Marjorie Main was an American character actress

Character actor

A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...

, mainly at MGM, perhaps best known for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle are comic film characters of the successful film series of the same name, produced by Universal Studios, in the late '40s and '50s. They are a hillbilly couple with fifteen children whose lives turn upside-down when they win a model-home-of-the-future in a slogan-writing contest...

 movies.

Early life and career

Born Mary Tomlinson in Acton, Indiana

Acton, Indiana

Acton is a small community located in the southeast corner of Marion County, Indiana, and has been included into the city of Indianapolis. The community was named for a resident, General Acton....

, Main attended Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana

Franklin, Indiana

As of the census of 2000, there were 19,463 people, 6,824 households, and 4,872 families residing in the city. The population increased by more than 50% during the 1990s , with new residents attracted by jobs in the community, as well as some people commuting to Indianapolis for work. The...

, and adopted a stage name to avoid embarrassing her father, Samuel J. Tomlinson (married to Jennie L. McGaughey), who was a minister. She worked in vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 on the Chautauqua and Orpheum Circuits, and debuted 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 1916. Her first film was A House Divided in 1931.

Main began playing upper class dowager

Dowager

A dowager is a widow who holds a title or property, or dower, derived from her deceased husband. As an adjective, "Dowager" usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles....

s, but was ultimately typecast

Typecasting (acting)

In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...

 in abrasive, domineering, salty roles, for which her distinct voice was well suited. She repeated her stage role in Dead End in the 1937 film version

Dead End

Dead End is a 1937 crime drama film. It is an adaptation of the Sidney Kingsley 1935 Broadway play of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Joel McCrea, and Sylvia Sidney...

, 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

The Women (1939 film)

The Women is a 1939 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce's play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code in order for it to be released.The film...

, to film in 1939. She made six films with Wallace Beery

Wallace Beery

Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill opposite Marie Dressler, as Long John Silver in Treasure Island, as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa!, and his titular role in The Champ, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...

 in the 1940s including Barnacle Bill

Barnacle Bill (1941 film)

Barnacle Bill is a 1941 feature film starring Wallace Beery and Marjorie Main. The screen comedy was directed by Richard Thorpe.-Cast:* Wallace Beery as Bill Johansen* Marjorie Main as Marge Cavendish* Leo Carillo as Pico Rodriguez...

 (1941), Jackass Mail

Jackass Mail

Jackass Mail is a 1942 Western comedy film starring Wallace Beery and Marjorie Main. The movie was directed by Norman Z. McLeod.-Cast:*Wallace Beery as Just Baggot*Marjorie Main as Tina Tucker*J...

 (1942), and Bad Bascomb

Bad Bascomb (1946 film)

Bad Bascomb is a 1946 western film starring Wallace Beery and Margaret O'Brien. The movie was directed by S. Sylvan Simon.-Plot:"Bad" Bascomb is a notorious outlaw wanted by federal marshals after outwitting every group sent to capture him. He and fellow bandit Bart Ramsay , a cold-blooded...

 (1946). She played Sonora Cassidy, the chief cook, in The Harvey Girls

The Harvey Girls

The Harvey Girls is a 1946 MGM musical film based on a 1942 novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams about Fred Harvey's famous Harvey House restaurants. Directed by George Sidney, the film stars Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury, Virginia O'Brien, Ray Bolger, and Marjorie Main...

 (1945). The director, George Sidney, says in the comments on the film that Miss Main was a "great lady" as well as a great actress who donated most of her paychecks over the years to the support of a school.

Perhaps her most famous role is that of "Ma Kettle", which she first played in The Egg and I

The Egg and I (film)

The Egg and I is a 1947 film directed by Chester Erskine, who co-wrote screenplay with Fred F. Finklehoffe, based on the book by Betty MacDonald.This comedy was such a hit with audiences, it spawned the Ma and Pa Kettle film series...

 in 1947 opposite Percy Kilbride

Percy Kilbride

Percy W. Kilbride was an American character actor. The son of Irish immigrants, he made a career of playing country hicks, most memorably as Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of feature films.-Career:...

 as "Pa Kettle". She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the part, and portrayed the character in nine more Ma and Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle are comic film characters of the successful film series of the same name, produced by Universal Studios, in the late '40s and '50s. They are a hillbilly couple with fifteen children whose lives turn upside-down when they win a model-home-of-the-future in a slogan-writing contest...

 films.

Personal life and death

Main married Stanley LeFevre Krebs, who died in 1935. Three authors, Boze Hadleigh

Boze Hadleigh

Boze Hadleigh aka George Hadley-Garcia is an American journalist writer of celebrity gossip and entertainment.-Biography:...

, Axel Madsen

Axel Madsen

Axel Madsen was a Danish-American biographer and journalist.Born in Copenhagen and raised in Paris, Madsen turned from music to writing in the early 1950s, initially for the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune. In 1956 he moved to Canada and began working for United Press International...

, and Darwin Porter

Darwin Porter

Darwin Porter is known as one of the writers of the Frommer's travel guides and a sensationalist Hollywood biographer known for books whose source material derives from transcription of oral dialogues from living witnesses of not-widely-publicized events and relationships in the entertainment...

, have asserted that Main was a lesbian.According to Keith Stern

Keith Stern

Keith Alan Stern has produced some of the most popular biographical websites on the Internet. Since 1997 he has been collaborating with Ian McKellen on that actor's autobiographical website, McKellen.com...

 and Boze Hadleigh, Marjorie Main had a long-term lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 relationship with actress Spring Byington

Spring Byington

Spring Byington was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. She was a key MGM contract player appearing in films from the 1930s through the 1960s.-Early life:Byington was born Spring Dell Byington in Colorado Springs,...

.

Main died of lung cancer

Lung cancer

Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

 on April 10, 1975 in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 at the age of 85. She is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park

Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica...

 in the Hollywood Hills

Hollywood Hills

The Hollywood Hills is an affluent and exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains. It is bound by Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west, Vermont Avenue to the east, Mulholland Drive to the north, and Sunset Boulevard to the south.-Hollywood Hills...

.

Her name is listed on her headstone as Mrs. Mary Tomlinson Krebs, with her stage name Marjorie Main underneath.

Theatre

• Salvation (1928)
• Scarlet Sister Mary
  Scarlet Sister Mary
  Scarlet Sister Mary is a 1928 novel by Julia Peterkin. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1929.The book was called obscene and banned at the public library in Gaffney, South Carolina. The Gaffney Ledger newspaper, however, serially published the complete book.Dr. Richard S...
  
   (1930)
• Ebb Tide (1931)
• Music in the Air
  Music in the Air
  Music in the Air is a musical written by Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern . It introduced songs such as "The Song Is You", "In Egern on the Tegern See" and "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star"...
  
   (1932)
• Jackson White (1935)
• Dead End
  Dead End
  Dead End is a 1937 crime drama film. It is an adaptation of the Sidney Kingsley 1935 Broadway play of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Joel McCrea, and Sylvia Sidney...
  
   (1935)
• The Women (1936)

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1932	Hot Saturday Hot Saturday Hot Saturday is Cary Grant's first movie as leading man. The movie was directed by William A. Seiter and based on a novel written by Harvey Fergusson...	Gossip in Window	Uncredited
1933	New Deal Rhythm	Delegate from Arizona	Uncredited
1934	Music in the Air Music in the Air (film) Music in the Air is a 1934 romantic comedy musical film based on Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Broadway musical of the same name. It stars Gloria Swanson as a opera diva, John Boles as her librettist and Douglass Montgomery as an aspiring songwriter who stumbles into their stormy...	Anna
1937	Stella Dallas Stella Dallas (1937 film) Stella Dallas is a 1937 film based on the Olive Higgins Prouty novel of the same name. It was directed by King Vidor, and stars Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles, and Anne Shirley. Stanwyck was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Shirley for Best Actress in a Supporting Role...	Mrs. Martin
1938	Test Pilot Test Pilot (film) Test Pilot is a 1938 film directed by Victor Fleming and featuring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, and Lionel Barrymore. The movie tells the story of a daredevil test pilot , his wife , and his best friend...	Landlady
1938	Three Comrades Three Comrades (film) Three Comrades 1938 is a drama film directed by Frank Borzage and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz for MGM. The screenplay is by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edward E. Paramore Jr., and was adapted from the novel Three Comrades by Erich Maria Remarque...	Old Woman by Phone	Uncredited
1938	Girls' School Girls' School (film) Girls' School is a 1938 comedy film starring Anne Shirley. The film was directed by John Brahm and based upon a Tess Slesinger story.-Plot:...	Miss Honore Armstrong
1938	Little Tough Guy Little Tough Guy Little Tough Guy is a 1938 Universal Studios film that starred several of the Dead End Kids. Although re-release posters and the DVD release credit them as The Dead End Kids they did not go by that title in the on screen credits. It was in the follow-up films that they began using the team name...	Mrs. Boylan
1938	Too Hot to Handle Too Hot to Handle (1938 film) Too Hot to Handle is a 1938 film about a newsreel reporter, the aviatrix he is attracted to, and his fierce competitor, played by Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and Walter Pidgeon respectively...	Miss Kitty Wayne
1939	They Shall Have Music They Shall Have Music They Shall Have Music is a 1939 musical film starring famed violinist Jascha Heifetz , Joel McCrea, Andrea Leeds, and Gene Reynolds...	Mrs. Miller
1939	The Angels Wash Their Faces The Angels Wash Their Faces The Angels Wash Their Faces is a 1939 Warner Bros. film starring Ronald Reagan and The Dead End Kids.-Plot:Gabe Ryan is released from reform school and it taken to a new house by his sister Joy to start a new life where no one knows of his past...	Mrs. Arkelian
1939	Another Thin Man Another Thin Man Another Thin Man is a 1939 American film that is the third film in the six-volume series, The Thin Man. It again stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, and is based on the writings of Dashiell Hammett. Their son, Nicky Jr., is also introduced in the film. The cast includes...	Mrs. Dolley, Landlord Chesterfield Apartments
1939	The Women The Women (1939 film) The Women is a 1939 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce's play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code in order for it to be released.The film...	Lucy, Dude Ranch Owner
1940	I Take This Woman I Take This Woman (1940 film) I Take This Woman is a 1940 drama film starring Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr.-Cast:*Spencer Tracy as Dr. Karl Decker*Hedy Lamarr as Georgi Gragore Decker*Verree Teasdale as Madame "Cesca" Marcesca*Kent Taylor as Phil Mayberry...	Gertie
1940	Dark Command Dark Command Dark Command is a 1940 western film starring Claire Trevor, John Wayne and Walter Pidgeon loosely based on Quantrill's Raiders in the American Civil War. Directed by Raoul Walsh from the novel by W.R...	Mrs. Cantrell, aka Mrs. Adams
1940	Turnabout Turnabout (film) Turnabout is a 1940 comedy film directed by Hal Roach and starring Adolphe Menjou, Carole Landis and John Hubbard. Based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Thorne Smith, the screenplay was written by Mickell Novack, Bernie Giler and John McClain with additional dialogue by Rian James.-Plot:Tim...	Nora - the Cook
1940	Susan and God Susan and God Susan and God is a 1940 comedy-drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starring Joan Crawford and Fredric March in a story about a matron who finds religion. The screenplay by Anita Loos was based upon a 1937 play by Rachel Crothers. The film was directed by George Cukor and produced by Hunt...	Mary Maloney	Alternative title: The Gay Mrs. Trexel
1941	The Trial of Mary Dugan The Trial of Mary Dugan The Trial of Mary Dugan is a play written by Bayard Veiller.The melodrama concerns a sensational courtroom trial of a showgirl accused of killing of her millionaire lover. Her defense attorney is her brother, Jimmy Dugan. It was first presented on Broadway in 1927, with Ann Harding in the title...	Mrs. Collins
1941	A Woman's Face A Woman's Face A Woman's Face is a 1941 drama film directed by George Cukor, starring Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas and Conrad Veidt. It tells the story of Anna Holm, a facially disfigured blackmailer, who because of her appearance despises everyone she encounters...	Emma Kristiansdotter
1941	The Shepherd of the Hills The Shepherd of the Hills (film) The Shepherd of the Hills is a 1941 film starring John Wayne. It was Wayne's first film in Technicolor. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Harold Bell Wright.-Differences from the novel:...	Granny Becky
1941	Honky Tonk Honky Tonk (1941 film) Honky Tonk is a 1941 black-and-white western film starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner.-Plot:Con man "Candy" Johnson and his friend "Sniper" flee town using quick wits and magic tricks. They catch a train to Yellow Creek, Nevada, where a gold rush is in progress. Aboard, he meets Elizabeth Cotton...	Mrs. Varner
1942	The Bugle Sounds The Bugle Sounds The Bugle Sounds is a 1942 World War II movie starring Wallace Beery as a cavalry sergeant resistant to replacing horses with tanks. The supporting cast includes Marjorie Main, Lewis Stone, George Bancroft, Donna Reed, and Chill Wills. The film was directed by S...	Susie "Suz"
1942	The Affairs of Martha The Affairs of Martha The Affairs of Martha is a 1942 romantic comedy film directed by Jules Dassin. A young maid, Marsha Hunt, falls in love with Jeff Sommerfield and the two marry on impulse before he leaves for an anthropological trip. Before he leaves, he asks her to get the marriage annulled, but she does not do so...	Mrs. McKessic
1942	Tennessee Johnson Tennessee Johnson Tennessee Johnson is a 1942 American film about Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States. It was directed by William Dieterle and written by Milton Gunzburg, Alvin Meyers, John Balderston, and Wells Root. It starred Van Heflin as Johnson, Lionel Barrymore as his nemesis Thaddeus...	Mrs. Maude Fisher	Alternative title: The Man on America's Conscience
1942	We Were Dancing We Were Dancing We Were Dancing is a short play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed in alternating groups of three plays, across three evenings...	The Judge
1943	Heaven Can Wait Heaven Can Wait (1943 film) Heaven Can Wait is a 1943 American comedy film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The screenplay was by Samson Raphaelson based on the play Birthday by Leslie Bush-Fekete. The music score was by Alfred Newman and the cinematography by Edward Cronjager.The film tells the story of a man who has...	Mrs. Strable
1944	Meet Me in St. Louis Meet Me in St. Louis Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 musical film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of an American family living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904...	Katie
1944	Gentle Annie Gentle Annie (film) Gentle Annie is a film with a Western theme, directed in 1944 by Andrew Marton, starring Donna Reed and James Craig.. Marjorie Main played the role of Annie Goss. A notable actor in this film is Harry Morgan, who plays Cottonwood Goss...	Annie Goss
1945	Murder, He Says Murder, He Says Murder, He Says is a slapstick comedy film about a murderous rural family and the hapless pollster who becomes entangled in their hunt for a cache of money.-Plot:...	Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
1946	The Harvey Girls The Harvey Girls The Harvey Girls is a 1946 MGM musical film based on a 1942 novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams about Fred Harvey's famous Harvey House restaurants. Directed by George Sidney, the film stars Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury, Virginia O'Brien, Ray Bolger, and Marjorie Main...	Sonora Cassidy
1946	Undercurrent	Lucy
1947	The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap is a 1947 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.-Plot:Chester Wooley and Duke Egan are traveling salesmen who make a stopover in Wagon Gap, Montana while enroute to California. During the stopover, a notorious criminal, Fred Hawkins, is murdered, and...	Widow Hawkins	Alternative title: The Wistful Widow
1948	Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin	Maribel Mathews
1949	Big Jack	Flapjack Kate
1950	Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town	Ma Kettle
1950	Summer Stock Summer Stock For the article about the theatre genre, see Summer stock theatre.Summer Stock is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical made in 1950. The film was directed by Charles Walters and stars Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria DeHaven, Marjorie Main, and Phil Silvers...	Esme	Alternative title: If You Feel Like Singing
1950	Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone is a 1950 comedy/murder mystery film set on board a train. It stars Marjorie Main and James Whitmore. It is based on the short story "Once Upon a Train " by Stuart Palmer and Craig Rice.-Cast:...	Harriet "Hattie" O'Malley
1951	Mr. Imperium Mr. Imperium Mr. Imperium is a 1951 romantic drama film made by MGM. It was directed by Don Hartman who co-wrote the screenplay with Edwin H. Knopf, based on a play by Edwin H. Knopf. The music score is by Bronisław Kaper....	Mrs. Cabot	Alternative title: You Belong to My Heart
1951	Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm	Ma Kettle
1951	It's a Big Country It's a Big Country It's a Big Country is a 1951 anthology film directed by Clarence Brown, Don Hartman, John Sturges, Richard Thorpe, Charles Vidor, Don Weis, and William A. Wellman.-External links:...	Mrs. Wrenley
1952	The Belle of New York The Belle of New York The Belle of New York is a 1952 Hollywood musical comedy film set in New York circa 1900 and stars Fred Astaire, Vera-Ellen, Alice Pearce, Marjorie Main and Keenan Wynn, with music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Johnny Mercer...	Mrs. Phineas Hill
1952	Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair	Ma Kettle
1953	Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation	Ma Kettle
1953	Fast Company	Ma Parkson
1954	The Long, Long Trailer The Long, Long Trailer The Long, Long Trailer is a novel by Clinton Twiss from the 1950s, about a couple who buy a new travel trailer home and spend a year traveling across the United States....	Mrs. Hittaway
1954	Rose Marie Rose Marie (films) The 1924 Broadway musical Rose-Marie has been the basis of three MGM films of the same title. The best-known film adaptation was released in 1936; however, a silent version was released in 1928 and another film was released in 1954. All three versions are set in the Canadian wilderness...	Lady Jane Dunstock
1955	Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki	Ma Kettle
1956	The Kettles in the Ozarks	Ma Kettle
1956	Friendly Persuasion Friendly Persuasion (film) Friendly Persuasion is a 1956 Civil War film starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton and Phyllis Love. The screenplay was adapted by Michael Wilson from the 1945 novel The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West, and was directed by William Wyler...	The Widow Hudspeth	Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress
1956	December Bride December Bride December Bride is an American sitcom that aired on the CBS television network from 1954 to 1959, adapted from the original CBS radio network series that aired from June 1952 through September 1953.-Overview:...	Herself	Episode: "The Marjorie Main Show"
1957	The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm	Ma Kettle
1958	Wagon Train Wagon Train Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...	Cassie Tanner	2 episodes

External links

• Literature on Marjorie Main