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.
Photos
Movies (90)
Summer Stock: Get Happy!
2006 · Esme (archive footage) (uncredited)
The World of Abbott and Costello
1965 · Widow Hawkins in The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap
The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm
1957 · Ma Kettle
Friendly Persuasion
1956 · The Widow Hudspeth
The Kettles in the Ozarks
1956 · Ma Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
1955 · Ma' Kettle
Ricochet Romance
1954 · Pansy Jones
Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
1954 · Ma Kettle
Rose Marie
1954 · Lady Jane Dunstock
The Long, Long Trailer
1954 · Mrs. Hittaway
Fast Company
1953 · Ma Parkson
Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
1952 · Ma Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
1952 · Ma Kettle
The Belle of New York
1952 · Mrs Phineas Hill
It's a Big Country
1951 · Mrs. Wrenley
The Law and the Lady
1951 · Julia Wortin
Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm
1951 · Ma Kettle
Mr. Imperium
1951 · Mrs. Cabot
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
1950 · Harriet O'Malley
Summer Stock
1950 · Esmé
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
1950 · Ma Kettle
Big Jack
1949 · Flapjack Kate
Ma and Pa Kettle
1949 · Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'
1948 · Maribel Mathews
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
1947 · Widow Hawkins
The Egg and I
1947 · Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
The Show-Off
1946 · Mrs. Fisher
Undercurrent
1946 · Lucy
Bad Bascomb
1946 · Abbey Hanks
The Harvey Girls
1946 · Sonora Cassidy
Murder, He Says
1945 · Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
Gentle Annie
1944 · Annie Goss
Meet Me in St. Louis
1944 · Katie
Rationing
1944 · Iris Tuttle
Johnny Come Lately
1943 · 'Gashouse' Mary
Heaven Can Wait
1943 · Mrs. Strabel
Tennessee Johnson
1942 · Mrs. Maude Fisher
Tish
1942 · Miss Letitia 'Tish' Carberry
Jackass Mail
1942 · Clementine 'Tina' Tucker
The Affairs of Martha
1942 · Mrs. McKissick
We Were Dancing
1942 · Judge Hawkes
The Bugle Sounds
1942 · Susie 'Suz'
Honky Tonk
1941 · Mrs. Varner
The Shepherd of the Hills
1941 · Granny Becky
A Woman's Face
1941 · Emma Kristiansdotter
Barnacle Bill
1941 · Marge Cavendish
The Trial of Mary Dugan
1941 · Mrs. Collins
The Wild Man of Borneo
1941 · Irma, the Cook
Wyoming
1940 · Mehitabel
The Captain is a Lady
1940 · Sarah May Willett
Susan and God
1940 · Mary Maloney
Turnabout
1940 · Nora, the Cook
Dark Command
1940 · Mrs. Cantrell / Mrs. Adams
Women Without Names
1940 · Mrs. Lowery
I Take This Woman
1940 · Gertie
Two Thoroughbreds
1939 · Hildegarde 'Hildy' Carey
Another Thin Man
1939 · Mrs. Dolley
The Women
1939 · Lucy
Angels Wash Their Faces
1939 · Mrs. Arkelian
They Shall Have Music
1939 · Mrs. Miller
Lucky Night
1939 · Mrs. Briggs
There Goes My Heart
1938 · Fireless Cooker Customer (uncredited)
Girls' School
1938 · Miss Armstrong
Too Hot to Handle
1938 · Miss Wayne
Under the Big Top
1938 · Sara Post
Little Tough Guy
1938 · Mrs. Boylan
Prison Farm
1938 · Matron Brand
Romance of the Limberlost
1938 · Nora
Three Comrades
1938 · Old woman by phone (uncredited)
Test Pilot
1938 · Landlady
King of the Newsboys
1938 · Mrs. Stephens (uncredited)
Penitentiary
1938 · Miss Katie Mathews
Boy of the Streets
1938 · Mrs. Mary Brennan
City Girl
1938 · Mrs. Ward (uncredited)
The Shadow
1937 · Hannah Gillespie
The Wrong Road
1937 · Martha Foster
The Man Who Cried Wolf
1937 · Amelia Bradley
Dead End
1937 · Mrs. Martin
Stella Dallas
1937 · Mrs. Martin
Love in a Bungalow
1937 · Miss Emma Bisbee
Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)
1936 · Self
Music in the Air
1934 · Anna (Uncredited)
Crime Without Passion
1934 · Backstage Wardrobe Woman (uncredited)
Art Trouble
1934 · Woman Who Sits on Painting
Close Relations
1933 · Woman in Depot (uncredited)
New Deal Rhythm
1933 · Arizona Representative
Hot Saturday
1932 · Gossip in Window (uncredited)
Broken Lullaby
1932 · Frau Schmidt - Townswoman (uncredited)
A House Divided
1931 · Townswoman at Wedding (uncredited)
Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties
1929 · Statler Hotel Beauty
