Jessie Ralph
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jessie Ralph (born Jessie Ralph Chambers, November 5, 1864 – May 30, 1944) was an American stage and screen actress, best known for her matronly roles in many classic motion pictures.
She was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1864. She made her acting debut in 1880, at the age of sixteen. She made it to Broadway, where George M. Cohan cast her in many of his musicals, but she also excelled at dramatic roles. Although she made her Hollywood debut in 1916, in a motion picture career that would eventually span 25 years, she only became a permanent Hollywood actress in 1933. She was nearly 70 at this time, so her roles were limited to matronly roles, but her expertise at stealing scenes captured the imagination of cinema-goers of the time. Her best-known roles are as Greta Garbo's maid in Camille, as W.C. Fields' battle-axe of a mother-in-law in The Bank Dick, as Myrna Loy's supercilious aunt Katherine in After the Thin Man, and as Nurse Peggotty in David Copperfield. She starred in 55 movies altogether, 52 between 1933 and 1941.
Jessie Ralph retired from Hollywood in 1941, after her leg was amputated. She died four years later in her home town of Gloucester at the age of 79. She was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Known for
The Blue Bird
Fairy Berylune
Child of Manhattan
Aunt Minnie
Mickey the Kid
Veronica Hudson
The Garden Murder Case
Mrs. Hammle
Yellow Dust
Mrs. Brian
The Lady from Cheyenne
Mrs. McGuinness
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
The Duchess of Ebley
Captain Blood
Mrs. Barlow
Camille
Nanine
Elmer, the Great
Sarah Crosby (uncredited)
Star Dust
Aunt Martha Parker
Les Misérables
Madame Magloire
Hold That Kiss
Aunt Lucy
San Francisco
Mrs. Maisie Burley
Love Is a Headache
Sheriff Janet Winfield
I Want a Divorce
Grandma Brokaw
The Kid From Texas
Aunt Minetta
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Applewoman
The Madonna of the Slums
Cocktail Hour
Princess
Paris in Spring
Countess de Charelle
Ann Carver's Profession
Terry
St. Louis Blues
Aunt Tibbie
Enchanted April
Mrs. Phoebe Fisher
The Girl from Avenue A
Mrs. Van Dyne
Nana
Zoe
Jalna
Gran Whiteoaks
Vanessa: Her Love Story
Lady Mullion
One Night of Love
Angelina
I Found Stella Parish
Nana
We Live Again
Matrona Pavlovna
The Affairs of Cellini
Beatrice
Drums Along the Mohawk
Mrs. Weaver
Bunker Bean
Grandmother
David Copperfield
Clara Peggotty
The Good Earth
Cuckoo
Metropolitan
Charwoman
Mark of the Vampire
Midwife
The Unguarded Hour
Lady Agatha Hathaway
They Met in Bombay
Duchess of Beltravers
Coming Out Party
Nora
Four Girls in White
Miss Tobias
Evelyn Prentice
Mrs. Blake
Murder at the Vanities
Mrs. Helene Smith
After the Thin Man
Aunt Katherine Forrest
The Bank Dick
Mrs. Hermisillo Brunch
The Romance of Celluloid
Self
Port of Seven Seas
Honorine
Double Wedding
Mrs. Kensington-Bly
Such a Little Queen
Mary
I Live My Life
Mrs. O.H.B. Gage, Kay's Grandmother
I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby
Mama McGann
Cafe Society
Mrs. De Witt
Walking on Air
Evelyn Bennett