents were actors. ^[1] Chappell was raised in Toronto, where she became interested in theater at a young age. ^[3] As a child, she sang with the Canadian Navy entertainment corps. ^[1]

She met her husband, American musician Harry Chappell, while working as a singer. ^[4] The couple married in Binghamton, New York in 1946, ^[5] and relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana in the mid-1950s; there, Chappell became active in local theater. ^[4] She appeared as Lady Thiang in a production of The King and I, which toured in Corning, New York in 1959. ^[6] In 1970, Chappell earned critical acclaim ^[7] for her performance in Mame at the Marjorie Lyons Playhouse in Shreveport. ^[8] For her performance, she was awarded a Best Actress award from The Shreveport Times. ^[9]

Chappell's husband, Harry, who ran a music store in Shreveport, died on March 31, 1981. ^[10] In 1983, she starred as Mme. Danzard in a production of My Sister in this House at the Kennedy Center, directed by Robert Buseick. ^[3] The same year, she made her feature film debut in the slasher film Mountaintop Motel Massacre, playing an unhinged woman who begins murdering guests in the hotel she operates. ^[11] Terry Lawson of the Dayton Daily News praised her performance as being handled with "a comic intensity." ^[11] She later had a supporting role in Robert Mulligan's drama film The Man in the Moon (1991). ^[12]

Death

In the spring of 2005, Chappell relocated from Shreveport to live with her daughter in Appleton, Wisconsin. ^{[2] [13]} She died two months later in Appleton on July 31, 2005. ^{[2] [3]} A memorial service for Chappell was arranged in Shreveport. ^{[2] [3]}

Filmography

Select stage credits

• The King and I (1959) ^[6]
• Peter Pan (1960) ^[15]
• Mame (1970)

References

External links

• Anna Chappell at IMDb