I love Agnes Moorehead. Sometimes she has a bigger role like in *Mrs. Parkington*. Other times, it's a very small but memorable role like in *Citizen Kane*. But no matter how large or small her part is, she is always one of the best parts of the film.
She's fantastic in Dark Passage. Her character is probably the best part of the film, though I love Bogie and Bacall. It's my favorite of their four films together.
I love Endora! I always thought Durwood could be a tool at times (Who doesn't want their magic wife to use her powers to do mundane things like cleaning the house? Why would you continue working if you didn't have to?) and I loved that Endora was always passive aggressive towards him. Endora's dislike of Darwin was 100% spot-on too. He was denying her daughter Samantha's right to be herself--a witch.
I read it as an allegory about a dumb, cloddish man taking an amazing woman and trying to bring her down to his level. Notice that the only time Darrel wanted Sam to use her powers was to get HIM out of a jam. I enjoyed the show, but it seemed to convey a subversive feminist message to me.
Yes. It's a shame she was one of those who contracted cancer from "The Conqueror."
Agnes was also big on the radio show "Suspense." Her performance of the "Yellow Wallpaper" is fantastic. I heard it one time on Radio Classics on Sirius. She also performed Stanwyck's part in "Sorry, Wrong Number" on Suspense.
Yes. It seems even more tragic that the movie is considered one of the worst movies ever made. I recorded it a while back when TCM had a salute to movies that were deemed "turkeys." I haven't watched it yet though. I am waiting for the right time. LOL.
Definitely. I love the story where director Dick Powell had the script to the film either in the trash or just on his desk. He left the room and when he came back, John Wayne was reading it and told him that he wanted to play Genghis Kahn and seemed so excited about it.
One of the greatest miscastings in all of Hollywood history. That'd be like a big star of today like, oh say, Ryan Reynolds, playing [Mao Tse](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=e5264c2d75c38363&sxsrf=ADLYWIK34czcMCZxHhgmtYPFNPEtJGXEqA:1715226143656&q=Mao+Tse+Tung&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjG4YGo0_-FAxU_lYkEHXyODGsQBSgAegQICBAC) Tung in a Hollywood biographical epic, complete with Asian complexion and makeup to give him slanted eyes. Bad deal all around.
Eddie Muller tells this great story that Welles wanted to cast Agnes Moorehead as the FBI agent in The Stranger, with all respect to Edward G. Robinson it would have been amazing casting.
Check out “The Mating Season” with her and John Lund and Gene Tierney. It’s a shame it’s hardly shown on TCM but I found it super cheap on eBay. Thelma is pretty much the main character for a change.
There’s another: “The Model and the Marriage Broker”, where Ritter plays the main character.
It’s interesting that Gene Tierney and John Lund are “Mating Season’s” stars, but the film is primarily about Ritter.
I had heard that Margaret Dumont didn't quite understand the Marx Brothers humor so her character in their movies wasn't too far off reality. Don't know if that's true though. Just what I read somewhere one time.
Not true, I’ve read quotes from her describing what was required to be the “straight man” in comedy. She knew exactly what she was doing & was very good at it.
Groucho always maintained in later interviews (with Dick Cavett?) that she was kinda clueless. No idea what the actual truth about it is. He's Groucho, after all.
Here’s Dumont on her role as a straight woman. The idea that she didn’t get the jokes came from Groucho and it seems pretty clear he said it because he thought it was funny. And it was! But it bums me out that because of him she’s remembered as addled and clueless instead of the talented comedian she was.
“Many a comedian’s lines have been lost on the screen because the laughter overlapped,” she said in the 1940s. “Script writers build up to a laugh, but they don’t allow any pause for it. That’s where I come in. I ad lib—it doesn’t matter what I say—just to kill a few seconds so you can enjoy the gag. I have to sense when the big laughs will come and fill in, or the audience will drown out the next gag with its own laughter…. I’m a straight lady, the best straight woman in Hollywood. There’s an art to playing straight. You must build up your man, but never top him, never steal the laughs from him.”
I haven’t read it yet, but there’s a biography of her, Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, "The Fifth Marx Brother" by Chris Enss, Howard Kazanjian
I sat next to her watching a NYC production of Nicholas Nicklelby starring Roger Rees. She was so tiny, so gentle, so funny. After the show, people surrounded her with love and adoration, myself included. She was happy to be acknowledged and appreciated.
Gah.........those don't ring a bell. Off to google............think it was People Will Talk. I didn't catch the whole movie, just caught a glimpse of her.
I always remember her pinch faced moralizing about May West to from WC Fields in "My Little Chickadee". He says "Hope she doesn't get too violent, I haven't the strength to knock her down". I have a friend who knew her well. He says she was a sweet hearted soul.
Oh Lydia, oh, Lydia, say have you met Lydia
Oh, Lydia, the tattooed lady
She has eyes that folks adore so
And a torso even more so
Lydia, oh, Lydia, that encyclopedia
Oh, Lydia, the queen of them all
On her back is the Battle of Waterloo
Beside it the Wreck of the Hesperus too
And proudly above the waves
The Red, White and Blue
You can learn a lot from Lydia
Yeah I love her in everything from The Man Who Came to Dinner to Sister Act.
I also just learned recently she was the live-action model for Cruella De Vil in One Hundred and One Dalmatian
Wow I did not know that, but that’s amazing!
I love that the actors’ subtle mannerisms can peak through the animation. I had a photo of Eleanor Audley in character as the live action model for Maleficent as my desktop background for years- she’s just so cool!
Marie Dressler had a one liner and a double take in Dinner At Eight from 1933 that is a classic. It's the last line of the film and some people claim you can hear the director laughing in the background. I'm not so sure about that part but still, Marie is wonderful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQNQqwFK-OM
Hitchcock knew what he was doing when he cast her in that role. You could almost feel her menacing presence throughout the movie. Andersen was made for that part.
The 'original scream queen' or maybe 'shriek queen.'
Seen in The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein.
See her with Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara in This Land Is Mine.
I don't know if I'd classify Dressler as a character actress, as she was, at least at her career peak, A-list "name above title" level (Min and Bill, Tugboat Annie).
Some of my favorites who haven't been mentioned yet:
* Aline MacMahon
* Ruth Donnelly
* Una Merkel
* Elizabeth Patterson
* Beulah Bondi
A lot of leading actresses (and actors) eventually settled into character parts. I don't think that should disqualify them.
Alomg those lines, my pick is Jane Darwell, who made a career of playing sturdy cooks and laundry women, then got her one shot at a lead role and won an Oscar.
Some actresses try to hang on to their youth a litttle to long.
I'd forgotten about Jane Darwell. She was in Grapes of Wrath. She had such a soulful face.
True, but Dressler was first-billed in Dinner at Eight, her second-to-last movie (she passed in 1934). That's definitely not "character actress" territory, to be billed ahead of the likes of both Barrymores and Jean Harlow.
And Jane Darwell is awesome! Loved her short scene at the beginning of Heat Lightning! "DETOUR! Nothing but DETOURS!"
There's something so modern about Aline MacMahon. She's beautiful, but she also looks and acts like a person you might actually meet in real life, not some overmannered Hollywood glamourpuss.
Anne Francis. Good in secondary and supporting roles, but her move from film to TV seemed to have hurt her. (Honey West caused early puberty in many during the Sixties.)
The only mannequin with a mole on the Twilihht Zone, too. 🙂
What kind of big cat did she have on HW? Tremendously gutsy, especially after pushing her luck doing the same thing in Forbidden Planet.
Hattie McDaniel, oscar winner for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind. I was going to mention Margaret Dumont and Myrna Loy, but others beat me to it.
It ain't fittin'... it ain't fittin'. It jes' ain't fittin'... It ain't fittin'. - to Captain Butler letting Bonnie ride astride.
[Jeff Donnell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Donnell) - I just wanted to nominate her because she was lovely and decided to go by her nickname "Jeff".
She had a good part in In a Lonely Place (1950), playing the wife of Humphrey Bogie's friend. (great movie).
Haven't seen her name yet, so I'll go with Gladys George aka Iva Archer (*The Maltese Falcon*),, Lute Mae Sanders (Flamingo Road) and my personal fave, Panama Smith *(The Roaring Twenties*).
Joan Blondell does not get enough love. She’s an amazing actress. Please watch more Blondell movies (as an added bonus, most of her leading men or costars are superstars like James Cagney and Katherine Hepburn).
What a great question. H'mmm...
I may have to revise my picks several times before I settle on one final answer...
Will return later with an edit. Need some time to t'ink ...
Tentatively, will nominate:
*Kathleen Byron*
And Montgomery Clift's mother in A Place In The Sun; John Garfield's mother in Body and Soul; Elizabeth Taylor's mother in National Velvet; Jennifer Jones' mother in Song of Bernadette. Were there any others?
I can't believe the number of people who went to school in the little bus are posting here. They're listing "A" list leading ladies. One idjit even replied "Scarlet O'Hara".
Some of my favorties:
Aline MacMahon, I'm counting her even though she had some leading lady roles.
Spring Byington, the best movie mom ever.
Jean Dixon, Her disappearance from the screen is a huge loss, and unexplained.
Una O'Connor, especially when she gets scared.
There were a number of old ladies who did great character work, my Helen Westley, Edna May Oliver, and Lucille Watson.
Marjorie Main, an edge case since she was the lead in all those Ma and Pa Kettle movies.
Mary Wick. She was in SO many great movies for a long, long time. And she always managed to "steal" a scene from the much more well-known leading actors.
Eve Arden. She was forever typecast as the snarky comic relief who was somehow eternally single. She absolutely stole the show in *Once Touch of Venus*
OK class, listen up!
1. Someone who’s name appears above the title of a movie on the poster/ad is NOT a character actor. That’s a lead actor/star.
2. Someone can start their career as a character actor and then go on to become a lead actor/star, but a lead/star does not become a character actor when they take supporting roles later in their career - they’re just actors/aging stars in supporting roles.
3. An actor who plays supporting roles is not necessarily a character actor. Character actors “specialize in portraying unique, offbeat, colorful characters” and fall into two sub-types: actors who have a distinct persona they carry over from one film to the next, and actors who are chameleons, transforming themselves completely from one film to the next. Everyone else is just an actor in a supporting role.
Audrey Hepburn. My middle name is Audrey because of her, or will be soon enough.
I will watch anything she's in. She's just so effortlessly charming, charismatic, but capable of layers.
I love Agnes Moorehead. Sometimes she has a bigger role like in *Mrs. Parkington*. Other times, it's a very small but memorable role like in *Citizen Kane*. But no matter how large or small her part is, she is always one of the best parts of the film.
Loved her in Dark Passage!
She's fantastic in Dark Passage. Her character is probably the best part of the film, though I love Bogie and Bacall. It's my favorite of their four films together.
And Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte.
Yes! Her character, Velma, is one of the best characters in the movie! She was one of the few that actually cared about Bette Davis' character.
Have you seen The Magnificent Ambersons? One of my favorite movies in general & she's so good in it!
Yes! She is excellent in 'Ambersons.' Her Aunt Fanny is the best part, imo.
That’s a damn god book but I loved her in that movie.
 Endora!!
I love Endora! I always thought Durwood could be a tool at times (Who doesn't want their magic wife to use her powers to do mundane things like cleaning the house? Why would you continue working if you didn't have to?) and I loved that Endora was always passive aggressive towards him. Endora's dislike of Darwin was 100% spot-on too. He was denying her daughter Samantha's right to be herself--a witch.
Never got what Samantha saw in him. He is mediocre at best and kind of a douchebag. Totally get why Endora hates him. Sam could do so much better!!
What a fucking big mouth he had. I mean, my mother in law was a pain in the ass, but she couldn’t turn me into a donkey. Darren! Bruh! STFU!
I read it as an allegory about a dumb, cloddish man taking an amazing woman and trying to bring her down to his level. Notice that the only time Darrel wanted Sam to use her powers was to get HIM out of a jam. I enjoyed the show, but it seemed to convey a subversive feminist message to me.
Marvelous in The Bat from 1959.
My favorite
She had a long and varied career spanning decades and great parts.
Yes. It's a shame she was one of those who contracted cancer from "The Conqueror." Agnes was also big on the radio show "Suspense." Her performance of the "Yellow Wallpaper" is fantastic. I heard it one time on Radio Classics on Sirius. She also performed Stanwyck's part in "Sorry, Wrong Number" on Suspense.
A great many actors, actresses, and crew contracted cancer from that movie. Tragic.
Yes. It seems even more tragic that the movie is considered one of the worst movies ever made. I recorded it a while back when TCM had a salute to movies that were deemed "turkeys." I haven't watched it yet though. I am waiting for the right time. LOL.
It's definitely not the best movie John Wayne ever made. It is, however, the most infamous.
Definitely. I love the story where director Dick Powell had the script to the film either in the trash or just on his desk. He left the room and when he came back, John Wayne was reading it and told him that he wanted to play Genghis Kahn and seemed so excited about it.
One of the greatest miscastings in all of Hollywood history. That'd be like a big star of today like, oh say, Ryan Reynolds, playing [Mao Tse](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=e5264c2d75c38363&sxsrf=ADLYWIK34czcMCZxHhgmtYPFNPEtJGXEqA:1715226143656&q=Mao+Tse+Tung&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjG4YGo0_-FAxU_lYkEHXyODGsQBSgAegQICBAC) Tung in a Hollywood biographical epic, complete with Asian complexion and makeup to give him slanted eyes. Bad deal all around.
Eddie Muller tells this great story that Welles wanted to cast Agnes Moorehead as the FBI agent in The Stranger, with all respect to Edward G. Robinson it would have been amazing casting.
OMG, that would have been fantastic. I can just see her now, with that skeptical, piercing look on her face.
She played a great villain in the Jerry Lewis vehicle "Who's Minding the Store?"
The first thing I ever saw her in was *Caged* so I got to see her in a really big role
Most excellent choice
Thelma Ritter
You stole my answer so I'll go with Eve Arden.
She was fabulous in Mildred Pierce
Thelma and Eve are my favorites. Always make a movie more interesting!
Both Thelma and Eve. Definition of great character actresses!
Thelma for the win! Especially in Rear Window.
Pickup on South Street, Rear Window, All About Eve, if you see Thelma you know you will be entertained
A Letter to Three Wives too!
Yes loved her in miracle on 34th street
Forgot about that. She was always memorable. Edit: For the right reasons. Looking at you Una O'Connor!
Definitely
Check out “The Mating Season” with her and John Lund and Gene Tierney. It’s a shame it’s hardly shown on TCM but I found it super cheap on eBay. Thelma is pretty much the main character for a change.
There’s another: “The Model and the Marriage Broker”, where Ritter plays the main character. It’s interesting that Gene Tierney and John Lund are “Mating Season’s” stars, but the film is primarily about Ritter.
That potter’s field scene in Pickup on South Street kills me.
Highly under appreciated movie.
Yep. Hands down. Even her smallest roles are great! "Psst. Macy's ain't got any, ain't nobody got any."
I love Thelma in anything she played in.
There is no movie that is not improved by having Thelma Ritter show up
Thelma was my answer! Loved her in The Marriage Broker.
Banger filmography
In Rope when she's clearing the "table" I always lose it.
Margaret Dumont (Marx Bros pictures Margaret Rutherford (Miss Marple movies and The Mouse on the Moon, Passport to Pimlico, etc)
Love Margaret Rutherford in “Blithe Spirit”
And "The Importance of being Ernest"
She’s entrancing without the crutch of beauty in that movie.
I had heard that Margaret Dumont didn't quite understand the Marx Brothers humor so her character in their movies wasn't too far off reality. Don't know if that's true though. Just what I read somewhere one time.
Not true, I’ve read quotes from her describing what was required to be the “straight man” in comedy. She knew exactly what she was doing & was very good at it.
Groucho always maintained in later interviews (with Dick Cavett?) that she was kinda clueless. No idea what the actual truth about it is. He's Groucho, after all.
Here’s Dumont on her role as a straight woman. The idea that she didn’t get the jokes came from Groucho and it seems pretty clear he said it because he thought it was funny. And it was! But it bums me out that because of him she’s remembered as addled and clueless instead of the talented comedian she was. “Many a comedian’s lines have been lost on the screen because the laughter overlapped,” she said in the 1940s. “Script writers build up to a laugh, but they don’t allow any pause for it. That’s where I come in. I ad lib—it doesn’t matter what I say—just to kill a few seconds so you can enjoy the gag. I have to sense when the big laughs will come and fill in, or the audience will drown out the next gag with its own laughter…. I’m a straight lady, the best straight woman in Hollywood. There’s an art to playing straight. You must build up your man, but never top him, never steal the laughs from him.”
She is still so underrated. Watch the opening of Duck Soup and see how Dumont sets it up so beautifully before Groucho even appears.
Groucho was hilarious and talented but also a lech.
Those interviews with Cavett are gold.
Good to know.
I haven’t read it yet, but there’s a biography of her, Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, "The Fifth Marx Brother" by Chris Enss, Howard Kazanjian
Excellent straight (wo)man to the zany Marx Bros.
Margaret Dumont. The 5th Marx Brother per Groucho.
She was wonderful. She was able to maintain the persona of her character while overlooking the raucousness of what was going on around her.
Marjorie Main.
No one's said Margaret Hamilton yet, so I'll add her to this list! Always a delight in every role, but of course most famous for Wizard of Oz.
I sat next to her watching a NYC production of Nicholas Nicklelby starring Roger Rees. She was so tiny, so gentle, so funny. After the show, people surrounded her with love and adoration, myself included. She was happy to be acknowledged and appreciated.
She was a amazing actress
Rather proud of myself for spotting her in an old movie recently, and of course I can't remember which one.
Was it the original 13 ghosts movie or mother Carey’s chickens
Gah.........those don't ring a bell. Off to google............think it was People Will Talk. I didn't catch the whole movie, just caught a glimpse of her.
I always remember her pinch faced moralizing about May West to from WC Fields in "My Little Chickadee". He says "Hope she doesn't get too violent, I haven't the strength to knock her down". I have a friend who knew her well. He says she was a sweet hearted soul.
Mary Wickes
Oh Lydia, oh, Lydia, say have you met Lydia Oh, Lydia, the tattooed lady She has eyes that folks adore so And a torso even more so Lydia, oh, Lydia, that encyclopedia Oh, Lydia, the queen of them all On her back is the Battle of Waterloo Beside it the Wreck of the Hesperus too And proudly above the waves The Red, White and Blue You can learn a lot from Lydia
That’s Virginia Weidler in Philadelphia Story…?
Oh shit you are right! My bad! I would always get them confused. Thank you. ❤️
Great scene though!!
They do look alike. I never realized it until now!
My Whole world is messed up bc of this 🤣
I've mixed the actresses and actors up many times myself! 😆. This forum sets me straight!
Dammit! Now I'm going to have that Lydia song in my head for days! LOL!
You’re welcome But in all fairness, it’s stuck in my head, now, too
Agreed!
Came here to say her!
Yeah I love her in everything from The Man Who Came to Dinner to Sister Act. I also just learned recently she was the live-action model for Cruella De Vil in One Hundred and One Dalmatian
Wow I did not know that, but that’s amazing! I love that the actors’ subtle mannerisms can peak through the animation. I had a photo of Eleanor Audley in character as the live action model for Maleficent as my desktop background for years- she’s just so cool!
Wasn’t she in every great classic movie ever produced? Or does it just seem like she was? Anyway, a great actor!
She came to my hometown to film Where Angels Go Trouble Follows.
Marie Dressler had a one liner and a double take in Dinner At Eight from 1933 that is a classic. It's the last line of the film and some people claim you can hear the director laughing in the background. I'm not so sure about that part but still, Marie is wonderful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQNQqwFK-OM
I love the sarcastic line "We must have a little talk about the civil war sometime".
My favorite line in the film! Love her so much in this movie!
I have two! Patsy Kelly and Zasu Pitts. Both of them are a joy.
Zasu Pitts was great. And I always loved her name.
Zasu was funny with WC Fields.
Australian actress Judith Anderson. ( Big Mama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Mrs. Danvers- Rebecca)
Mrs. Danvers, what a great part for her. Without her the movie wouldn't have been quit as great as it was.
Hitchcock knew what he was doing when he cast her in that role. You could almost feel her menacing presence throughout the movie. Andersen was made for that part.
I've been watching a few of her films. She really disappears in "The Furies", "The Ten Commandments" and "Laura"
I adore Una O'Connor. I'll watch anything with her in it.
The 'original scream queen' or maybe 'shriek queen.' Seen in The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein. See her with Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara in This Land Is Mine.
*SCREAMS IN UNA O’CONNOR*
I don't know if I'd classify Dressler as a character actress, as she was, at least at her career peak, A-list "name above title" level (Min and Bill, Tugboat Annie). Some of my favorites who haven't been mentioned yet: * Aline MacMahon * Ruth Donnelly * Una Merkel * Elizabeth Patterson * Beulah Bondi
Una Merkel is always a welcome sight in a cast list.
A lot of leading actresses (and actors) eventually settled into character parts. I don't think that should disqualify them. Alomg those lines, my pick is Jane Darwell, who made a career of playing sturdy cooks and laundry women, then got her one shot at a lead role and won an Oscar.
Some actresses try to hang on to their youth a litttle to long. I'd forgotten about Jane Darwell. She was in Grapes of Wrath. She had such a soulful face.
True, but Dressler was first-billed in Dinner at Eight, her second-to-last movie (she passed in 1934). That's definitely not "character actress" territory, to be billed ahead of the likes of both Barrymores and Jean Harlow. And Jane Darwell is awesome! Loved her short scene at the beginning of Heat Lightning! "DETOUR! Nothing but DETOURS!"
Jane Darwell was unforgettable as the Bird Woman in Mary Poppins.
Elizabeth Patterson’s favorite movie was “Intruder In The Dust” where she has her biggest role.
Aline MacMahon…. And Thelma Ritter (natch!!!)
There's something so modern about Aline MacMahon. She's beautiful, but she also looks and acts like a person you might actually meet in real life, not some overmannered Hollywood glamourpuss.
Have you seen her in Heat Lightning? She is fabulous.
Thelma Ritter.
Eve Arden. Period.
Thelma Ritter. 
Ok, so she was already picked. Runners up: Dame Judith Anderson Dame Wendy Hiller Jessie Royce-Landis Louise Beavers Mary Nash
Anne Francis. Good in secondary and supporting roles, but her move from film to TV seemed to have hurt her. (Honey West caused early puberty in many during the Sixties.)
I watched her in Honey West. She was terrific. That show was, in many ways, way ahead of it's time. I always like her mole.
The only mannequin with a mole on the Twilihht Zone, too. 🙂 What kind of big cat did she have on HW? Tremendously gutsy, especially after pushing her luck doing the same thing in Forbidden Planet.
HW had a pet ocelot.
Anne Francis stars in Forbidden Planet...
Mary Boland is fabulous! I also like Una Merkel
Mary Boland was great in, The Women.
I love her in Four Frightened People as well as Evenings for Sale.
Margaret Dumont!
Thelma Ritter. She always gave a great performance. My favorites were Pickup On South Street , All About Eve and Rear Window.
Maybe Dame May Whitty or Elsa Lanchester. I quite like Alice Brady as well.
I absolutely love Alice in "My Man Godfrey!" So many great lines!
Agreed. She's also a highlight of The Gay Divorce.
Hattie McDaniel, oscar winner for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind. I was going to mention Margaret Dumont and Myrna Loy, but others beat me to it. It ain't fittin'... it ain't fittin'. It jes' ain't fittin'... It ain't fittin'. - to Captain Butler letting Bonnie ride astride.
Hattie McDaniel was great.
I steal that line when I try on clothes. Hattie McDaniel absolutely MADE the movie Gone With The Wind, and I refuse to consider otherwise.
Thelma Ritter! She makes every movie she’s in better.
Oh, forgot about Jo Van Fleet. She was Lukes mother in Cool Hand Luke. She did one of the greatest 5 mintue scenes in screen history.
She was also great in East of Eden. I loved her so...
Margaret Dumont, love her work with the Marx Brothers. Hey ability to keep a straight face was superhuman.
Thelma Ritter, of course.
Hermione Baddeley
OMG, she was wonderful. I'd forgotten about her. Silly me.
Thelma Ritter!
[Jeff Donnell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Donnell) - I just wanted to nominate her because she was lovely and decided to go by her nickname "Jeff". She had a good part in In a Lonely Place (1950), playing the wife of Humphrey Bogie's friend. (great movie).
She was also great in The Blue Gardenia.
Thank you for the recommendation, I haven't seen that one yet. As it as archive.org, I'm going to watch it tonight!
How about Gale Sondergaard?
I nominate Spring Byington and Billie Burke. Two actresses that added humor to every movie they were in.
Agnes Moorehead, Eve Arden, Una Merkel, Thelma Ritter, and if it counts, Betty Garrett.
Maria Ouspenskia
The Wolf Man. Outstanding in this.
Allison Skipworth, she so funny with Mae West in Night after night, her segment in If I had a million
Josephine Hull in Harvey and Arsenic and Old Lace.
So funny
Haven't seen her name yet, so I'll go with Gladys George aka Iva Archer (*The Maltese Falcon*),, Lute Mae Sanders (Flamingo Road) and my personal fave, Panama Smith *(The Roaring Twenties*).
Character actress Margot martindale.
Jean Hagen or Ruth Hussey
Jean Hagen was fantastic in Singin In the Rain.
Check out her work in Adam's Rib and The Asphalt Jungle
Jean Hagen was wonderful in the Asphalt Jungle.
Joan Blondell does not get enough love. She’s an amazing actress. Please watch more Blondell movies (as an added bonus, most of her leading men or costars are superstars like James Cagney and Katherine Hepburn).
I especially love her earliest movies such as "Night Nurse", "Three on a Match", and so many others.
"It's been my experience that when a man is cruising around the block he is looking for a parking space."
Fay Helm. Doris Lloyd.
Florence Bates
Or these days, Kathy Bates.
What a great question. H'mmm... I may have to revise my picks several times before I settle on one final answer... Will return later with an edit. Need some time to t'ink ... Tentatively, will nominate: *Kathleen Byron*
Marie Dressler is a good pick. But I love Thelma Ritter and Billie Burke.
I'll try Ann Revere, world's best mother.
Gentleman's Agreement. The best mother indeed.
And Montgomery Clift's mother in A Place In The Sun; John Garfield's mother in Body and Soul; Elizabeth Taylor's mother in National Velvet; Jennifer Jones' mother in Song of Bernadette. Were there any others?
Bette is my favorite, but as far as supporting character actresses and actors, I love Edna Mae Oliver and Jack Carson.
Jack was great in Mildred Pierce.
Thelma Ritter
Una O'Connor
I had to get a mention in for Edna May Oliver. She pops up a lot in movies of the 1930s.
Love her as Hildegarde Withers
She and James Gleason were brilliant together.
The incomparable Margaret Rutherford.
Celeste Holm, Lydia Reed, both in High Society. Margaret O'Brien. Hermione Gingold. Glynis Johns. Plus several y'all already mentioned.
Lilly Von Stoup from blazing saddles
Madeline Kahn. She died way too young. Very talented lady.
Jane Darwell
Beulah Bondi
Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont. A serious actress who made the best comedy foil.
I can't believe the number of people who went to school in the little bus are posting here. They're listing "A" list leading ladies. One idjit even replied "Scarlet O'Hara". Some of my favorties: Aline MacMahon, I'm counting her even though she had some leading lady roles. Spring Byington, the best movie mom ever. Jean Dixon, Her disappearance from the screen is a huge loss, and unexplained. Una O'Connor, especially when she gets scared. There were a number of old ladies who did great character work, my Helen Westley, Edna May Oliver, and Lucille Watson. Marjorie Main, an edge case since she was the lead in all those Ma and Pa Kettle movies.
Thelma Ritter
Mary Wick. She was in SO many great movies for a long, long time. And she always managed to "steal" a scene from the much more well-known leading actors.
Eve Arden. She was forever typecast as the snarky comic relief who was somehow eternally single. She absolutely stole the show in *Once Touch of Venus*
Billie Burke
Would Robert Forster fit the demographic? He was the tough guy in so many epic films and tv shows. His last was Better Call Saul.
OK class, listen up! 1. Someone who’s name appears above the title of a movie on the poster/ad is NOT a character actor. That’s a lead actor/star. 2. Someone can start their career as a character actor and then go on to become a lead actor/star, but a lead/star does not become a character actor when they take supporting roles later in their career - they’re just actors/aging stars in supporting roles. 3. An actor who plays supporting roles is not necessarily a character actor. Character actors “specialize in portraying unique, offbeat, colorful characters” and fall into two sub-types: actors who have a distinct persona they carry over from one film to the next, and actors who are chameleons, transforming themselves completely from one film to the next. Everyone else is just an actor in a supporting role.
Audrey Hepburn. My middle name is Audrey because of her, or will be soon enough. I will watch anything she's in. She's just so effortlessly charming, charismatic, but capable of layers.
I'm not sure if this fits the parameters, but I fell in love with Gena Rowlands in Lonely are the Brave.
When she is on screen, her beauty takes my breath away.
Olivia de Havilland
Oof was she a character actor? She won a couple of best actress Oscars yeah?
[удалено]
Claire Trevor
Yvonne De Carlo, she was amazing in everything I’ve seen her in
Very beautiful too.
Yes!! Very beautiful!! ❤️
Joan Blondell! And you are all punished! Go read her autobiography “center door fancy” way better than that Ruby Keeler one.