Alice Brady
Encyclopedia
Alice Brady was an American actress who began her career in the silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 era and survived the transition into talkies
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...

. She worked up until six months before her death from cancer in 1939. Her films include My Man Godfrey
My Man Godfrey
My Man Godfrey is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava. The screenplay was written by Morrie Ryskind, with uncredited contributions by La Cava, based on "1101 Park Avenue", a short story by Eric Hatch. The story concerns a socialite who hires a derelict to be her...

(1936), in which she played the flighty mother of Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...

's character, and In Old Chicago
In Old Chicago
In Old Chicago is a 1937 American drama film directed by Henry King. The screenplay by Sonya Levien and Lamar Trotti was based on the Niven Busch story, "We the O'Learys." The film is a fictionalized account about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and stars Alice Brady as Mrs. O'Leary, the owner of...

(1938) for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...

.

Career

Brady was born in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 as Mary Rose Brady, and was interested at an early age in becoming an actress. Her father, William A. Brady
William A. Brady
William Aloysius Brady, Sr. was an American theatre actor, producer, and sports promoter.-Biography:Brady was born to a newspaperman in 1863. His father kidnapped him from San Francisco and brought him to New York City, where his father worked as a writer while William was forced to sell...

, was an important theatrical producer, and her mother was Rose Marie Rene, who died in 1896 when Alice was four. Alice first went on the stage when she was 14 and got her first job on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 in 1911 at the age of 18, in a show her father was associated with. She continued to perform there (often in shows her father produced) consistently for the next 22 years. In 1931 she appeared in the premiere of Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...

's Mourning Becomes Electra
Mourning Becomes Electra
Mourning Becomes Electra is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932...

. Her step-mother was Broadway star Grace George
Grace George
Grace George was a Broadway stage actress. She was married to producer William A. Brady and was stepmother to his daughter Alice Brady. George appeared in only two films, a silent called Tainted Money in 1915 and Johnny Come Lately in 1943 with James Cagney...

 (1879–1961), whom her father married when Alice was a child. Her half-brother was William A. Brady Jr, the son of her father & Grace George.

Brady's father moved into movie production and presentation in 1913, with his World Film Corporation, and Brady soon followed along after him, making her first silent feature appearance in As Ye Sow in 1914. She appeared in 53 films in the next 10 years, all while continuing to perform on stage, the film industry at the time being centered in New York.

In 1923, she stopped appearing in films to concentrate on stage acting, and did not appear on the screen again until 1933, when she made the move to Hollywood and M-G-M's When Ladies Meet
When Ladies Meet (1933 film)
When Ladies Meet is a 1933 Pre-Code film starring Ann Harding, Myrna Loy, Robert Montgomery, and Alice Brady. The film is the first adaptation of the 1932 Rachel Crothers play of the same name...

become her first talking picture
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...

. From then on she worked frequently until her death, making another 25 films in seven years. Her final film was Young Mr. Lincoln
Young Mr. Lincoln
Young Mr. Lincoln is a 1939 partly fictionalized biography about the early life of President Abraham Lincoln, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda. Ford and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought for control of the film, to the point where Ford destroyed unwanted takes for fear the studio...

(1939).

Personal life

Brady was married to actor James Crane from 1919 to 1922, when they divorced. They co-starred in three silent films together His Bridal Night (1919), Sinners (1920) and A Dark Lantern (1920); the couple had one child, Donald.

Awards

For her portrayal of Mrs. Molly O'Leary — a fictionalized version of Catherine O'Leary
Catherine O'Leary
Catherine O'Leary was an Irish immigrant living in Chicago, Illinois in the 1870s. She was married to Patrick O'Leary...

 - in 1937's In Old Chicago
In Old Chicago
In Old Chicago is a 1937 American drama film directed by Henry King. The screenplay by Sonya Levien and Lamar Trotti was based on the Niven Busch story, "We the O'Learys." The film is a fictionalized account about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and stars Alice Brady as Mrs. O'Leary, the owner of...

, Brady won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...

. She had been nominated for the same award the year before as well, for her work in My Man Godfrey
My Man Godfrey
My Man Godfrey is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava. The screenplay was written by Morrie Ryskind, with uncredited contributions by La Cava, based on "1101 Park Avenue", a short story by Eric Hatch. The story concerns a socialite who hires a derelict to be her...

.

At the Academy Award presentation dinner, Brady's Oscar statuette was stolen by a man who came onstage to accept the award on the absent actress' behalf. It was never recovered, and the impostor was never tracked down. The Academy issued a replacement statue which was later presented to Brady http://www.originalprop.com/blog/2008/09/06/heritage-auction-galleries-%E2%80%9Csignature-music-entertainment-memorabilia-auction%E2%80%B3-catalog-available-online/

Selected filmography

A sample of her more than 80 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s includes:
Silent
  • As Ye Sow (1914)
  • The Boss
    The Boss (1915 film)
    The Boss is a 1915 silent film produced by William A. Brady and released through his World Film Company. The film is based on a 1911 play by Edward Sheldon called The Boss. On stage it starred Holbrook Blinn and Emily Stevens...

    (1915)
  • A Cup of Chance (1915)
  • The Lure of Woman (1915)
  • The Rack (1915)
  • The Ballet Girl (1916)
  • The Woman in 47 (1916)
  • Then I'll Come Back to You (1916)
  • Tangled Fates (1916)
  • La vie de Boheme
  • Miss Petticoats (1916)
  • The Gilded Cage (1916)
  • Bought and Paid For (1916)
  • A Woman Alone (1917)
  • A Hungry Heart (1917)
  • The Dancer's Peril (1917)
  • Darkest Russia (1917)
  • Maternity (1917)
  • The Divorce Game (1917)
  • A Self-Made Widow (1917)
  • Betsy Ross (1917)
  • A Maid of Belgium (1917)
  • Her Silent Sacrifice (1917)
  • Woman and Wife (1918)
  • The Knife (1918)
  • The Spurs of Sybil (1918)
  • The Trap (1918)
  • At the Mercy of Men (1918)
  • The Ordeal of Rosetta (1918)
  • The Whirlpool(1918)
  • The Death Dance (1918)
  • The Better Half (1918)
  • Her Great Chance (1918)

  • In the Hollow of Her Hand (1918)
  • The Indestructible Wife (1919)
  • The End of the Road (1919)
  • The World to Live In (1919)
  • Marie Ltd. (1919)
  • The Redhead (1919)
  • His Bridal Night (1919)
  • The Fear Market (1920)
  • Sinners (1920)
  • A Dark Lantern (1920)
  • The New York Idea
    The New York Idea (1920 film)
    The New York Idea is a 1920 silent comedy film directed by Herbert Blache and starring Alice Brady. It is based on a 1906 Broadway play by Langdon Mitchell that starred Mrs. Fiske and George Arliss. It is an extant film at the International House of Photography, George Eastman House...

    (1920)
  • Out of the Chorus (1921)
  • The Land of Hope (1921)
  • Little Italy (1921)
  • Dawn of the East (1921)
  • Hush Money (1921)
  • Missing Millions (1922)
  • Anna Ascends (1922)
  • The Leopardess (1923)
  • The Snow Bride (1923)

Sound
  • When Ladies Meet
    When Ladies Meet (1933 film)
    When Ladies Meet is a 1933 Pre-Code film starring Ann Harding, Myrna Loy, Robert Montgomery, and Alice Brady. The film is the first adaptation of the 1932 Rachel Crothers play of the same name...

    (1933)
  • Beauty for Sale
    Beauty for Sale
    Beauty for Sale is a 1933 film about the romantic entanglements of three beauty salon employees. It stars Madge Evans, Alice Brady, and Otto Kruger. It was based on the novel Beauty by Faith Baldwin.-Cast:*Madge Evans as Letty Lawson...

    (1933)
  • Stage Mother
    Stage Mother (film)
    Stage Mother is a 1933 American musical drama. A backstage musical, the film follows the story of Kitty Lorraine, a frustrated vaudeville performer who pushes her daughter into becoming a star dancer. Selfishness, deceit and blackmail drive mother and daughter apart until a last-reel reconciliation...

    (1933)
  • The Gay Divorcee
    The Gay Divorcee
    The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 American film based on the musical play Gay Divorce written by Dwight Taylor, Kenneth S. Webb, Samuel Hoffenstein, with screenplay by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost and Edward Kaufman, from an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners...

    (1934)
  • Gold Diggers of 1935
    Gold Diggers of 1935
    Gold Diggers of 1935 is a Warner Bros. musical film directed and choreographed by Busby Berkeley and starring Dick Powell, Gloria Stuart, Adolphe Menjou, Winifred Shaw, Alice Brady, Hugh Herbert and Frank McHugh...

    (1935)
  • Let 'Em Have It (1935)
  • Three Smart Girls
    Three Smart Girls
    Three Smart Girls is a 1936 musical comedy film. The Craig sisters, played by Barbara Read, Nan Grey and Deanna Durbin in her first feature film role, travel to New York City to prevent their father from remarrying....

    (1936)
  • Go West, Young Man
    Go West, Young Man
    Go West, Young Man is a 1936 Paramount Pictures comedy film directed by Henry Hathaway starring Mae West. The supporting cast includes Warren William, Alice Brady, Elizabeth Patterson, and Lyle Talbot...

    (1936)
  • My Man Godfrey
    My Man Godfrey
    My Man Godfrey is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava. The screenplay was written by Morrie Ryskind, with uncredited contributions by La Cava, based on "1101 Park Avenue", a short story by Eric Hatch. The story concerns a socialite who hires a derelict to be her...

    (1936)
  • One Hundred Men and a Girl
    One Hundred Men and a Girl
    One Hundred Men and a Girl is a 1937 musical comedy film, written by Charles Kenyon, Bruce Manning and James Mulhauser from a story by Hanns Kräly and directed by Henry Koster...

    (1937)
  • In Old Chicago
    In Old Chicago
    In Old Chicago is a 1937 American drama film directed by Henry King. The screenplay by Sonya Levien and Lamar Trotti was based on the Niven Busch story, "We the O'Learys." The film is a fictionalized account about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and stars Alice Brady as Mrs. O'Leary, the owner of...

    (1937)
  • Zenobia
    Zenobia (film)
    Zenobia is a 1939 comedy film starring Oliver Hardy, Harry Langdon, Billie Burke, Alice Brady, James Ellison, Jean Parker, June Lang, Stepin Fetchit, and Hattie McDaniel...

    (1939)
  • Young Mr. Lincoln
    Young Mr. Lincoln
    Young Mr. Lincoln is a 1939 partly fictionalized biography about the early life of President Abraham Lincoln, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda. Ford and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought for control of the film, to the point where Ford destroyed unwanted takes for fear the studio...

    (1939)


External links

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