Ankers remembered that many of the B films she made were rush jobs. Arriving for a love scene on The Great Impersonation (1942), director John Rawlins called "Action!" before the actors were even given any blocking. When she and actor Ralph Bellamy remained frozen, she stuttered to the director, "I would like to meet my leading man, as I have never kissed a man before first being introduced to him".
Ankers was engaged to actor Glenn Ford, but Ankers broke the engagement when she met Richard Denning while Ford was on location.
Appeared in a total of seven films with Lon Chaney Jr..
Best friend on the Universal lot was fellow scream-queen Anne Gwynne.
Despite the numerous times she worked with Lon Chaney Jr. the two reportedly had a strong disliking for each other. Often Chaney would scare Ankers and because of this she referred to him as "a brute with bad breath".
Her last film was No Greater Love (1960). She came out of retirement to appear in this film with her husband Richard Denning.
She was called "Queen of the Screamers" on account of her blood-curdling vocal outbursts in "B" suspense thrillers of the '40s.
Was the only actress to appear in a wolf man film, Dracula, and Frankenstein film. She played Gwen Conliffe in The Wolf Man (1941), in Son of Dracula (1943) she played Claire Caldwell and she appeared in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) as Elsa Frankenstein. Each of these roles was opposite Lon Chaney Jr. who played the monsters which terrorized Ankers.