Elizabeth Patterson

Elizabeth Patterson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mary Elizabeth Patterson (November 22, 1874 – January 31, 1966) was an American theatre, film, and television character actress who gained popular recognition late in her career playing the elderly neighbor Matilda Trumbull on the television comedy series I Love Lucy. In 1926, at the age of 51, Patterson was cast in her first movie, a silent film, The Boy Friend. Transitioning successfully into the era of "talkies", she remained a very busy actress in Hollywood throughout the 1930s, averaging more than five films a year during that decade, usually in supporting roles. A few of her screen credits at that time include Tarnished Lady; Husband's Holiday; A Bill of Divorcement; So Big!; The Story of Temple Drake; Hold Your Man; Dinner at Eight; High, Wide, and Handsome; and No Man of Her Own. She also appeared in the role of Susan in two adaptations of John Willard's popular play The Cat and the Canary: The Cat Creeps in 1930 and The Cat and the Canary in 1939. Patterson continued to perform frequently in the 1940s, when she was cast in more than 30 additional films. Among her notable roles is her 1949 portrayal of the heroic character Eunice Habersham in the groundbreaking racial crime drama Intruder in the Dust, a film based on the William Faulkner novel of the same name and set in the Deep South. Although she would appear in a few more feature films in the 1950s, such as Washington Story and Pal Joey, Patterson by then began to focus her work increasingly on roles in the rapidly expanding medium of television. In 1952, at the age of 77, Patterson made her first appearance on the hit CBS-TV sitcom I Love Lucy in the episode "The Marriage License". Her character on I Love Lucy proved to be so popular among viewers, as well as useful to the writers of the series, that she continued in the role for three more years, often serving in episode storylines as a convenient babysitter for "Little Ricky". Prior to, during, and after her work on I Love Lucy, Patterson appeared in many other American television series during the 1950s and early 1960s. Her first credited performance on the "small screen" was in March 1950 in "The Walking Stick", a teleplay on the NBC anthology series The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre. During the 11 years after that initial televised performance to her final role on television in 1961, she portrayed characters in a variety of other series, including Pulitzer Prize Playhouse, Studio One in Hollywood, General Electric Theater, Stage 7, Lux Video Theatre, Crossroads, The Star and the Story, The Adventures of Jim Bowie, Adventures of Superman, New York Confidential, 77 Sunset Strip, Johnny Stacatto, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Playhouse 90, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, and The New Breed. Patterson, who never married, lived at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel during her 35-year film and television career.. On January 31, 1966, she died at age 91 in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia. Her gravesite is in Savannah Cemetery in her hometown in Tennessee.

Known For: Acting

Born: Savannah, Tennessee, USA, 1874-11-21

Died: 1966-01-31

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1926	The Boy Friend	Mrs. Harper	0
2	1926	The Return of Peter Grimm	Mrs. Bartholomey	0
3	1928	The Dancing Town	Ma Pepperall	60
4	1929	Words and Music	Dean Crockett	0
5	1929	South Sea Rose	Sarah	0
6	1930	The Lone Star Ranger	Sarah Martin	50
7	1930	Harmony at Home	Emma Haller	0
8	1930	The Big Party	Mrs. Goldfarb	20
9	1930	The Cat Creeps	Susan	60
10	1931	Tarnished Lady	Mrs. Courtney	47
11	1931	Daddy Long Legs	Mrs. Lippett	40
12	1931	The Smiling Lieutenant	Baroness Von Schwedel (uncredited)	69
13	1931	Penrod and Sam	Schoolteacher (uncredited)	60
14	1931	Heaven on Earth	Vergie	30
15	1931	Husband's Holiday	Mrs. Caroline Reid	0
16	1932	The Expert	Miss Crackenwald	63
17	1932	Man Wanted	Miss Harper	55
18	1932	So Big!	Mrs. Tebbit (uncredited)	59
19	1932	Miss Pinkerton	Juliet Mitchell	57
20	1932	New Morals for Old	Aunty Doe	42
21	1932	Guilty as Hell	Elvira Ward	58
22	1932	Love Me Tonight	First Aunt	66
23	1932	Life Begins	Mrs. Tubby (uncredited)	60
24	1932	A Bill of Divorcement	Aunt Hester Fairfield	62
25	1932	Breach of Promise	Cora Pugmire	0
26	1932	They Call It Sin	Mrs. Cullen	58
27	1932	Boo	Susan (edited from "The Cat Creeps")	51
28	1932	No Man of Her Own	Mrs. Randall	65
29	1933	They Just Had to Get Married	Lizzie	0
30	1933	Infernal Machine	Elinor's Aunt	0
31	1933	The Story of Temple Drake	Aunt Jennie	65
32	1933	Hold Your Man	Miss Tuttle	61
33	1933	Secret of the Blue Room	Mary, Cook	56
34	1933	Golden Harvest	Lydia	50
35	1933	Doctor Bull	Aunt Patricia Banning	65
36	1933	Dinner at Eight	Miss Copeland	67
37	1934	Hide-Out	'Ma' Miller	69
38	1935	Chasing Yesterday	Mlle. Prefere	35
39	1935	Men Without Names	Aunt Ella	60
40	1935	So Red the Rose	Mary Cherry	65
41	1936	Her Master's Voice	Mrs. Ellie Martin	60
42	1936	Timothy's Quest	Vilda Cummins	30
43	1936	Small Town Girl	Ma Brannan	59
44	1936	The Return of Sophie Lang	Araminta Sedley	60
45	1936	Old Hutch	Sarah Hutchins	0
46	1936	Go West Young Man	Aunt Kate Barnaby	53
47	1937	Night of Mystery	Mrs. Tobias Greene	0
48	1937	High, Wide and Handsome	Grandma Cortlandt	63
49	1937	Hold 'Em Navy	Grandma Holland	30
50	1937	Night Club Scandal	Mrs. Elvira Ward	40
51	1938	Scandal Street	Ada Smith	0
52	1938	Bulldog Drummond's Peril	Aunt Blanche	57
53	1938	Bluebeard's Eighth Wife	Aunt Hedwige	70
54	1938	Sing, You Sinners	Mrs. Daisy Beebe aka Mother Beebe	67
55	1938	Sons of the Legion	Grandmother Lee	50
56	1939	Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police	Aunt Blanche	61
57	1939	The Story of Alexander Graham Bell	Mrs. MacGregor	60
58	1939	Bulldog Drummond's Bride	Aunt Blanche	63
59	1939	Our Leading Citizen	Aunt Tillie	0
60	1939	The Cat and the Canary	Aunt Susan	70
61	1939	Bad Little Angel	Mrs. Perkins	49
62	1940	Remember the Night	Aunt Emma "Emmie"	73
63	1940	Adventure in Diamonds	Nellie	52
64	1940	Earthbound	Becky Tilden	48
65	1940	Anne of Windy Poplars	Rebecca	58
66	1940	Who Killed Aunt Maggie?	Maggie Ambler	43
67	1940	Michael Shayne: Private Detective	Aunt Olivia	65
68	1941	Tobacco Road	Ada Lester	66
69	1941	Kiss the Boys Goodbye	Aunt Lily Lou Bethany	50
70	1941	Belle Starr	Sarah	56
71	1942	The Vanishing Virginian	Grandma	60
72	1942	Almost Married	Aunt Matilda Manning	0
73	1942	Beyond the Blue Horizon	Mrs. Daly	0
74	1942	Her Cardboard Lover	Eva	51
75	1942	My Sister Eileen	Grandma Sherwood	67
76	1942	Lucky Legs	Annabelle Dinwiddie	0
77	1942	I Married a Witch	Margaret	68
78	1943	The Sky's the Limit	Mrs. Fisher	62
79	1944	Follow the Boys	Annie	53
80	1944	Hail the Conquering Hero	Martha - Libby's Aunt	70
81	1944	Together Again	Jessie	54
82	1945	Lady on a Train	Aunt Charlotte Waring	66
83	1946	Colonel Effingham's Raid	Cousin Emma	57
84	1946	I've Always Loved You	Mrs. Sompter	64
85	1946	The Secret Heart	Mrs. Stover	63
86	1947	The Shocking Miss Pilgrim	Catherine Dennison	85
87	1947	Out of the Blue	Miss Spring	63
88	1947	Welcome Stranger	Mrs. Gilley	66
89	1948	Miss Tatlock's Millions	Cora	59
90	1949	Little Women	Hannah	74
91	1949	Song of Surrender	Mrs. Beecham	0
92	1949	Intruder in the Dust	Miss Eunice Habersham	74
93	1950	Bright Leaf	Tabitha Singleton	59
94	1950	Katie Did It	Aunt Priscilla Wakely	60
95	1950	Little Women: Meg's Story	Aunt March	0
96	1950	Little Women: Jo's Story	Aunt March	0
97	1952	Washington Story	Miss Dee	60
98	1953	Three Lives	Mrs. Adams	0
99	1955	Las Vegas Shakedown	Mary Raff	52
100	1955	The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	Aunt Polly	42
101	1956	Rendezvous in Black	Mrs. Middleton	0
102	1957	The Ninth Day		0
103	1957	Pal Joey	Mrs. Casey	62
104	1958	Portrait of a Murderer	Mrs. Finch	90
105	1959	The Oregon Trail	Maria Cooper	53

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1950	Lux Video Theatre	Dr. Gilley	63
2	1950	Lux Video Theatre	Mrs. Sargent	63
3	1951	I Love Lucy	Mrs. Willoughby	79
4	1951	I Love Lucy	Mrs. Trumbull	79
5	1952	Adventures of Superman		67
6	1952	Four Star Playhouse	Ma / Mother Baker	63
7	1952	Cavalcade of America	Mrs. Couche	35
8	1953	General Electric Theater	Madame Elaine	63
9	1954	Climax!	Aunt Polly	33
10	1954	Climax!	Jane Connor	33
11	1954	Climax!	Nellie Eldredge	33
12	1954	Climax!	Mrs. Garr	33
13	1955	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Miss Bessie	77
14	1955	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Grandmother	77
15	1955	Playwrights '56		60
16	1956	The Adventures of Jim Bowie		45
17	1958	Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse		58
18	1958	77 Sunset Strip		67
19	1959	New York Confidential		0
20	1959	Johnny Staccato		56
21	1960	The Barbara Stanwyck Show	Mrs. Melvane	62

Elizabeth Patterson

Film

Television