Marjorie Main
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marjorie Main (born Mary Tomlinson, February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975) was an American actress, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player and for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.
Main worked in vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit and in Chautauqua presentations, and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her first film was A House Divided in 1931.
Main began playing upper class dowagers, but ultimately was typecast in abrasive, domineering, salty roles, for which her distinctive voice was well suited. She repeated her stage role in Dead End in the 1937 film version, and was subsequently cast repeatedly as the mother of gangsters. She again transferred a strong stage performance, as a dude-ranch operator in The Women, to film in 1939. At this time, she guest-starred on radio programs such as Columbia Presents Corwin and The Goldbergs.
Main was signed to a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract in 1940 and stayed with the studio until the mid-1950s. She made six films with Wallace Beery in the 1940s, including Barnacle Bill (1941), Jackass Mail (1942), and Bad Bascomb (1946). She played Sonora Cassidy, the chief cook, in The Harvey Girls (1946). The director George Sidney remarked in the commentary for the film that Miss Main was a "great lady" as well as a great actress who donated most of her paychecks over the years to the support of a school.
Perhaps her most famous role is that of Ma Kettle, which she first played in The Egg and I in 1947 opposite Percy Kilbride as Pa Kettle. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the part and portrayed the character in nine more Ma and Pa Kettle films.
By the early 1950s, she had appeared in several MGM musicals, including, Meet Me in St. Louis and The Belle of New York. She played Mrs. Wrenley in the studio's all-star film It's a Big Country (1951). In 1954, Marjorie Main played her last roles for the studio: Mrs. Hittaway in The Long, Long Trailer and Jane Dunstock in Rose Marie. In 1956, Main's performance as the widow Hudspeth in the hit film Friendly Persuasion was well-received, earning her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1958, Main appeared twice as rugged frontierswoman Cassie Tanner in the episodes "The Cassie Tanner Story" and "The Sacramento Story" on NBC's television series Wagon Train. In the first segment, she joins the wagon train, casts her romantic interest on Ward Bond as Major Adams, and helps the train locate needed horses despite a Paiute threat.
Acted in
The World of Abbott and Costello
1965
as Widow Hawkins in The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap
Wagon Train
1957
as Cassie Tanner
The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm
1957
as Ma Kettle
Friendly Persuasion
1956
as The Widow Hudspeth
The Kettles in the Ozarks
1956
as Ma Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
1955
as Ma' Kettle
Ricochet Romance
1954
as Pansy Jones
December Bride
1954
Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
1954
as Ma Kettle
Rose Marie
1954
as Lady Jane Dunstock
The Long, Long Trailer
1954
as Mrs. Hittaway
Fast Company
1953
as Ma Parkson
Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
1952
as Ma Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
1952
as Ma Kettle
The Belle of New York
1952
as Mrs Phineas Hill
It's a Big Country
1951
as Mrs. Wrenley
The Law and the Lady
1951
as Julia Wortin
Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm
1951
as Ma Kettle
Mr. Imperium
1951
as Mrs. Cabot
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
1950
as Harriet O'Malley
Summer Stock
1950
as Esme
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
1950
as Ma Kettle
Big Jack
1949
as Flapjack Kate
Ma and Pa Kettle
1949
as Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'
1948
as Maribel Mathews
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
1947
as Widow Hawkins
The Egg and I
1947
as Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
The Show-Off
1946
as Mrs. Fisher
Undercurrent
1946
as Lucy
Bad Bascomb
1946
as Abbey Hanks
The Harvey Girls
1946
as Sonora Cassidy
Murder, He Says
1945
as Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
Gentle Annie
1944
as Annie Goss
Meet Me in St. Louis
1944
as Katie
Rationing
1944
as Iris Tuttle
Johnny Come Lately
1943
as 'Gashouse' Mary
Heaven Can Wait
1943
as Mrs. Strabel
Tennessee Johnson
1942
as Mrs. Maude Fisher
Tish
1942
as Miss Letitia 'Tish' Carberry
Jackass Mail
1942
as Clementine 'Tina' Tucker
The Affairs of Martha
1942
as Mrs. McKissick
We Were Dancing
1942
as Judge Hawkes
The Bugle Sounds
1942
as Susie 'Suz'
Honky Tonk
1941
as Mrs. Varner
The Shepherd of the Hills
1941
as Granny Becky
A Woman's Face
1941
as Emma Kristiansdotter
Barnacle Bill
1941
as Marge Cavendish
The Trial of Mary Dugan
1941
as Mrs. Collins
The Wild Man of Borneo
1941
as Irma, the Cook
Wyoming
1940
as Mehitabel
The Captain Is a Lady
1940
as Sarah May Willett
Susan and God
1940
as Mary
Turnabout
1940
as Nora
Dark Command
1940
as Mrs. Cantrell / Mrs. Adams
Women Without Names
1940
as Mrs. Lowery
I Take This Woman
1940
as Gertie
Two Thoroughbreds
1939
as Hildegarde 'Hildy' Carey
Another Thin Man
1939
as Mrs. Dolley (uncredited)
The Women
1939
as Lucy
Angels Wash Their Faces
1939
as Mrs. Arkelian
They Shall Have Music
1939
as Mrs. Miller
Lucky Night
1939
as Mrs. Briggs
There Goes My Heart
1938
as Fireless Cooker Customer (uncredited)
Girls' School
1938
as Miss Armstrong
Too Hot to Handle
1938
as Miss Wayne
Under the Big Top
1938
as Sara Post
Little Tough Guy
1938
as Mrs. Boylan
Prison Farm
1938
as Matron Brand
Romance of the Limberlost
1938
as Nora
Three Comrades
1938
as Old woman by phone (uncredited)
Test Pilot
1938
as Landlady
King of the Newsboys
1938
as Mrs. Stephens (uncredited)
Penitentiary
1938
as Miss Katie Mathews
Boy of the Streets
1938
as Mrs. Mary Brennan
The Shadow
1937
as Hannah Gillespie
The Wrong Road
1937
as Martha Foster
The Man Who Cried Wolf
1937
as Amelia Bradley
Dead End
1937
as Mrs. Martin
Stella Dallas
1937
as Mrs. Martin
Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)
1936
as Self
Music in the Air
1934
as Anna (Uncredited)
Crime Without Passion
1934
as Backstage Wardrobe Woman (uncredited)
Art Trouble
1934
as Woman Who Sits on Painting
Close Relations
1933
as Woman in Depot (uncredited)
New Deal Rhythm
1933
as Arizona Representative
Hot Saturday
1932
as Gossip in Window (uncredited)
Broken Lullaby
1932
as Frau Schmidt - Townswoman (uncredited)
A House Divided
1931
as Townswoman at Wedding (uncredited)
Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties
1929
as Statler Hotel Beauty