Ann Rutherford in 2009, and at right, with Vivien Leigh (R) in 'Gone With the Wind'

Ann Rutherford, who played Scarlett O'Hara's little sister Carreen in the 1939 classic movie "Gone with the Wind," has died at age 94, a close friend said Tuesday. She suffered heart problems and was hospitalized three months ago following a collapse, friend Anne Jeffreys told CNN. After struggling with deteriorating health, Rutherford died at her home in Beverley Hills, California, on Monday, Jeffreys said. "Annie was a wonderful person, very philanthropic, and always trying to do something for somebody. A very funny lady, she said very funny things. She was one of a kind," said Jeffreys, who was with Rutherford when she died.

Born in 1917 in Vancouver, Canada, Rutherford got off to an early start in show business. She made her stage debut in 1925 and appeared on screen for the first time in 1935, according to a biography posted on . She came from a family of performers -- her father, John Rutherford, was a former Metropolitan Opera singer and her mother, Lillian Mansfield, was an actress, it says.

Aside from her role as Carreen O'Hara, she won considerable fame playing the character Polly Benedict alongside Mickey Rooney in the "Andy Hardy" film series in the 1930s and early 1940s, the website says. After leaving the MGM studio, Rutherford played Gertrude Griswold in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and Donna Elena in "The New Adventures of Don Juan," and then appeared in a number of television shows. She retired after her last movie role in 1976, the IMDb website says. But it is for her role in David Selznick's Civil War epic "Gone With the Wind" that perhaps most people will remember Rutherford.

She maintained a connection with the film in the decades that followed its release and appeared up until last year at events hosted by the "Gone With the Wind" Museum in Marietta, Georgia. "In her last years here, 'Gone With the Wind' really kept her going," Jeffreys said. "She received thousands of fan letters for 'Gone With the Wind.' And she donated things -- a script that she had gotten, a tea set that they used in the film, a necklace, things like that. ... It really was wonderful for the last part of her life, because she was in great demand." Rutherford is survived by a daughter, Gloria May, who lives in San Francisco, and two grandsons, Jeffreys said.

滬江娛樂快訊：日前，曾出演好萊塢1939年經(jīng)典影片《亂世佳人》的女星安·魯瑟福因心臟疾病，以94歲的高齡在家中與世長辭，留下了眾多膾炙人口的銀幕形象。

安·魯瑟福于1917年11月2日出生在溫哥華的一個演藝世家，1935年首次亮相大銀幕，走紅于上個世紀30-40年代好萊塢，她最著名的角色還是史詩經(jīng)典《亂世佳人》中郝思嘉的妹妹卡倫·奧哈拉。除了《亂世佳人》，魯瑟福還在安迪·哈迪系列喜劇片中扮演米基·羅尼的心儀女孩，從1938-1942年間她總共出演了12部哈迪影片。事業(yè)后期她多活躍于熒屏，直到1976年正式退休。

好萊塢老一輩的黃金時代又少了一位明星，不禁讓人惋惜。