All Movies List
The Kettles in the Ozarks

as Ma Kettle

1956
The Long, Long Trailer

as Mrs. Hittaway

1954
Rose Marie

as Lady Jane Dunstock

1954
The Belle of New York

as Mrs Phineas Hill

1952
It's a Big Country

as Mrs. Wrenley

1951
Summer Stock

as Esme

1950
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone

as Harriet O'Malley

1950
Big Jack

as Flapjack Kate

1949
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap

as Widow Hawkins

1947
The Egg and I

as Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle

1947
The Harvey Girls

as Sonora Cassidy

1946
Undercurrent

as Lucy

1946
Bad Bascomb

as Abbey Hanks

1946
Murder, He Says

as Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson

1945
Meet Me in St. Louis

as Katie (Maid)

1944
Gentle Annie

as Annie Goss

1944
Heaven Can Wait

as Mrs. Strabel

1943
Tennessee Johnson

as Mrs. Maude Fisher

1942
Jackass Mail

as Clementine 'Tina' Tucker

1942
We Were Dancing

as Judge Hawkes

1942
The Affairs of Martha

as Mrs. McKissick

1942
A Woman's Face

as Emma Kristiansdotter

1941
The Shepherd of the Hills

as Granny Becky

1941
Honky Tonk

as Mrs. Varner

1941
Dark Command

as Mrs. Cantrell / Mrs. Adams

1940
Wyoming

as Mehitabel

1940
The Women

as Lucy

1939
Lucky Night

as Mrs. Briggs

1939
Two Thoroughbreds

as Hildegarde 'Hildy' Carey

1939
Too Hot to Handle

as Miss Wayne

1938
Marjorie Main Marjorie Main

Birthday

1890-02-24

Place of Birth

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.
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