Marjorie Main
Acting • Born 1890-02-22 – Died 1975-04-10
Biography
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.
Filmography
91 credits
Meet Me in St. Louis
Movie • 1944
Katie
Mr. Imperium
Movie • 1951
Mrs. Cabot
The Women
Movie • 1939
Lucy
The Long, Long Trailer
Movie • 1954
Mrs. Hittaway
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
Movie • 1947
Widow Hawkins
A Woman's Face
Movie • 1941
Emma Kristiansdotter
Dead End
Movie • 1937
Mrs. Martin
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
Movie • 1952
Ma Kettle
The Egg and I
Movie • 1947
Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
Friendly Persuasion
Movie • 1956
The Widow Hudspeth
The Shepherd of the Hills
Movie • 1941
Granny Becky
The Belle of New York
Movie • 1952
Mrs Phineas Hill
Summer Stock
Movie • 1950
Esme
Stella Dallas
Movie • 1937
Mrs. Martin
Undercurrent
Movie • 1946
Lucy
Ma and Pa Kettle
Movie • 1949
Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
Heaven Can Wait
Movie • 1943
Mrs. Strabel
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
Movie • 1955
Ma' Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
Movie • 1952
Ma Kettle
Tennessee Johnson
Movie • 1942
Mrs. Maude Fisher
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
Movie • 1950
Ma Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm
Movie • 1951
Ma Kettle
It's a Big Country
Movie • 1951
Mrs. Wrenley
The Kettles in the Ozarks
Movie • 1956
Ma Kettle
Honky Tonk
Movie • 1941
Mrs. Varner
The Bugle Sounds
Movie • 1942
Susie 'Suz'
Jackass Mail
Movie • 1942
Clementine 'Tina' Tucker
The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm
Movie • 1957
Ma Kettle
Angels Wash Their Faces
Movie • 1939
Mrs. Arkelian
Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'
Movie • 1948
Maribel Mathews
Murder, He Says
Movie • 1945
Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
Movie • 1950
Harriet O'Malley
The Wild Man of Borneo
Movie • 1941
Irma, the Cook
New Deal Rhythm
Movie • 1933
Arizona Representative
The Shadow
Movie • 1937
Hannah Gillespie
I Take This Woman
Movie • 1940
Gertie
Barnacle Bill
Movie • 1941
Marge Cavendish
Rose Marie
Movie • 1954
Lady Jane Dunstock
Lucky Night
Movie • 1939
Mrs. Briggs
Big Jack
Movie • 1949
Flapjack Kate
Bad Bascomb
Movie • 1946
Abbey Hanks
We Were Dancing
Movie • 1942
Judge Hawkes
Rationing
Movie • 1944
Iris Tuttle
The Wrong Road
Movie • 1937
Martha Foster
The Law and the Lady
Movie • 1951
Julia Wortin
The Affairs of Martha
Movie • 1942
Mrs. McKissick
Boy of the Streets
Movie • 1938
Mrs. Mary Brennan
Under the Big Top
Movie • 1938
Sara Post
The Man Who Cried Wolf
Movie • 1937
Amelia Bradley
Women Without Names
Movie • 1940
Mrs. Lowery
Girls' School
Movie • 1938
Miss Armstrong
Too Hot to Handle
Movie • 1938
Miss Wayne
Little Tough Guy
Movie • 1938
Mrs. Boylan
The Show-Off
Movie • 1946
Mrs. Fisher
Romance of the Limberlost
Movie • 1938
Nora
Tish
Movie • 1942
Miss Letitia 'Tish' Carberry
Two Thoroughbreds
Movie • 1939
Hildegarde 'Hildy' Carey
Susan and God
Movie • 1940
Mary
Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
Movie • 1954
Ma Kettle
There Goes My Heart
Movie • 1938
Fireless Cooker Customer (uncredited)
Gentle Annie
Movie • 1944
Annie Goss
Wyoming
Movie • 1940
Mehitabel
The Harvey Girls
Movie • 1946
Sonora Cassidy
Prison Farm
Movie • 1938
Matron Brand
Turnabout
Movie • 1940
Nora, the Cook
Three Comrades
Movie • 1938
Old woman by phone (uncredited)
Test Pilot
Movie • 1938
Landlady
Another Thin Man
Movie • 1939
Mrs. Dolley (uncredited)
They Shall Have Music
Movie • 1939
Mrs. Miller
King of the Newsboys
Movie • 1938
Mrs. Stephens (uncredited)
Fast Company
Movie • 1953
Ma Parkson
Ricochet Romance
Movie • 1954
Pansy Jones
A House Divided
Movie • 1931
Townswoman at Wedding (uncredited)
The Trial of Mary Dugan
Movie • 1941
Mrs. Collins
Johnny Come Lately
Movie • 1943
'Gashouse' Mary
Music in the Air
Movie • 1934
Anna (Uncredited)
Dark Command
Movie • 1940
Mrs. Cantrell / Mrs. Adams
Hot Saturday
Movie • 1932
Gossip in Window (uncredited)
The Captain is a Lady
Movie • 1940
Sarah May Willett
Broken Lullaby
Movie • 1932
Frau Schmidt - Townswoman (uncredited)
Art Trouble
Movie • 1934
Woman Who Sits on Painting
Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties
Movie • 1929
Statler Hotel Beauty
Close Relations
Movie • 1933
Woman in Depot (uncredited)
Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)
Movie • 1936
Self
Crime Without Passion
Movie • 1934
Backstage Wardrobe Woman (uncredited)
The World of Abbott and Costello
Movie • 1965
Widow Hawkins in The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap
Penitentiary
Movie • 1938
Miss Katie Mathews
Love in a Bungalow
Movie • 1937
Miss Emma Bisbee
Summer Stock: Get Happy!
Movie • 2006
Esme (archive footage) (uncredited)
December Bride
TV • 1954
Wagon Train
TV • 1957
Cassie Tanner