1890-02-22 ( 135 years old ) in Acton, Indiana, USA
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.
Movies
The World of Abbott and Costello
1965-04-01
The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm
1957-05-10
Friendly Persuasion
1956-11-25
The Kettles in the Ozarks
1956-04-01
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
1955-04-01
Ricochet Romance
1954-11-01
Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
1954-03-10
Rose Marie
1954-03-03
The Long, Long Trailer
1954-02-19
Fast Company
1953-05-21
Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
1952-10-27
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
1952-07-11
The Belle of New York
1952-02-22
It's a Big Country
1951-11-20
The Law and the Lady
1951-07-20
Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm
1951-05-10
Mr. Imperium
1951-03-02
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
1950-12-08
Summer Stock
1950-08-31
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
1950-04-01
Big Jack
1949-04-12
Ma and Pa Kettle
1949-04-01
Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'
1948-06-01
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
1947-10-08
The Egg and I
1947-05-01
The Show-Off
1946-12-01
Undercurrent
1946-11-11
Bad Bascomb
1946-05-26
The Harvey Girls
1946-01-18
Murder, He Says
1945-06-23
Gentle Annie
1944-12-05
Meet Me in St. Louis
1944-11-28
Rationing
1944-03-24
Johnny Come Lately
1943-09-03
Heaven Can Wait
1943-08-05
Tennessee Johnson
1942-12-01
Tish
1942-09-17
Jackass Mail
1942-07-01
The Affairs of Martha
1942-06-21
We Were Dancing
1942-04-30
The Bugle Sounds
1942-01-30
Honky Tonk
1941-10-01
The Shepherd of the Hills
1941-07-18
A Woman's Face
1941-05-09
Barnacle Bill
1941-04-07
The Trial of Mary Dugan
1941-02-14
The Wild Man of Borneo
1941-01-24
Wyoming
1940-09-13
The Captain Is a Lady
1940-06-21
Susan and God
1940-06-07
Turnabout
1940-05-17
Dark Command
1940-04-15
Women Without Names
1940-03-14
I Take This Woman
1940-02-02
Two Thoroughbreds
1939-12-08
Another Thin Man
1939-11-17
The Women
1939-09-01
Angels Wash Their Faces
1939-08-26
They Shall Have Music
1939-08-18
Lucky Night
1939-05-05
There Goes My Heart
1938-10-14
Girls' School
1938-09-30
Too Hot to Handle
1938-09-16
Under the Big Top
1938-08-31
Little Tough Guy
1938-07-22
Prison Farm
1938-06-17
Romance of the Limberlost
1938-06-16
Three Comrades
1938-06-02
Test Pilot
1938-04-16
King of the Newsboys
1938-03-18
Penitentiary
1938-02-05
Boy of the Streets
1938-01-08
The Shadow
1937-12-22
The Wrong Road
1937-10-11
The Man Who Cried Wolf
1937-08-29
Dead End
1937-08-27
Stella Dallas
1937-08-06
Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)
1936-09-11
Music in the Air
1934-12-13
Crime Without Passion
1934-08-30
Art Trouble
1934-06-23
Close Relations
1933-09-30
New Deal Rhythm
1933-04-13
Hot Saturday
1932-10-28
Broken Lullaby
1932-01-19
A House Divided
1931-12-05
Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties
1929-07-21
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