Marjorie Main
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Marjorie Main (24 February 1890 – 10 April 1975) was an American character actress who was best known for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.
Born in Acton, Indiana as Mary Tomlinson, she attended Franklin College, in Franklin, Indiana. She adopted a stage name to avoid embarrassing her father, who was a minister. She worked in vaudeville on the Chautauqua and Orpheum circuits, and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her first film was A House Divided in 1931.
She began playing upper class dowagers, but was ultimately typecast in abrasive, domineering, salty roles: her distinct voice was like chalk upon a blackboard.
She married Stanley LeFevre Krebs, who died in 1935.
She repeated her stage role in Dead End in the movie version of 1937, 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.
She made six comedies with Wallace Beery in the 1940s.
She played Ma Kettle in The Egg and I in 1947 opposite Percy Kilbride as Pa Kettle. She was nominated for an Academy Award for the role, and repeated it in nine more films.
Her near-pathological fear of germs did not interfere with her career.
She died in Los Angeles, California, of lung cancer.
Theatre
- Salvation - 1928
- Scarlet Sister Mary - 1930
- Ebb Tide - 1931
- Music in the Air - 1932
- Jackson White - 1935
- Dead End - 1935
- The Women - 1936
Films
- A House Divided - 1931
- Hot Saturday - 1932
- Take a Chance - 1933
- Art Trouble - 1934
- Crime Without Passion - 1934
- Music in the Air - 1934
- Naughty Marietta - 1935
- Love in a Bungalow - 1937
- Stella Dallas - 1937
- Dead End - 1937
- The Man Who Cried Wolf - 1937
- The Wrong Road - 1937
- The Shadow - 1937
- City Girl - 1938
- Boy of the Streets - 1938
- Penitentiary - 1938
- King of the Newsboys - 1938
- Test Pilot - 1938
- Three Comrades - 1938
- Romance of the Limberlost - 1938
- Prison Farm - 1938
- Little Tough Guy - 1938
- Under the Big Top - 1938
- Too Hot to Handle - 1938
- There Goes My Heart - 1938
- Girls' School - 1938
- Lucky Night - 1939
- They Shall Have Music - 1939
- The Angels Wash Their Faces - 1939
- The Women - 1939
- Another Thin Man - 1939
- Two Thoroughbreds - 1939
- I Take This Woman - 1940
- Women Without Names - 1940
- Dark Command - 1940
- Turnabout - 1940
- Susan and God - 1940
- The Captain Is a Lady - 1940
- Wyoming - 1940
- The Wild Man of Borneo - 1941
- The Trial of Mary Dugan - 1941
- Barnacle Bill - 1941
- A Woman's Face - 1941
- The Shepherd of the Hills - 1941
- Honky Tonk - 1941
- The Bugle Sounds - 1941
- We Were Dancing - 1942
- The Affairs of Martha - 1942
- Jackass Mail - 1942
- Tish - 1942
- Tennessee Johnson - 1943
- Heaven Can Wait - 1943
- Johnny Come Lately - 1943
- Rationing - 1944
- Meet Me in St. Louis - 1944
- Gentle Annie - 1944
- Murder, He Says - 1945
- The Harvey Girls - 1946
- Undercurrent - 1946
- Bad Bascomb - 1946
- The Show-Off - 1946
- The Egg and I - 1947 - Ma Kettle
- The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap - 1947
- Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin' - 1948
- Ma and Pa Kettle - 1949 - Ma Kettle
- Big Jack - 1949
- Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town - 1950 - Ma Kettle
- Summer Stock - 1950
- Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone - 1951
- Mr. Imperium - 1951
- Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm - 1951 - Ma Kettle
- The Law and the Lady - 1951
- It's a Big Country - 1951
- A Letter from a Soldier - 1951
- The Belle of New York - 1952
- Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair - 1952 - Ma Kettle
- Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation - 1953 - Ma Kettle
- Fast Company - 1953
- The Long, Long Trailer - 1954
- Ma and Pa Kettle at Home - 1954 - Ma Kettle
- Rose Marie - 1954
- Ricochet Romance - 1954
- Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki - 1955 - Ma Kettle
- The Kettles in the Ozarks - 1956 - Ma Kettle
- Friendly Persuasion - 1956
- The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm - 1957- Ma Kettle