Biography

Ann Prentiss (November 27, 1939 – January 12, 2010) was an American actress. She was born Ann Elizabeth Ragusa in San Antonio, Texas, to Paulene (née Gardner) and Thomas J. Ragusa. Her father was of Sicilian descent. Her elder sister, Paula Prentiss, is also an actress. Prentiss had many supporting roles in films and television series in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including Get Smart's "The Little Black Book", Hogan's Heroes' "The Missing Klink" (1969), and Baretta's "Half a Million Dollar Baby". She provided the voice of an alien species in the comedy film My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988), co-starring alongside Kim Basinger and Dan Aykroyd. Her other film roles included appearances in Any Wednesday (1966), If He Hollers, Let Him Go! (1968), The Out-of-Towners (1970), and California Split (1974), opposite George Segal and Elliott Gould. Ann Prentiss was convicted in a California court of a 1996 assault against her father and a subsequent threat against members of her family. The district attorney claimed that Prentiss, while incarcerated on the assault charge, had attempted to hire another inmate to kill three people, including her father and actor/director Richard Benjamin, the husband of her sister. On July 23, 1997, the court sentenced her to 19 years in prison. Prentiss died on January 12, 2010, while serving her prison sentence.

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