Marjorie Main

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

Born: Acton, Indiana, USA, 1890-02-22

Died: 1975-04-10

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1929	Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties	Statler Hotel Beauty	10
2	1931	A House Divided	Townswoman at Wedding (uncredited)	62
3	1932	Broken Lullaby	Frau Schmidt - Townswoman (uncredited)	75
4	1932	Hot Saturday	Gossip in Window (uncredited)	65
5	1933	New Deal Rhythm	Arizona Representative	55
6	1933	Close Relations	Woman in Depot (uncredited)	0
7	1934	Art Trouble	Woman Who Sits on Painting	63
8	1934	Crime Without Passion	Backstage Wardrobe Woman (uncredited)	58
9	1934	Music in the Air	Anna (Uncredited)	48
10	1936	Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)	Self	60
11	1937	Love in a Bungalow	Miss Emma Bisbee	0
12	1937	Stella Dallas	Mrs. Martin	68
13	1937	Dead End	Mrs. Martin	70
14	1937	The Man Who Cried Wolf	Amelia Bradley	55
15	1937	The Wrong Road	Martha Foster	44
16	1937	The Shadow	Hannah Gillespie	65
17	1938	Boy of the Streets	Mrs. Mary Brennan	50
18	1938	Penitentiary	Miss Katie Mathews	0
19	1938	King of the Newsboys	Mrs. Stephens (uncredited)	35
20	1938	Test Pilot	Landlady	65
21	1938	Three Comrades	Old woman by phone (uncredited)	71
22	1938	Romance of the Limberlost	Nora	0
23	1938	Prison Farm	Matron Brand	57
24	1938	Little Tough Guy	Mrs. Boylan	56
25	1938	Under the Big Top	Sara Post	55
26	1938	Too Hot to Handle	Miss Wayne	58
27	1938	Girls' School	Miss Armstrong	60
28	1938	There Goes My Heart	Fireless Cooker Customer (uncredited)	71
29	1939	Lucky Night	Mrs. Briggs	66
30	1939	They Shall Have Music	Mrs. Miller	61
31	1939	Angels Wash Their Faces	Mrs. Arkelian	64
32	1939	The Women	Lucy	71
33	1939	Another Thin Man	Mrs. Dolley (uncredited)	71
34	1939	Two Thoroughbreds	Hildegarde 'Hildy' Carey	20
35	1940	I Take This Woman	Gertie	62
36	1940	Women Without Names	Mrs. Lowery	48
37	1940	Dark Command	Mrs. Cantrell / Mrs. Adams	63
38	1940	Turnabout	Nora, the Cook	60
39	1940	Susan and God	Mary	65
40	1940	The Captain Is a Lady	Sarah May Willett	60
41	1940	Wyoming	Mehitabel	59
42	1941	The Wild Man of Borneo	Irma, the Cook	65
43	1941	The Trial of Mary Dugan	Mrs. Collins	50
44	1941	Barnacle Bill	Marge Cavendish	77
45	1941	A Woman's Face	Emma Kristiansdotter	69
46	1941	The Shepherd of the Hills	Granny Becky	66
47	1941	Honky Tonk	Mrs. Varner	64
48	1942	The Bugle Sounds	Susie 'Suz'	60
49	1942	We Were Dancing	Judge Hawkes	42
50	1942	The Affairs of Martha	Mrs. McKissick	58
51	1942	Jackass Mail	Clementine 'Tina' Tucker	70
52	1942	Tish	Miss Letitia 'Tish' Carberry	57
53	1942	Tennessee Johnson	Mrs. Maude Fisher	61
54	1943	Heaven Can Wait	Mrs. Strabel	69
55	1943	Johnny Come Lately	'Gashouse' Mary	67
56	1944	Rationing	Iris Tuttle	30
57	1944	Meet Me in St. Louis	Katie	70
58	1944	Gentle Annie	Annie Goss	52
59	1945	Murder, He Says	Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson	66
60	1946	The Harvey Girls	Sonora Cassidy	65
61	1946	Bad Bascomb	Abbey Hanks	62
62	1946	Undercurrent	Lucy	58
63	1946	The Show-Off	Mrs. Fisher	70
64	1947	The Egg and I	Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle	70
65	1947	The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap	Widow Hawkins	62
66	1948	Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'	Maribel Mathews	65
67	1949	Ma and Pa Kettle	Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle	73
68	1949	Big Jack	Flapjack Kate	60
69	1950	Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town	Ma Kettle	61
70	1950	Summer Stock	Esme	67
71	1950	Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone	Harriet O'Malley	60
72	1951	Mr. Imperium	Mrs. Cabot	49
73	1951	Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm	Ma Kettle	63
74	1951	The Law and the Lady	Julia Wortin	61
75	1951	It's a Big Country	Mrs. Wrenley	53
76	1952	The Belle of New York	Mrs Phineas Hill	55
77	1952	Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair	Ma Kettle	59
78	1952	Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation	Ma Kettle	72
79	1953	Fast Company	Ma Parkson	70
80	1954	The Long, Long Trailer	Mrs. Hittaway	68
81	1954	Rose Marie	Lady Jane Dunstock	40
82	1954	Ma and Pa Kettle at Home	Ma Kettle	58
83	1954	Ricochet Romance	Pansy Jones	70
84	1955	Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki	Ma' Kettle	68
85	1956	The Kettles in the Ozarks	Ma Kettle	64
86	1956	Friendly Persuasion	The Widow Hudspeth	66
87	1957	The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm	Ma Kettle	61
88	1965	The World of Abbott and Costello	Widow Hawkins in The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap	63
89	2006	Summer Stock: Get Happy!	Esme (archive footage) (uncredited)	0

No.

Year

Title

Role

Vote Average

1929