Attended high school in East Orange High in New Jersey.
Her daughter Jane was born in 1928 and died in December 2005. She had another daughter, Grace Kaye Janssen, with her second husband.
Her father was Brig. Gen. George Grant Gatley, commander of the U.S. Rainbow Division in France during World War I. Mother Bessie Crabbe Gatley's father was also a military man. She had an older sister named Edith.
Her vehicle The Life of Vergie Winters (1934), portraying an unwed woman who carries on an illicit love affair with a married man and bears his child, was banned in Chicago and placed on the Catholic Church's films to be boycotted.
Met actor Harry Bannister while she at Detroit's Garrick Theatre in 1926 as its lead actress, producer, casting director and business manager. She hired him as a last-minute replacement leading man and they married later that year (daughter Jane was born in 1928). Their divorce in 1932 led to a year-and-a-half-long custody battle.
Unlike most film stars at that time, Ann dressed down off-camera and had little concern for her outwardly appearance. She often attended premieres without makeup or fancy hair-dos. Gossip maven Adela Rogers St. Johns claimed that Ann was "...the worst dressed woman I ever saw in my life!".
Was estranged from her only child Jane for several years before her death in 1981.
Was once a Dictaphone operator for the welfare division of Metropolitan Life.
Was the first major female star to join the Screen Actors Guild and later held the rank of 2nd Vice-President.