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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
November 10, 1885
Died
July 23, 1961
Place of Birth
Beaufort, South Carolina, USA
Also Known As
- Ester Dale
Esther Dale
0.2 Popularity
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Esther Dale (November 10, 1885 – July 23, 1961) was an American actress, best known perhaps for her role as Aunt Genevieve in the 1935 Shirley Temple vehicle, Curly Top. On the stage, Dale starred in Carrie Nation on Broadway in 1933. Her other Broadway credits include Harvest of Years (1947), And Be My Love (1944), and Another Language (1932). Dale's first film was Crime Without Passion (1934) in an uncredited role. She was a familiar face in films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, frequently playing stern, authoritarian characters such as prison matrons and head nurses, although she was equally adept at playing grande dames and ladies of the aristocracy. Dale played many roles in television over the years. In the 1958-1959 season of The Donna Reed Show, Dale played a job-seeking housekeeper who is frightened from the Stone home by Jeff Stone's pet mouse, and she appeared in the 1957 Maverick episode "According to Hoyle" opposite James Garner.
Known For
6.5
Woman at Picnic
North to Alaska
1960
6.6
Ellen the Maid
Thriller
1960
6.0
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
1959
6.2
Lock-Up
1959
6.6
Mrs. Maud Mansfield
The Sound and the Fury
1959
6.2
The Donna Reed Show
1958
6.9
Ma Braus
Maverick
1957
5.2
Julia Sheldon
M Squad
1957
5.6
Mrs. Fitzgerald
The Oklahoman
1957
4.7
Head Matron Ballard
Betrayed Women
1955
Credits
North to Alaska
as Woman at Picnic
1960
6.5
Thriller
as Ellen the Maid
1960
6.6
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
1959
6.0
Lock-Up
1959
6.2
The Sound and the Fury
as Mrs. Maud Mansfield
1959
6.6
The Donna Reed Show
1958
6.2
Maverick
as Ma Braus
1957
6.9
M Squad
as Julia Sheldon
1957
5.2
The Oklahoman
as Mrs. Fitzgerald
1957
5.6
Betrayed Women
as Head Matron Ballard
1955
4.7
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
as Birdie Hicks
1955
6.8
December Bride
1954
5.5
A Tale of Two Cities
as Pross
1953
0.0
Mr. & Mrs. North
1952
4.3
Cavalcade of America
as Aunt Tabitha
1952
3.5
🎬
Four Star Playhouse
as Mrs. Weston
1952
6.7
Monkey Business
as Mrs. Rhinelander
1952
6.7
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
as Birdie Hicks
1952
5.9
Too Young to Kiss
as Mrs. Boykin
1951
4.8
On Moonlight Bay
1951
6.3
Walk Softly, Stranger
as Miss Thompson
1950
5.0
Surrender
as Aunt May
1950
4.4
No Man of Her Own
as Josie
1950
6.8
Holiday Affair
as Mrs. Ennis
1949
6.8
Ma and Pa Kettle
as Mrs. Birdie Hicks
1949
6.9
A Song Is Born
as Miss Bragg
1948
6.3
The Unfinished Dance
as Olga
1947
6.0
The Egg and I
as Birdie Hicks
1947
7.0
Margie
as Grandma McSweeney
1946
6.9
Smoky
as Mrs. 'Gram' Richards
1946
5.2
A Stolen Life
as Mrs. Johnson
1946
6.3
My Reputation
as Anna
1946
7.1
Behind City Lights
as Sarah Lowell
1945
0.0
On Stage Everybody
as Ma Cassidy
1945
0.0
Bedside Manner
as Martha Gravitt
1945
5.7
Old Acquaintance
as Harriet
1943
7.0
The North Star
as Anna Kurin
1943
6.1
Swing Your Partner
as Caroline Bird, aka Anna Robbins
1943
0.0
Murder in Times Square
as Longacre Lil
1943
4.3
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
1943
6.7
Wrecking Crew
as Mike O'Glendy
1942
5.5
A Letter From Bataan
as Mrs. Jackson
1942
4.5
Ten Gentlemen from West Point
as Mrs. Thompson
1942
5.8
Maisie Gets Her Man
as Mrs. McIntyre (Uncredited)
1942
6.5
You're Telling Me
as Aunt Fannie Handley
1942
0.0
What's Cookin'?
as Mrs. Murphy (uncredited)
1942
5.5
Blondie Goes to College
as Mrs. Carrie Dill, the Landlady
1942
6.4
Dangerously They Live
as Dawson, Goodwin's Housekeeper
1941
5.9
All-American Co-Ed
as Aunt Matilda Collinge
1941
4.2
Unfinished Business
as Aunt Mathilda
1941
5.3
Aloma of the South Seas
as Tarusa
1941
6.2
Back Street
as Mrs. Smith
1941
7.2
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
as Mrs. Krausheimer
1941
6.0
Arise, My Love
as Susie
1940
6.3
Blondie Has Servant Trouble
as Anna Vaughn
1940
7.2
Untamed
as Mrs. Smith
1940
4.2
Cross-Country Romance
as Mrs. McGillicuddy
1940
6.4
The Mortal Storm
as Marta
1940
7.3
Opened by Mistake
as Mrs. Anthony DeBorest
1940
0.0
Forty Little Mothers
as Mrs. Mason the Landlady
1940
6.2
And One Was Beautiful
as Margaret
1940
6.2
Women Without Names
as Head Matron Ingles
1940
4.1
Abe Lincoln in Illinois
as Lincoln's Cook (uncredited)
1940
6.8
Convicted Woman
as Chief Matron Brackett
1940
3.0
🎬
Village Barn Dance
as Minerva Withers
1940
0.0
Laddie
as Sarah, the Housekeeper
1940
6.0
Swanee River
as Temperance Woman
1939
6.7
A Child Is Born
as Prison Matron (uncredited)
1939
6.5
Bad Little Angel
as Miss Brown, Orphanage Secretary (uncredited)
1939
4.9
Blackmail
as Sarah
1939
6.4
The Women
as Ingrid (uncredited)
1939
7.1
Tell No Tales
as Mrs. Haskins
1939
4.6
6,000 Enemies
as Prison Matron
1939
6.0
Big Town Czar
as Ma Daley
1939
0.0
Broadway Serenade
as Mrs. Olsen, the Landlady
1939
6.2
Sergeant Madden
as Mrs. McGillivray
1939
6.0
Made for Each Other
as Annie (uncredited)
1939
6.1
How to Sub-Let
as Mrs. Mustavas
1939
3.5
The Great Man Votes
as Mrs. Markham
1939
6.1
Girls on Probation
as Mrs. Engstrom
1938
5.9
Prison Farm
as Cora Waxley
1938
5.7
Stolen Heaven
as Lieschen
1938
0.0
Condemned Women
as Mrs. Clara Glover, Head Matron
1938
6.3
The Awful Truth
as Mrs. Leeson
1937
7.2
On Such a Night
as Miss Belinda Fentridge
1937
0.0
Dead End
as Mrs. Fenner
1937
7.0
Easy Living
as Lillian
1937
7.1
Wild Money
as Jenny Hawkins
1937
0.0
Damaged Goods
as Mrs. Dupont
1937
3.0
Outcast
as Hattie Simmerson
1937
0.0
Hollywood Boulevard
as Martha
1936
2.7
Fury
as Mrs. Whipple
1936
7.4
The Case Against Mrs. Ames
as Matilda
1936
3.0
The Farmer in the Dell
as Ma Boyer
1936
0.0
Lady of Secrets
as Miss Eccles
1936
6.0
Timothy's Quest
as Hitty Tarbox
1936
3.0
The Great Impersonation
as Mrs. Unthank
1935
8.0
I Dream Too Much
as Mrs. Dilley (uncredited)
1935
5.1
In Old Kentucky
as Dolly Breckenridge
1935
0.0
Mary Burns, Fugitive
as Kate
1935
0.0
I Live My Life
as Brumbaugh, Mrs. Gage's Housekeeper
1935
6.4
Curly Top
as Genevieve Graham
1935
6.4
Private Worlds
as Matron
1935
6.0
The Wedding Night
as Mrs. Kaise Novak
1935
5.8
Crime Without Passion
as Miss Keeley (uncredited)
1934
5.8