
Marjorie Main
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Female
Birthday
1890-02-22
Day of Death
1975-04-10 (85 years old)
Place of Birth
Acton, Indiana, USA
Marjorie Main
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.
Known For
Acting
(1965)
The World of Abbott and Costello
as Widow Hawkins in The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap
(1957)
The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm
as Ma Kettle
(1956)
Friendly Persuasion
as The Widow Hudspeth
(1956)
The Kettles in the Ozarks
as Ma Kettle
(1955)
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
as Ma' Kettle
(1954)
Rose Marie
as Lady Jane Dunstock
(1954)
The Long, Long Trailer
as Mrs. Hittaway
(1954)
Ricochet Romance
as Pansy Jones
(1954)
Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
as Ma Kettle
(1953)
Fast Company
as Ma Parkson
(1952)
The Belle of New York
as Mrs Phineas Hill
(1952)
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
as Ma Kettle
(1952)
Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
as Ma Kettle
(1951)
Mr. Imperium
as Mrs. Cabot
(1951)
Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm
as Ma Kettle
(1951)
It's a Big Country
as Mrs. Wrenley
(1951)
The Law and the Lady
as Julia Wortin
(1950)
Summer Stock
as Esme
(1950)
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
as Harriet O'Malley
(1950)
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
as Ma Kettle
(1949)
Big Jack
as Flapjack Kate
(1949)
Ma and Pa Kettle
as Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
(1948)
Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'
as Maribel Mathews
(1947)
The Egg and I
as Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
(1947)
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
as Widow Hawkins
(1946)
The Harvey Girls
as Sonora Cassidy
(1946)
Undercurrent
as Lucy
(1946)
Bad Bascomb
as Abbey Hanks
(1946)
The Show-Off
as Mrs. Fisher
(1945)
Murder, He Says
as Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
(1944)
Meet Me in St. Louis
as Katie
(1944)
Gentle Annie
as Annie Goss
(1944)
Rationing
as Iris Tuttle
(1943)
Heaven Can Wait
as Mrs. Strabel
(1943)
Johnny Come Lately
as 'Gashouse' Mary
(1942)
Tennessee Johnson
as Mrs. Maude Fisher
(1942)
Tish
as Miss Letitia 'Tish' Carberry
(1942)
Jackass Mail
as Clementine 'Tina' Tucker
(1942)
The Bugle Sounds
as Susie 'Suz'
(1942)
The Affairs of Martha
as Mrs. McKissick
(1942)
We Were Dancing
as Judge Hawkes
(1941)
A Woman's Face
as Emma Kristiansdotter
(1941)
The Shepherd of the Hills
as Granny Becky
(1941)
Honky Tonk
as Mrs. Varner
(1941)
Barnacle Bill
as Marge Cavendish
(1941)
The Wild Man of Borneo
as Irma, the Cook
(1941)
The Trial of Mary Dugan
as Mrs. Collins
(1940)
Dark Command
as Mrs. Cantrell / Mrs. Adams
(1940)
Turnabout
as Nora, the Cook
(1940)
Wyoming
as Mehitabel
(1940)
Women Without Names
as Mrs. Lowery
(1940)
Susan and God
as Mary
(1940)
I Take This Woman
as Gertie
(1940)
The Captain Is a Lady
as Sarah May Willett
(1939)
The Women
as Lucy
(1939)
Another Thin Man
as Mrs. Dolley (uncredited)
(1939)
Lucky Night
as Mrs. Briggs
(1939)
They Shall Have Music
as Mrs. Miller
(1939)
Angels Wash Their Faces
as Mrs. Arkelian
(1939)
Two Thoroughbreds
as Hildegarde 'Hildy' Carey
(1938)
Three Comrades
as Old woman by phone (uncredited)
(1938)
Test Pilot
as Landlady
(1938)
Too Hot to Handle
as Miss Wayne
(1938)
There Goes My Heart
as Fireless Cooker Customer (uncredited)
(1938)
Penitentiary
as Miss Katie Mathews
(1938)
Girls' School
as Miss Armstrong
(1938)
Under the Big Top
as Sara Post
(1938)
Prison Farm
as Matron Brand
(1938)
Little Tough Guy
as Mrs. Boylan
(1938)
Boy of the Streets
as Mrs. Mary Brennan
(1938)
King of the Newsboys
as Mrs. Stephens (uncredited)
(1938)
Romance of the Limberlost
as Nora
(1937)
Dead End
as Mrs. Martin
(1937)
Stella Dallas
as Mrs. Martin
(1937)
The Shadow
as Hannah Gillespie
(1937)
The Wrong Road
as Martha Foster
(1937)
The Man Who Cried Wolf
as Amelia Bradley
(1937)
Love in a Bungalow
as Miss Emma Bisbee
(1936)
(1934)
Music in the Air
as Anna (Uncredited)
(1934)
Crime Without Passion
as Backstage Wardrobe Woman (uncredited)
(1934)
Art Trouble
as Woman Who Sits on Painting
(1933)
Close Relations
as Woman in Depot (uncredited)
(1933)
New Deal Rhythm
as Arizona Representative
(1932)
Broken Lullaby
as Frau Schmidt - Townswoman (uncredited)
(1932)
Hot Saturday
as Gossip in Window (uncredited)
(1931)
A House Divided
as Townswoman at Wedding (uncredited)
(1929)
Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties
as Statler Hotel Beauty