
Esther Dale
Acting • Born 1885-11-10 – Died 1961-07-23
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Esther Dale (November 10, 1885 – July 23, 1961) was an American actress, best known perhaps for her role as Aunt Genevieve in the 1935 Shirley Temple vehicle, Curly Top. On the stage, Dale starred in Carrie Nation on Broadway in 1933. Her other Broadway credits include Harvest of Years (1947), And Be My Love (1944), and Another Language (1932). Dale's first film was Crime Without Passion (1934) in an uncredited role. She was a familiar face in films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, frequently playing stern, authoritarian characters such as prison matrons and head nurses, although she was equally adept at playing grande dames and ladies of the aristocracy. Dale played many roles in television over the years. In the 1958-1959 season of The Donna Reed Show, Dale played a job-seeking housekeeper who is frightened from the Stone home by Jeff Stone's pet mouse, and she appeared in the 1957 Maverick episode "According to Hoyle" opposite James Garner.
Filmography
105 credits
The Mortal Storm
Movie • 1940
Marta

Blondie Has Servant Trouble
Movie • 1940
Anna Vaughn

Monkey Business
Movie • 1952
Mrs. Rhinelander

Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Movie • 1941
Mrs. Krausheimer

Holiday Affair
Movie • 1949
Mrs. Ennis

Dead End
Movie • 1937
Mrs. Fenner

No Man of Her Own
Movie • 1950
Josie

Curly Top
Movie • 1935
Genevieve Graham

The Awful Truth
Movie • 1937
Mrs. Leeson

Bedside Manner
Movie • 1945
Martha Gravitt

A Stolen Life
Movie • 1946
Mrs. Johnson

The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
Movie • 1943

Dangerously They Live
Movie • 1941
Dawson, Goodwin's Housekeeper

Bad Little Angel
Movie • 1939
Miss Brown, Orphanage Secretary (uncredited)

All-American Co-Ed
Movie • 1941
Aunt Matilda Collinge

I Dream Too Much
Movie • 1935
Mrs. Dilley (uncredited)

Walk Softly, Stranger
Movie • 1950
Miss Thompson

Maisie Gets Her Man
Movie • 1942
Mrs. McIntyre (Uncredited)

The Unfinished Dance
Movie • 1947
Olga

Private Worlds
Movie • 1935
Matron

My Reputation
Movie • 1946
Anna

The Oklahoman
Movie • 1957
Mrs. Fitzgerald

Blackmail
Movie • 1939
Sarah

Murder in Times Square
Movie • 1943
Longacre Lil

Back Street
Movie • 1941
Mrs. Smith

Margie
Movie • 1946
Grandma McSweeney

Broadway Serenade
Movie • 1939
Mrs. Olsen, the Landlady

Convicted Woman
Movie • 1940
Chief Matron Brackett

And One Was Beautiful
Movie • 1940
Margaret

Aloma of the South Seas
Movie • 1941
Tarusa

Stolen Heaven
Movie • 1938
Lieschen

The Case Against Mrs. Ames
Movie • 1936
Matilda

Condemned Women
Movie • 1938
Mrs. Clara Glover, Head Matron

Women Without Names
Movie • 1940
Head Matron Ingles

Arise, My Love
Movie • 1940
Susie

Smoky
Movie • 1946
Mrs. 'Gram' Richards

6,000 Enemies
Movie • 1939
Prison Matron

The Great Man Votes
Movie • 1939
Mrs. Markham

The Wedding Night
Movie • 1935
Mrs. Kaise Novak

The North Star
Movie • 1943
Anna Kurin

Laddie
Movie • 1940
Sarah, the Housekeeper

Easy Living
Movie • 1937
Lillian

Tell No Tales
Movie • 1939
Mrs. Haskins

Prison Farm
Movie • 1938
Cora Waxley

Girls on Probation
Movie • 1938
Mrs. Engstrom

Old Acquaintance
Movie • 1943
Harriet

Damaged Goods
Movie • 1937
Mrs. Dupont

Made for Each Other
Movie • 1939
Annie (uncredited)

A Letter From Bataan
Movie • 1942
Mrs. Jackson

A Child is Born
Movie • 1939
Prison Matron (uncredited)

The Women
Movie • 1939
Ingrid (uncredited)

In Old Kentucky
Movie • 1935
Dolly Breckenridge

Swanee River
Movie • 1939
Temperance Woman

Sergeant Madden
Movie • 1939
Mrs. McGillivray

On Such a Night
Movie • 1937
Miss Belinda Fentridge

Village Barn Dance
Movie • 1940
Minerva Withers

Fury
Movie • 1936
Mrs. Whipple

Timothy's Quest
Movie • 1936
Hitty Tarbox

Untamed
Movie • 1940
Mrs. Smith

Hollywood Boulevard
Movie • 1936
Martha

Betrayed Women
Movie • 1955
Head Matron Ballard

Abe Lincoln in Illinois
Movie • 1940
Lincoln's Cook (uncredited)

Wild Money
Movie • 1937
Jenny Hawkins

What's Cookin'?
Movie • 1942
Mrs. Murphy (uncredited)

The Farmer in the Dell
Movie • 1936
Ma Boyer

Behind City Lights
Movie • 1945
Sarah Lowell

Cross-Country Romance
Movie • 1940
Mrs. McGillicuddy

I Live My Life
Movie • 1935
Brumbaugh, Mrs. Gage's Housekeeper

Mary Burns, Fugitive
Movie • 1935
Kate

Blondie Goes to College
Movie • 1942
Mrs. Carrie Dill, the Landlady

Surrender
Movie • 1950
Aunt May

Forty Little Mothers
Movie • 1940
Mrs. Mason the Landlady

Ten Gentlemen from West Point
Movie • 1942
Mrs. Thompson

How to Sub-Let
Movie • 1939
Mrs. Mustavas

Big Town Czar
Movie • 1939
Ma Daley

Outcast
Movie • 1937
Hattie Simmerson

North to Alaska
Movie • 1960
Woman at Picnic

Unfinished Business
Movie • 1941
Aunt Mathilda

You're Telling Me
Movie • 1942
Aunt Fannie Handley

A Song Is Born
Movie • 1948
Miss Bragg

Wrecking Crew
Movie • 1942
Mike O'Glendy

The Sound and the Fury
Movie • 1959
Mrs. Maud Mansfield

The Egg and I
Movie • 1947
Birdie Hicks

Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
Movie • 1952
Birdie Hicks

Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
Movie • 1955
Birdie Hicks

Ma and Pa Kettle
Movie • 1949
Mrs. Birdie Hicks

Swing Your Partner
Movie • 1943
Caroline Bird, aka Anna Robbins

The Great Impersonation
Movie • 1935
Mrs. Unthank

On Stage Everybody
Movie • 1945
Ma Cassidy

Too Young to Kiss
Movie • 1951
Mrs. Boykin

Crime Without Passion
Movie • 1934
Miss Keeley (uncredited)

A Tale of Two Cities
Movie • 1953
Pross

Lady of Secrets
Movie • 1936
Miss Eccles

Opened by Mistake
Movie • 1940
Mrs. Anthony DeBorest

On Moonlight Bay
Movie • 1951

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
TV • 1959

December Bride
TV • 1954

Thriller
TV • 1960
Ellen the Maid

M Squad
TV • 1957
Julia Sheldon

The Donna Reed Show
TV • 1958

Lock-Up
TV • 1959

Cavalcade of America
TV • 1952
Aunt Tabitha

Mr. & Mrs. North
TV • 1952

Maverick
TV • 1957
Ma Braus

Four Star Playhouse
TV • 1952
Mrs. Weston