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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
February 22, 1890
Died
April 10, 1975
Place of Birth
Acton, Indiana, USA
Also Known As
- Mary Tomlinson
Marjorie Main
0.5 Popularity
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
0.0
Esme (archive footage) (uncredited)
Summer Stock: Get Happy!
2006
6.3
Widow Hawkins in The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap
The World of Abbott and Costello
1965
6.6
Cassie Tanner
Wagon Train
1957
6.1
Ma Kettle
The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm
1957
6.7
The Widow Hudspeth
Friendly Persuasion
1956
6.4
Ma Kettle
The Kettles in the Ozarks
1956
6.8
Ma' Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
1955
7.0
Pansy Jones
Ricochet Romance
1954
5.5
December Bride
1954
5.8
Ma Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
1954
Credits
Summer Stock: Get Happy!
as Esme (archive footage) (uncredited)
2006
0.0
The World of Abbott and Costello
as Widow Hawkins in The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap
1965
6.3
Wagon Train
as Cassie Tanner
1957
6.6
The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm
as Ma Kettle
1957
6.1
Friendly Persuasion
as The Widow Hudspeth
1956
6.7
The Kettles in the Ozarks
as Ma Kettle
1956
6.4
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
as Ma' Kettle
1955
6.8
Ricochet Romance
as Pansy Jones
1954
7.0
December Bride
1954
5.5
Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
as Ma Kettle
1954
5.8
Rose Marie
as Lady Jane Dunstock
1954
4.0
The Long, Long Trailer
as Mrs. Hittaway
1954
6.9
Fast Company
as Ma Parkson
1953
7.0
Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
as Ma Kettle
1952
7.2
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
as Ma Kettle
1952
5.9
The Belle of New York
as Mrs Phineas Hill
1952
5.5
It's a Big Country
as Mrs. Wrenley
1951
5.3
The Law and the Lady
as Julia Wortin
1951
6.1
Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm
as Ma Kettle
1951
6.3
Mr. Imperium
as Mrs. Cabot
1951
4.9
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
as Harriet O'Malley
1950
6.0
Summer Stock
as Esme
1950
6.6
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
as Ma Kettle
1950
6.1
Big Jack
as Flapjack Kate
1949
6.0
Ma and Pa Kettle
as Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
1949
6.9
Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'
as Maribel Mathews
1948
6.5
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
as Widow Hawkins
1947
6.1
The Egg and I
as Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
1947
7.0
The Show-Off
as Mrs. Fisher
1946
7.0
Undercurrent
as Lucy
1946
5.9
Bad Bascomb
as Abbey Hanks
1946
6.2
The Harvey Girls
as Sonora Cassidy
1946
6.5
Murder, He Says
as Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
1945
6.6
Gentle Annie
as Annie Goss
1944
5.2
Meet Me in St. Louis
as Katie
1944
7.0
Rationing
as Iris Tuttle
1944
2.7
Johnny Come Lately
as 'Gashouse' Mary
1943
6.7
Heaven Can Wait
as Mrs. Strabel
1943
6.9
Tennessee Johnson
as Mrs. Maude Fisher
1942
6.1
Tish
as Miss Letitia 'Tish' Carberry
1942
5.7
Jackass Mail
as Clementine 'Tina' Tucker
1942
7.0
The Affairs of Martha
as Mrs. McKissick
1942
6.2
We Were Dancing
as Judge Hawkes
1942
3.6
The Bugle Sounds
as Susie 'Suz'
1942
6.0
Honky Tonk
as Mrs. Varner
1941
6.4
The Shepherd of the Hills
as Granny Becky
1941
6.5
A Woman's Face
as Emma Kristiansdotter
1941
6.8
Barnacle Bill
as Marge Cavendish
1941
7.7
The Trial of Mary Dugan
as Mrs. Collins
1941
5.0
The Wild Man of Borneo
as Irma, the Cook
1941
6.5
Wyoming
as Mehitabel
1940
5.9
The Captain Is a Lady
as Sarah May Willett
1940
6.0
Susan and God
as Mary
1940
6.5
Turnabout
as Nora, the Cook
1940
5.8
Dark Command
as Mrs. Cantrell / Mrs. Adams
1940
6.3
Women Without Names
as Mrs. Lowery
1940
4.1
I Take This Woman
as Gertie
1940
5.6
Two Thoroughbreds
as Hildegarde 'Hildy' Carey
1939
2.0
Another Thin Man
as Mrs. Dolley (uncredited)
1939
7.1
The Women
as Lucy
1939
7.1
Angels Wash Their Faces
as Mrs. Arkelian
1939
6.4
They Shall Have Music
as Mrs. Miller
1939
6.2
Lucky Night
as Mrs. Briggs
1939
6.6
There Goes My Heart
as Fireless Cooker Customer (uncredited)
1938
7.1
Girls' School
as Miss Armstrong
1938
6.0
Too Hot to Handle
as Miss Wayne
1938
5.8
Under the Big Top
as Sara Post
1938
5.5
Little Tough Guy
as Mrs. Boylan
1938
5.6
Prison Farm
as Matron Brand
1938
5.7
Romance of the Limberlost
as Nora
1938
6.0
Three Comrades
as Old woman by phone (uncredited)
1938
7.2
Test Pilot
as Landlady
1938
6.5
King of the Newsboys
as Mrs. Stephens (uncredited)
1938
4.0
Penitentiary
as Miss Katie Mathews
1938
0.0
Boy of the Streets
as Mrs. Mary Brennan
1938
5.0
The Shadow
as Hannah Gillespie
1937
6.5
The Wrong Road
as Martha Foster
1937
4.4
The Man Who Cried Wolf
as Amelia Bradley
1937
5.5
Dead End
as Mrs. Martin
1937
7.0
Stella Dallas
as Mrs. Martin
1937
6.9
🎬
Love in a Bungalow
as Miss Emma Bisbee
1937
0.0
Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)
as Self
1936
6.0
Music in the Air
as Anna (Uncredited)
1934
4.8
Crime Without Passion
as Backstage Wardrobe Woman (uncredited)
1934
5.8
Art Trouble
as Woman Who Sits on Painting
1934
6.3
Close Relations
as Woman in Depot (uncredited)
1933
0.0
New Deal Rhythm
as Arizona Representative
1933
5.5
Hot Saturday
as Gossip in Window (uncredited)
1932
6.4
Broken Lullaby
as Frau Schmidt - Townswoman (uncredited)
1932
7.5
A House Divided
as Townswoman at Wedding (uncredited)
1931
4.8
Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties
as Statler Hotel Beauty
1929
1.0