Marjorie Main

Scratchy-voiced American character actress who appeared in dozens of Hollywood vehicles following years on the Chautauqua and Orpheum circuits, Marjorie Main eventually worked with W.C. Fields on Broadway, where she appeared in several productions. Widowed in 1934, she entered films in 1937, repeating her Broadway stage role as the gangster's mother in Dead End (1937). Personally eccentric, Main had an almost pathological fear of germs. Best known among her close to 100 film appearances, most for MGM, are Stella Dallas (1937), Test Pilot (1938), Too Hot to Handle (1938), The Women (1939), Another Thin Man (1939), I Take This Woman (1940), Susan and God (1940), Honky Tonk (1941), Heaven Can Wait (1943), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Murder, He Says (1945), The Harvey Girls (1946), Summer Stock (1950), The Long, Long Trailer (1954), Rose Marie (1954), and Friendly Persuasion (1956). Starting with their appearances in The Egg and I (1947), which starred Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert, Main and Percy Kilbride became starring performers as Ma and Pa Kettle in a series of rural comedies. ~ All Movie Guide

• Also Credited As:
  Mary Tomlinson
• Born:
  February 24, 1890 in Acton, Indiana, USA
• Died:
  April 10, 1975.
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Teacher

Family

• Brother: Samuel Tomlinson.
• Father: Samuel Joseph Tomlinson.
• Mother: Jennie Tomlinson.

Education

• Hamilton College, Kentucky, drama

Milestones

• 1935 Acted in the Broadway production of Dead End
• 1936 Appeared in The Women
• 1937 Brought to Hollywood to recreate stage role in film version of Dead End ; played mother to Humphrey Bogart
• 1937 Cast as Barbara Stanwyck s mother in Stella Dallas
• 1938 Offered fine comic turn as the landlady in Test Pilot
• 1939 Recreated stage role of the proprietess of a ranch in film adaptation of The Women
• 1940 Played a lady blacksmith opposite Wallace Beery in Wyoming
• 1940 Signed to exclusive, long-term contract by MGM (October)
• 1941 Portrayed a minister s wife in Honky Tonk
• 1941 Reteamed with Beery for Barnacle Bill
• 1941 Starred with Frank Morgan in The Wild Man of Borneo
• 1943 On loanout to Fox, cast as a nouveau riche society doyenne in Heaven Can Wait , directed by Ernst Lubitsch
• 1944 Had featured role as the cook in Meet Me in St. Louis ; first of three films with Judy Garland
• 1945 Loaned to Paramount and cast as a hillbilly matriarch opposite Fred MacMurray in Murder, He Says
• 1946 Once again played a cook in a Garland musical in The Harvey Girls
• 1947 Had rare lead role in Universal s The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap opposite Abbott and Costello
• 1947 On loanout to Universal, earned a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination playing Ma Kettle in the film adaptation of The Egg and I , starring MacMurray and Claudette Colbert
• 1948 Second film with Percy Kilbride, Feudin , Fussin and A-Fightin
• 1949 Last of a total of seven films with Beery, Big Jack
• 1949 Reunited with Kilbride for Ma and Pa Kettle ; subsequently made six additional Kettle films
• 1950 Final feature with Garland, Summer Stock
• 1952 Cast as the mother of a soldier killed in action in It s a Big Country
• 1954 Contract with MGM ended
• 1955 Final Kettle film with Kilbride, Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
• 1956 Provided some comic relief in Friendly Persuation , playing a widow with three unmarried daughters
• 1957 Last Kettle film, The Kettles on Old MacDonald s Farm
• 1958 Final acting role, a guest appearance on TV s Wagon Train
• Began acting career with a stock company in Chautauqua; first role was reportedly Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew ; billed as Mary Tomlinson
• Began appearing in vaudeville; adopted stage name of Marjorie Main
• Moved to NYC to try to land parts on Broadway