Career

Born Marie Anne Boland in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, she was the daughter of William Boland, an actor, and his wife Mary Cecilia Hatton. She had an older sister named Sara.

Boland originally was in a convent but left and was performing on stage by the age of fifteen. She 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 1907 in the play The Ranger with Dustin Farnum

Dustin Farnum

Dustin Lancy Farnum was an American singer, dancer and an actor in silent movies during the early days of motion pictures. After a great success in a number of stage roles, in 1914 he landed his first film role in the movie 'Soldiers of Fortune', and later in Cecil B. DeMille's The Squaw Man...

 and had appeared in eleven Broadway productions, notably with John Drew, before making her 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...

 debut for Triangle

Triangle Film Corporation

Triangle Film Corporation was a major American motion-picture studio, founded in the summer of 1915 in Culver City, California, and envisioned as a prestige studio based on the producing abilities of filmmakers D. W. Griffith, Thomas Ince and Mack Sennett...

 Studios in 1915. She entertained soldiers in France during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 then returned to America. After appearing in nine movies, she left filmmaking in 1920, returning to the stage and appearing in a number of Broadway productions. She became famous as a comedienne.

Boland's greatest success on the stage in the 1920s was the comedy The Cradle Snatchers (1925–26), in which she, Edna May Oliver

Edna May Oliver

Edna May Oliver was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the best-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters.-Early life:...

, and Margaret Dale, having been abandoned by their husbands, take on young lovers. Boland's paramour was Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....

 in one of his first roles.

After an eleven year absence, in 1931 she returned to Hollywood under contract to Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

. She achieved far greater film success with her second try, becoming one of the 1930s most popular character actresses, always playing major roles in her films and often starring, notably in a series of comedies opposite Charles Ruggles

Charles Ruggles

Charles Sherman “Charlie” Ruggles was a comic American actor. In a career spanning six decades, Ruggles appeared in close to 100 feature films. He was also the brother of director, producer, and silent actor Wesley Ruggles .-Background:Charlie Ruggles was born in Los Angeles, California in 1886...

.

Boland appeared in numerous films, including Ruggles of Red Gap

Ruggles of Red Gap

Ruggles of Red Gap was serialized beginning December 26, 1914 in the Saturday Evening Post and became a best selling novel in 1915 by Harry Leon Wilson, adapted for the Broadway stage as a musical the same year, and made into a movie several times, most famously in 1935.In the comedy Western film...

, The Big Broadcast of 1936

The Big Broadcast of 1936

The Big Broadcast of 1936 is a Paramount Pictures production, directed by Norman Taurog, and is the second in the series of Big Broadcast movies...

, Danger - Love at Work

Danger - Love at Work

Danger - Love at Work is a 1937 American screwball comedy film directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by James Edward Grant and Ben Markson focuses on an attorney's frustrating efforts to deal with a wildly eccentric family.-Plot:...

, Nothing but Trouble

Nothing But Trouble (1944 film)

Nothing But Trouble is a late Laurel and Hardy feature. The plot involves the team as a chef and a butler wrecking a dinner party - the bit where they cook a rubber steak and try to carve it at the table is particularly humorous...

, and Julia Misbehaves

Julia Misbehaves

Julia Misbehaves is a 1948 romantic comedy film. It stars Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon as a married couple who are soon separated by his snobbish family. They meet again many years later, when the daughter he has raised, played by Elizabeth Taylor, invites her mother to her wedding...

. She is likely best remembered for her portrayals of Countess DeLave 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...

 (1939) and Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice (1940 film)

Pride and Prejudice is a 1940 film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel of the same name. Robert Z. Leonard directed, and Aldous Huxley served as one of the screenwriters of the film. It is adapted specifically from the stage adaptation by Helen Jerome in addition to Jane Austen's novel...

 (1940).

For the remainder of her career, Boland combined films and, later television productions, with appearances onstage (including starring in the 1935 Cole Porter

Cole Porter

Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...

 musical Jubilee

Jubilee (musical)

Jubilee is a musical comedy with a book by Moss Hart and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It premiered on Broadway in 1935 to rapturous reviews. Inspired by the recent silver jubilee of King George V of Great Britain, the story is of the royal family of a fictional European country...

), making her last Broadway appearance in 1954 at the age of seventy-two. That play, Lullaby

Lullaby

A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....

, was not a success. Her last acting was done in the 1955 television adaptation of The Women recreating her film role.

Boland never married or had children. She died of a heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

 and was interred in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Vespers in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery

Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale

Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original location of Forest Lawn, a chain of cemeteries in Southern California. The land was formerly part of Providencia Ranch.-History:...

 in Glendale, California

Glendale, California

Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...

. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

 at 6150 Hollywood Boulevard.

Selected Filmography

Silent

• The Penitentes (1915)
• The Edge of the Abyss (1915)
• The Price of Happiness (1916)
• The Stepping Stone
  The Stepping Stone
  The Stepping Stone is a 1916 silent drama film, directed by Reginald Barker and Thomas H. Ince. It is a lost film.-Plot:Mary Beresford is the wife of unambitious law clerk Al Beresford. Thanks to Mary 's tenacity and carefully calculated social-climbing, Al is promoted to the position of personal...
  
   (1916)
• Mountain Dew (1917)
• A Woman's Experience (1918)(*Extant; Library of Congress)
• The Prodigal Wife (1918)
• The Perfect Lover (1919)
• His Temporary Wife (1920)

Sound

• Secrets of a Secretary
  Secrets of a Secretary
  Secrets of a Secretary is a 1931 film directed by George Abbott, and starring Claudette Colbert and Herbert Marshall.-Plot:Society girl becomes a social secretary when her father dies penniless...
  
   (1931)
• Personal Maid (1931)
• The Night of June 13th (1932)
• Evenings for Sale (1932)
• If I Had a Million
  If I Had A Million
  If I Had a Million is a Paramount Studios anthology film. There were seven directors: Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Taurog, Stephen Roberts, Norman Z. McLeod, James Cruze, William A. Seiter, and H. Bruce Humberstone...
  
   (1932)
• Mama Loves Papa
  Mama Loves Papa (1933 film)
  Mama Loves Papa is a 1933 American black-and-white comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod, with a story by Nunnally Johnson and Douglas MacLean, and a screenplay by MacLean, Keene Thompson and Arthur Kober...
  
   (1933)
• Three-Cornered Moon
  Three-Cornered Moon
  Three-Cornered Moon is a 1933 film directed by Elliot Nugent, and written by Ray Harris and S.K. Lauren, based on play by Gertrude Tonkonogy Friedberg. The film reached No...
  
   (1933)
• The Solitaire Man (1933)
• Four Frightened People
  Four Frightened People
  Four Frightened People is a film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, released by Paramount Pictures, and starring Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, Mary Boland, and William Gargan.-Plot:...
  
   (1934)
• Six of a Kind
  Six of a Kind
  Six of a Kind is a 1934 comedy film directed by Leo McCarey. It is a whimsical and often absurd Road movie about three couples who decide to share their expenses on a trip to Hollywood.-Cast:*Charles Ruggles*Mary Boland*George Burns*Gracie Allen...
  
   (1934)
• Down to Their Last Yacht
  Down to Their Last Yacht
  Down to Their Last Yacht is a 1934 comedy adventure produced and distributed by RKO Pictures.-Cast:*Mary Boland - Queen Malakamokalu*Polly Moran - Nella Fitzgerald*Ned Sparks - Captain 'Sunny Jim' Roberts*Sidney Fox - Linda Colt-Stratton...
  
   (1934)
• 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...
  
   (1939)
• Pride and Prejudice
  Pride and Prejudice (1940 film)
  Pride and Prejudice is a 1940 film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel of the same name. Robert Z. Leonard directed, and Aldous Huxley served as one of the screenwriters of the film. It is adapted specifically from the stage adaptation by Helen Jerome in addition to Jane Austen's novel...
  
   (1940)

External links

• New York Public Library collection of Mary Boland photographs.
• Boland and costars from The Women
• Mary on the cover of The Theater magazine in the 1910 play Smith costarring John Drew 
• Mary Boland portrait gallery Univ of Washington Sayre collection (enter her name)
• Mary Boland along with several other actors on Orson Welles's Radio Almanac 1944
• young beautiful Mary Boland
• 1918 passport photo
• portrait gallery(University of Washington, Sayre)