Beginning her career as a child actress under the stage name Dawn O'Day, she adopted the stage name of Anne Shirley after playing the titular character in the film adaptation of Anne of Green Gables in 1934,[1] after which she achieved a successful career in supporting roles.

[2] Born in New York City as Dawn Evelyn Paris,[2] Shirley began modeling as a baby and made her film debut with a featured role in Moonshine Valley (1922).

Shirley had a highly successful career in pre-Code films such as Liliom, Riders of the Purple Sage, So Big, Three on a Match and Rasputin and the Empress.

[4] She starred in Steamboat Round the Bend, Make Way for a Lady and Stella Dallas, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Critic Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised Shirley's performance in Saturday's Children (1940), writing that she played her role "with heroic integrity and strength of character.