The character actor provided the understructure of a film. Take any movie, good or mediocre, from 1930 to 1970 and you will find one or more memorable “characters”. A leading role in films usually required a “name”, a celebrated star who had mass appeal and who could bring audiences into the theater. The character or featured roles depended on someone who specialized in a particular “type” of personality and who could wrap a persona around the role to give it dimension, depth and mood soon identified with that actor alone. It was these players who kept the audiences in their seats.

Thelma Ritter

1905 – 1969

 

The script only gave her one line but she delivered that line with such impact that the studio head had her role padded and signed her to an exclusive 5-year contract. She received 6 Oscar nods for Best Supporting Actress in 12 years…but never won. She did win a Tony in 1957 for her role in the Broadway musical “A New Girl In Town” and an Achievement Award from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA). But more than all of those, Thelma Ritter was considered to be one of the most beloved character actors of her time.

She was born in Brooklyn, New York on February 14th, 1905 and got the acting bug very early…in grammar school at the tender age of 8! By the time she was in high school, Thelma was playing bit parts in stock productions and, during the summer, took odd jobs to raise money for one year’s study at AADA. Determined to pursue an acting career, she did repertory at the Poli Theatre in Elizabeth, New Jersey and up and down the New England coast.


With Debbie Reynolds and Gregory Peck in
“How The West Was Won”

In 1927 when Thelma was 22 years old, she met and married Joseph Moran. I haven’t found much written about this marriage or about the 2 children she bore him which may have been just the way Thelma wanted it. But the marriage lasted until the day she died.

After 1929, when the Depression made theater work scarce, she made the rounds of radio stations and soon became a regular on programs like “Mr. District Attorney”, “Big Town” and “The Aldrich Family”. Films came along in the late 40’s when family friend George Seaton cast her in a picture he was directing as a harried Macy shopper in “The Miracle on 34th Street”. Her performance caught the eye of Darryl Zanuck and won her a contract at 20th Century Fox.


With Grace Kelly and James Stewart in “Rear Window”.

Wisecracking and sharp tongued, irascible and cynical were all words used to describe the characters Thelma brought to life on the screen and six of them brought her Oscar nominations:

  • Birdie Coonan in “All About Eve”….Margo’s outspoken maid who saw through Eve at a glance.
  • Ellen McNulty in “The Mating Season”…. The heart-of-gold, no-nonsense mother-in-law hiding out as the maid.
  • Clancy in “A Song in My Heart” ….the army nurse who became Jane Froman’s confidante-caretaker.
  • Moe in “Pick Up on South Street” ….the entrepreneur of the streets with a heart of gold.
  • Alma in “Pillow Talk” …. the cleaning lady with a permanent hangover and salty disposition.
  • Mother Stroud in “The Birdman of Alcatraz”….mother to the prison’s most celebrated prisoner Robert Stroud.

Thelma Ritter died in New York City on February 4th, 1969 of a heart attack. She was 63 years old. Her body was cremated and the ashes given to family or friends.

Some of my favorite “Thelma-isms”:

From “The Mating Season”….”Listen, if you are a chicken, you can fool people about your feathers. But when you start laying eggs all over the place, they know you are a chicken”

From ‘Pick Up on South Street” ….”I knew you since you was a little kid. You was always a regular kind of crook. I never figured you for a louse.”

From “Rear Window”….”We’ve become a race of Peeping Toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change. Yes sir. How’s that for a bit of homespun philosophy?”