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.
Mildred Natwick
1907 – 1994 |
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A familiar face? You betcha! Especially if you were seeing Broadway
plays or watching movies and television for the last sixty years. This
versatile actress has portrayed a host of enchanting eccentrics, spunky
spinsters and disarming seniors on the stage and on the screen ( big
and small) since her Broadway debut in 1938.
Mildred Natwick was born in Baltimore, Maryland on June 19 th, 1905.
She was educated at Bryn Mawr and , after college, began performing,
first with the Vagabonds, a non-professional group in Baltimore and
then with the University Players on Cape Cod. There she worked with
such successful (or soon to be) actors as James Stewart, Henry Fonda,
Margaret Sullavan and Joshua Logan.
A young Mildred |
In 1932, under the direction of Joshua Logan,
she made her Broadway debut in the melodrama “Carrie Nation”. Mildred appeared
in over 40 Broadway productions and often said she preferred plays
to films because “on stage you’re in control for two
hours while, in a film, you do bits and pieces usually out of sequence”.
A small woman with sharp features, a mischievous manner and a
Baltimore accent, Mildred often played characters much older than
herself, adapting well to a wide range of stage and film roles.
She was Freda, a prostitute in her film debut “The Long Voyage
Home” (1940), a dying mother in “3 Godfathers” (1948)
and Mrs. Allshard, a hard-bitten army wife in “She Wore a
Yellow Ribbon” (1949) both with John Wayne. She was eccentric
Aunt Renie in “Tammy and the Bachelor” and ten years
later , won an Oscar nomination for her portrayal
of Jane Fonda’s ditzy mother in “Barefoot in the Park”.
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She considered her four films with John Ford* to
be among her best and praised Ford as an inspirational and masterful
director who needed only a few words to get the best from his actors.
On the other hand, she viewed Alfred Hitchcock** as the kind of
director who held tight rein on both actors and interpretation.
In 1946 Mildred debuted on the small screen in a television short “:Sorry,
Wrong Number” and continued in the medium until 1986. She won an
Emmy for her role as Gwendolyn Snoop in the television series “The
Snoop Sisters” with Helen Hayes. It was the story of two sisters
who wrote mystery stories but were obsessed with solving real crimes. |
....with the "3 Godfathers"! |
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An oil portrait of the actress |
Mildred lived elegantly in her adopted city of New York, her
last residence a penthouse overlooking Central Park. She regarded “Dangerous
Liaisons”, her last picture in 1988, as a “rather
scandalous film”. She died of cancer at the age of 89 on
October 25 th, 1994 and was buried in Maryland.
* Her four films with John Ford were “The Long Voyage
Home” (1940), “ 3 Godfathers” (1948), “She
Wore a Yellow Ribbon” (1949) and “The Quiet Man” (1952)
** Her film with Alfred Hitchcock was a comedy “The Trouble
with Harry” (1955) |
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