Marjorie Main

Acting · 0.7 popularity

Age

136

Movies

Born: February 22, 1890 – April 10, 1975
From: Acton, Indiana, USA

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.

Works

90 films

Meet Me in St. Louis

19447.0

The Women

19397.2

Friendly Persuasion

19566.6

Summer Stock

19506.7

The Wild Man of Borneo

19416.7

Dead End

19377.1

The Shepherd of the Hills

19416.6

Heaven Can Wait

19436.9

Honky Tonk

19416.4

Undercurrent

19465.9

Ma and Pa Kettle

19497.3

Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki

19556.8

The Harvey Girls

19466.6

The Egg and I

19477.1

The Long, Long Trailer

19547.0

Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town

19506.6

The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm

19576.4

A Woman's Face

19416.8

Stella Dallas

19376.8

Another Thin Man

19397.1

Ma and Pa Kettle at Home

19546.6

Dark Command

19406.4

The Kettles in the Ozarks

19566.4

Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair

19526.6

Girls' School

19386.5

Broken Lullaby

19327.5

Test Pilot

19386.1

Mr. Imperium

19515.1

The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap

19476.3

It's a Big Country

19515.9

Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm

19516.7

Big Jack

19497.3

Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation

19527.1

Too Hot to Handle

19386.0

Susan and God

19406.5

The Affairs of Martha

19426.6

The Belle of New York

19525.7

Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone

19507.0

Three Comrades

19387.3

Angels Wash Their Faces

19396.7

A House Divided

19315.6

The Law and the Lady

19516.4

City Girl

19386.5

They Shall Have Music

19396.5

The Bugle Sounds

19426.8

Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)

19366.0

Women Without Names

19404.7

Murder, He Says

19456.8

There Goes My Heart

19387.3

The Trial of Mary Dugan

19416.5

Hot Saturday

19326.6

The World of Abbott and Costello

19656.8

Prison Farm

19386.8

Tennessee Johnson

19426.4

Two Thoroughbreds

19395.0

I Take This Woman

19405.8

Gentle Annie

19445.7

Bad Bascomb

19467.3

King of the Newsboys

19384.8

The Show-Off

19467.0

Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'

19487.3

Turnabout

19406.0

Music in the Air

19345.6

Wyoming

19406.7

Rationing

19444.0

Rose Marie

19544.5

Lucky Night

19396.8

Art Trouble

19346.8

Ricochet Romance

19548.0

Crime Without Passion

19345.9

Johnny Come Lately

19437.0

Boy of the Streets

19386.0

The Wrong Road

19374.8

We Were Dancing

19424.3

Jackass Mail

19427.5

Penitentiary

19387.0

The Captain is a Lady

19407.5

Barnacle Bill

19417.8

The Shadow

19377.0

The Man Who Cried Wolf

19377.0

Tish

19426.5

Little Tough Guy

19385.7

Summer Stock: Get Happy!

2006

Romance of the Limberlost

19386.5

Fast Company

19537.5

Close Relations

19337.0

Love in a Bungalow

193710.0

Under the Big Top

19386.7

New Deal Rhythm

19336.7

Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties

19295.0