Mildred Natwick
From Alfred Hitchcock Wiki
- born: 19/Jun/1905 (Baltimore, Maryland, USA)
- died: 25/Oct/1994 (New York, USA) - cancer
Biography
Mildred Natwick was an American stage and film actress.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, after graduating from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in theater arts, Mildred Natwick toured with a number of stage productions before her first Broadway production, "Carrie Nation".
Throughout the 1930s she starred in a number of plays, frequently collaborating with friend and actor-director-playwright Joshua Logan. Natwick made her film debut in John Ford's "The Long Voyage Home" as a cockney prostitute, but didn't pursue a Hollywood career in earnest until the mid-1940s. Even after establishing her film career, Natwick could still frequently be seen in stage productions. She was twice nominated for Tony Awards: in 1957 for "The Waltz of the Toreadors", and, in 1972 for the musical, "70 Girls 70".
Natwick made her name in small, but memorable roles in several of John Ford classics including "Three Godfathers" (1948), "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1948), and "The Quiet Man" (1952), as the sheltered widow Mrs. Tillane. The character actress was often given one-scene parts or shallow roles which she transcended with her personality and talent, such as her role as a birth control advocate in the comedy "Cheaper by the Dozen" (1950), the "well-preserved woman" in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Trouble with Harry", and a sorceress in "The Court Jester".
After leaving film in favor of stage and television in the mid-1950s, she returned with "Barefoot in the Park" as Jane Fonda's mother. The role earned Natwick her first and only Academy Award nomination. For much of the following decade, Natwick appeared exclusively in television, winning an Emmy Award for her role in the limited series "The Snoop Sisters", a mystery which pared her with fellow film veteran Helen Hayes. Her final role came with 1988's "Dangerous Liaisons".
Natwick died of cancer on October 25, 1994 in New York City, aged 89.
Filmography
With Hitchcock...
- The Trouble with Harry (1955) -cast: Miss Ivy Gravely
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents
- "The Perfect Murder" (11/Mar/1956) - cast: Aunt Rosalie
- "Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty" (02/Feb/1958) - cast: Millicent Bracegirdle
Other works of note...
- The Enchanted Cottage (1945) - cast: Mrs. Abigail Minnett
- She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) - cast: Abby Allshard ("Old Iron Pants")
- The Quiet Man (1952) - cast: The Widow Sarah Tillane
- The Court Jester (1956) - cast: Griselda
- Dangerous Liaisons (1988) - cast: Madame de Rosemonde