Marjorie Main
Born
February 22, 1890
Died
April 10, 1975 (85 years old)
Known For
Acting
Place of Birth
Acton, Indiana, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marjorie Main (born Mary Tomlinson, February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975) was an American actress, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player and for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.
Main worked in vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit and in Chautauqua presentations, and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her first film was A House Divided in 1931.
Main began playing upper class dowagers, but ultimately was typecast in abrasive, domineering, salty roles, for which her distinctive voice was well suited. She repeated her stage role in Dead End in the 1937 film version, 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, to film in 1939. At this time, she guest-starred on radio programs such as Columbia Presents Corwin and The Goldbergs.
Main was signed to a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract in 1940 and stayed with the studio until the mid-1950s. She made six films with Wallace Beery in the 1940s, including Barnacle Bill (1941), Jackass Mail (1942), and Bad Bascomb (1946). She played Sonora Cassidy, the chief cook, in The Harvey Girls (1946). The director George Sidney remarked in the commentary for 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 in 1947 opposite Percy Kilbride 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 films.
By the early 1950s, she had appeared in several MGM musicals, including, Meet Me in St. Louis and The Belle of New York. She played Mrs. Wrenley in the studio's all-star film It's a Big Country (1951). In 1954, Marjorie Main played her last roles for the studio: Mrs. Hittaway in The Long, Long Trailer and Jane Dunstock in Rose Marie. In 1956, Main's performance as the widow Hudspeth in the hit film Friendly Persuasion was well-received, earning her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1958, Main appeared twice as rugged frontierswoman Cassie Tanner in the episodes "The Cassie Tanner Story" and "The Sacramento Story" on NBC's television series Wagon Train. In the first segment, she joins the wagon train, casts her romantic interest on Ward Bond as Major Adams, and helps the train locate needed horses despite a Paiute threat.

Summer Stock: Get Happy!
Esme (archive footage) (uncredited)
2006

The World of Abbott and Costello
Widow Hawkins in The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap
1965

Wagon Train
Cassie Tanner · (1 episode)
1957

The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm
Ma Kettle
1957

Friendly Persuasion
The Widow Hudspeth
1956

The Kettles in the Ozarks
Ma Kettle
1956

Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
Ma' Kettle
1955

Ricochet Romance
Pansy Jones
1954

December Bride
(1 episode)
1954

Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
Ma Kettle
1954

Rose Marie
Lady Jane Dunstock
1954

The Long, Long Trailer
Mrs. Hittaway
1954

Fast Company
Ma Parkson
1953

Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
Ma Kettle
1952

Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
Ma Kettle
1952

The Belle of New York
Mrs Phineas Hill
1952

It's a Big Country
Mrs. Wrenley
1951

The Law and the Lady
Julia Wortin
1951

Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm
Ma Kettle
1951

Mr. Imperium
Mrs. Cabot
1951

Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
Harriet O'Malley
1950

Summer Stock
Esme
1950

Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
Ma Kettle
1950

Big Jack
Flapjack Kate
1949

Ma and Pa Kettle
Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
1949

Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'
Maribel Mathews
1948

The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
Widow Hawkins
1947

The Egg and I
Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
1947

The Show-Off
Mrs. Fisher
1946

Undercurrent
Lucy
1946

Bad Bascomb
Abbey Hanks
1946

The Harvey Girls
Sonora Cassidy
1946

Murder, He Says
Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
1945

Gentle Annie
Annie Goss
1944

Meet Me in St. Louis
Katie
1944

Rationing
Iris Tuttle
1944

Johnny Come Lately
'Gashouse' Mary
1943

Heaven Can Wait
Mrs. Strabel
1943

Tennessee Johnson
Mrs. Maude Fisher
1942

Tish
Miss Letitia 'Tish' Carberry
1942

Jackass Mail
Clementine 'Tina' Tucker
1942

The Affairs of Martha
Mrs. McKissick
1942

We Were Dancing
Judge Hawkes
1942

The Bugle Sounds
Susie 'Suz'
1942

Honky Tonk
Mrs. Varner
1941

The Shepherd of the Hills
Granny Becky
1941

A Woman's Face
Emma Kristiansdotter
1941

Barnacle Bill
Marge Cavendish
1941

The Trial of Mary Dugan
Mrs. Collins
1941

The Wild Man of Borneo
Irma, the Cook
1941

Wyoming
Mehitabel
1940

The Captain Is a Lady
Sarah May Willett
1940

Susan and God
Mary
1940

Turnabout
Nora, the Cook
1940

Dark Command
Mrs. Cantrell / Mrs. Adams
1940

Women Without Names
Mrs. Lowery
1940

I Take This Woman
Gertie
1940

Two Thoroughbreds
Hildegarde 'Hildy' Carey
1939

Another Thin Man
Mrs. Dolley (uncredited)
1939

The Women
Lucy
1939

Angels Wash Their Faces
Mrs. Arkelian
1939

They Shall Have Music
Mrs. Miller
1939

Lucky Night
Mrs. Briggs
1939

There Goes My Heart
Fireless Cooker Customer (uncredited)
1938

Girls' School
Miss Armstrong
1938

Too Hot to Handle
Miss Wayne
1938

Under the Big Top
Sara Post
1938

Little Tough Guy
Mrs. Boylan
1938

Prison Farm
Matron Brand
1938

Romance of the Limberlost
Nora
1938

Three Comrades
Old woman by phone (uncredited)
1938

Test Pilot
Landlady
1938

King of the Newsboys
Mrs. Stephens (uncredited)
1938

Penitentiary
Miss Katie Mathews
1938

Boy of the Streets
Mrs. Mary Brennan
1938

The Shadow
Hannah Gillespie
1937

The Wrong Road
Martha Foster
1937

The Man Who Cried Wolf
Amelia Bradley
1937

Dead End
Mrs. Martin
1937

Stella Dallas
Mrs. Martin
1937
Love in a Bungalow
Miss Emma Bisbee
1937

Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)
Self
1936

Music in the Air
Anna (Uncredited)
1934

Crime Without Passion
Backstage Wardrobe Woman (uncredited)
1934

Art Trouble
Woman Who Sits on Painting
1934

Close Relations
Woman in Depot (uncredited)
1933

New Deal Rhythm
Arizona Representative
1933

Hot Saturday
Gossip in Window (uncredited)
1932

Broken Lullaby
Frau Schmidt - Townswoman (uncredited)
1932

A House Divided
Townswoman at Wedding (uncredited)
1931

Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties
Statler Hotel Beauty
1929