Born Antoinette Lees in Butte, Montana. She made only a handful of films within a span of four years (1936-1940), but soft and soulful Andrea Leeds touched hearts with those few, culminating in an Oscar®-nomination for Best Supporting Actress as the hopeful, aspiring young actress who doesn't survive the school of hard knocks in the 1937 movie version of Edna Ferber & George S. Kaufman's serio-comic play STAGE DOOR. The film's director, Gregory La Cava, called her "the best natural actress who has ever passed through my hands." Following graduation from UCLA, she began in bit roles under her given name, Antoinette Lees and also appeared in Hal Roach comedy shorts with comedian Charley Chase before landing better parts in better pictures. She appeared as another actress hopeful in LETTER OF INTRODUCTION (1938) and gave warm, lovely portrayals in other sentimental dramas such as THE GOLDWYN FOLLIES (1938), SWANEE RIVER (1939), THE REAL GLORY (1939) and EARTHBOUND (1940), all blessed with the same kind of gentleness, grace and humanity. She subsequently married wealthy sportsman Robert Stewart Howard and gave up her profession to raise a family, enjoying a life that included breeding horses. She had two children, Robert Jr. and Leann, the latter dying of cancer in 1971. After her husband's death in 1962, she operated and owned a jewelry shop in Palm Springs, CA. She died of cancer in 1984 at age 70.    Nominated for Supporting Actress 1937: STAGE DOOR 1 nomination