Marjorie Main
Marjorie Main | |
---|---|
as Ma Kettle in Ma and Pa Kettle On Vacation (1953) |
|
Born | Mary Tomlinson February 24, 1890 Acton, Indiana, U.S. |
Died | April 10, 1975 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
(aged 85)
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1916–1958 |
Spouse | Stanley LeFevre Krebs (1921–1935; his death) |
Marjorie Main (February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975) was an American character actress, mainly at MGM, perhaps best known for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Early life and career
Born Mary Tomlinson in Acton, Indiana, Main attended Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, and adopted a stage name to avoid embarrassing her father, Samuel J. Tomlinson (married to Jennie L. McGaughey), who was a minister. She worked in vaudeville on the Chautauqua and Orpheum Circuits, and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her first film was A House Divided in 1931.[2][3]
Main began playing upper class dowagers, but was ultimately typecast in abrasive, domineering, salty roles, for which her distinct 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. She made six films with Wallace Beery in the 1940s including Barnacle Bill (1941), Jackass Mail (1942), and Bad Bascomb (1946).[4] She played Sonora Cassidy, the chief cook, in The Harvey Girls (1945). The director, George Sidney, says in the comments on 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.[4]
[edit] Personal life and death
Main married Stanley LeFevre Krebs, who died in 1935. Three authors, Boze Hadleigh, Axel Madsen, and Darwin Porter, have asserted that Main was a lesbian.[5][6][7]According to Keith Stern and Boze Hadleigh, Marjorie Main had a long-term lesbian relationship with actress Spring Byington. [8][9]
Main died of lung cancer on April 10, 1975 at St. Vincent's Hospital in Los Angeles, where she had been admitted on April 3, at the age of 85.[10] She is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills.[11]
Her name is listed on her headstone as Mrs. Mary Tomlinson Krebs, with her stage name Marjorie Main underneath.
[edit] Theatre
- Salvation (1928)
- Scarlet Sister Mary (1930)
- Ebb Tide (1931)
- Music in the Air (1932)
- Jackson White (1935)
- Dead End (1935)
- The Women (1936)
[edit] Selected filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1932 | Hot Saturday | Gossip in Window | Uncredited |
1933 | New Deal Rhythm | Delegate from Arizona | Uncredited |
1934 | Music in the Air | Anna | |
1937 | Stella Dallas | Mrs. Martin | |
1938 | Test Pilot | Landlady | |
1938 | Three Comrades | Old Woman by Phone | Uncredited |
1938 | Girls' School | Miss Honore Armstrong | |
1938 | Little Tough Guy | Mrs. Boylan | |
1938 | Too Hot to Handle | Miss Kitty Wayne | |
1939 | They Shall Have Music | Mrs. Miller | |
1939 | The Angels Wash Their Faces | Mrs. Arkelian | |
1939 | Another Thin Man | Mrs. Dolley, Landlord Chesterfield Apartments | |
1939 | The Women | Lucy, Dude Ranch Owner | |
1940 | I Take This Woman | Gertie | |
1940 | Dark Command | Mrs. Cantrell, aka Mrs. Adams | |
1940 | Turnabout | Nora - the Cook | |
1940 | Susan and God | Mary Maloney | Alternative title: The Gay Mrs. Trexel |
1941 | The Trial of Mary Dugan | Mrs. Collins | |
1941 | A Woman's Face | Emma Kristiansdotter | |
1941 | The Shepherd of the Hills | Granny Becky | |
1941 | Honky Tonk | Mrs. Varner | |
1942 | The Bugle Sounds | Susie "Suz" | |
1942 | The Affairs of Martha | Mrs. McKessic | |
1942 | Tennessee Johnson | Mrs. Maude Fisher | Alternative title: The Man on America's Conscience |
1942 | We Were Dancing | The Judge | |
1943 | Heaven Can Wait | Mrs. Strable | |
1944 | Meet Me in St. Louis | Katie | |
1944 | Gentle Annie | Annie Goss | |
1945 | Murder, He Says | Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson | |
1946 | The Harvey Girls | Sonora Cassidy | |
1946 | Undercurrent | Lucy | |
1947 | The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap | Widow Hawkins | Alternative title: The Wistful Widow |
1948 | Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin' | Maribel Mathews | |
1949 | Big Jack | Flapjack Kate | |
1950 | Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town | Ma Kettle | |
1950 | Summer Stock | Esme | Alternative title: If You Feel Like Singing |
1950 | Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone | Harriet "Hattie" O'Malley | |
1951 | Mr. Imperium | Mrs. Cabot | Alternative title: You Belong to My Heart |
1951 | Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm | Ma Kettle | |
1951 | It's a Big Country | Mrs. Wrenley | |
1952 | The Belle of New York | Mrs. Phineas Hill | |
1952 | Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair | Ma Kettle | |
1953 | Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation | Ma Kettle | |
1953 | Fast Company | Ma Parkson | |
1954 | The Long, Long Trailer | Mrs. Hittaway | |
1954 | Rose Marie | Lady Jane Dunstock | |
1955 | Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki | Ma Kettle | |
1956 | The Kettles in the Ozarks | Ma Kettle | |
1956 | Friendly Persuasion | The Widow Hudspeth | Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress |
1956 | December Bride | Herself | Episode: "The Marjorie Main Show" |
1957 | The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm | Ma Kettle | |
1958 | Wagon Train | Cassie Tanner | 2 episodes |
[edit] References
- ^ Obituary Variety, April 16, 1975, page 95.
- ^ Price, Nelson (1997). Indiana Legends: Famous Hoosiers from Johnny Appleseed to David Letterman (3 ed.). Emmis Books. pp. 130. ISBN 1-578-60006-5.
- ^ Monush, Barry (2003). Screen World Presents the Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the Silent Era to 1965. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 458. ISBN 1-557-83551-9.
- ^ a b "Marjorie Main Biography (1890-1975)". filmreference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/16/Marjorie-Main.html. Retrieved 2009-08-03.
- ^ "I want to be alone with her" Jon Newlin Contributing writer. Times - Picayune. New Orleans, La.: Jan 28, 2001. pg. 06
- ^ "Phoney marriage: a must for every gay Hollywood actor" AXEL MADSEN. The Guardian. Manchester (UK): Sep 18, 1998. pg. T.010
- ^ Poreter, Darwin. Katharine the Great: Secrets of a Lifetime Revealed Blood Moon Productions, Ltd. 2004 ISBN 0974811807
- ^ Stern, Keith Queers in History Dallas, Texas:2009 BenBella Books Page 83
- ^ Hadleigh, Boze Hollywood Lesbians New York:1994 Barricade Books
- ^ United Press International, "Marjorie Main Dead at 85", Playground Daily News, Fort walton Beach, Florida, Friday 11 April 1975, Volume 30, Number 55, page 3A.
- ^ Nissen, Axel (2006). Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces From the Thirties To the Fifties. McFarland. pp. 117. ISBN 0-786-42746-9.
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Marjorie Main |
- Marjorie Main at the Internet Broadway Database
- Marjorie Main at the Internet Movie Database
- Marjorie Main at the TCM Movie Database
- Marjorie Main at Find a Grave
- Literature on Marjorie Main
|
- 1890 births
- 1975 deaths
- Franklin College (Indiana) alumni
- Actors from Indiana
- American film actors
- American radio actors
- American stage actors
- American television actors
- Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
- Cancer deaths in California
- Deaths from lung cancer
- LGBT people from the United States
- Lesbian actors
- People from Marion County, Indiana
- Vaudeville performers