Jessie Ralph

Born: 1864-11-04

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jessie Ralph (born Jessie Ralph Chambers, November 5, 1864 – May 30, 1944) was an American stage and screen actress, best known for her matronly roles in many classic motion pictures. She was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1864. She made her acting debut in 1880, at the age of sixteen. She made it to Broadway, where George M. Cohan cast her in many of his musicals, but she also excelled at dramatic roles. Although she made her Hollywood debut in 1916, in a motion picture career that would eventually span 25 years, she only became a permanent Hollywood actress in 1933. She was nearly 70 at this time, so her roles were limited to matronly roles, but her expertise at stealing scenes captured the imagination of cinema-goers of the time. Her best-known roles are as Greta Garbo's maid in Camille, as W.C. Fields' battle-axe of a mother-in-law in The Bank Dick, as Myrna Loy's supercilious aunt Katherine in After the Thin Man, and as Nurse Peggotty in David Copperfield. She starred in 55 movies altogether, 52 between 1933 and 1941. Jessie Ralph retired from Hollywood in 1941, after her leg was amputated. She died four years later in her home town of Gloucester at the age of 79. She was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Gloucester, Massachusetts.


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Captain Blood

as Mrs. Barlow
Released: 1935-12-26

Dr. Peter Blood, unjustly convicted of treason and exiled from England, becomes a notorious pirate.

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San Francisco

as Mrs. Maisie Burley
Released: 1936-06-26

A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days...

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David Copperfield

as Clara Peggotty
Released: 1935-01-18

Charles Dickens' timeless tale of an ordinary young man who lives an extraordinary life, filled...

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After the Thin Man

as Aunt Katherine Forrest
Released: 1936-12-25

Nick and Nora Charles investigate when Nora's cousin reports her disreputable husband is...

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Camille

as Nanine
Released: 1936-12-26

Life in 1847 Paris is as spirited as champagne and as unforgiving as the gray morning after. In...

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Les Misérables

as Madame Magloire
Released: 1935-04-20

In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a...

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Drums Along the Mohawk

as Mrs. Weaver
Released: 1939-11-10

Albany, New York, 1776. After marrying, Gil and Lana travel north to settle on a small farm in...

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The Good Earth

as Cuckoo
Released: 1937-06-02

China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble...

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Mark of the Vampire

as Midwife
Released: 1935-04-26

Sir Borotyn, a prominent Prague resident, is discovered murdered in his home, with all...

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The Bank Dick

as Mrs. Hermisillo Brunch
Released: 1940-11-29

Egbert Sousé becomes an unexpected hero when a bank robber falls over a bench he's occupying....

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The Blue Bird

as Fairy Berylune
Released: 1940-01-15

An ungrateful girl and her little brother are transported in their dreams by a fairy to a...

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Little Lord Fauntleroy

as Applewoman
Released: 1936-03-06

An American boy turns out to be the heir of a wealthy British earl. He is sent to live with the...

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One Night of Love

as Angelina
Released: 1934-07-16

Mary Barrett is an aspiring opera singer who is taken under the wings of a famous operatic...

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Evelyn Prentice

as Mrs. Blake
Released: 1934-11-09

A criminal lawyer's wife is blackmailed when she is falsely accused of infidelity.

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Nana

as Zoe
Released: 1934-02-01

Young Parisian Nana wards off of a boozed-up military officer at a local restaurant, and fellow...

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Double Wedding

as Mrs. Kensington-Bly
Released: 1937-10-15

A bohemian free spirit helps meek Waldo win back his fiancée and falls in love with her...

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The Affairs of Cellini

as Beatrice
Released: 1934-08-24

The 16th-century sculptor woos the Duchess of Florence despite the duke.

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They Met in Bombay

as Duchess of Beltravers
Released: 1941-06-27

A jewel thief and a con artist are rivals in the theft of a valuable diamond and gem necklace in...

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The Garden Murder Case

as Mrs. Hammle
Released: 1936-02-21

Detective Philo Vance is in charge of the investigation of several mysterious murders. Things...

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Cocktail Hour

as Princess de Longville
Released: 1933-06-05

Cynthia Warren, independently wealthy through her ability as an illustrator and poster artist,...

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Star Dust

as Aunt Martha Parker
Released: 1940-04-06

When Hollywood film studios reject her because she's too young, an Arkansas woman sets out to...

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Love Is a Headache

as Sheriff Janet Winfield
Released: 1938-01-14

A press agent for a Broadway actress whose career is going downhill, attempts to get her some...

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The Last of Mrs. Cheyney

as The Duchess of Ebley
Released: 1937-02-19

A chic American jewel thief falls in love with one of her marks, an English lord.

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I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby

as Mama McGann
Released: 1940-05-01

In I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby, Broderick Crawford plays a sentimental gangster who...

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St. Louis Blues

as Aunt Tibbie
Released: 1939-02-03

A Broadway musical comedy star tires of the same old grind and flees the city. She runs into the...

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Metropolitan

as Charwoman
Released: 1935-10-17

Opera prima donna leaves the Metropolitan to form her own company with Tibbett as leading man....

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We Live Again

as Matrona Pavlovna
Released: 1934-11-01

Nekhludoff, a Russian nobleman serving on a jury, discovers that the young girl on trial,...

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I Live My Life

as Mrs. O.H.B. Gage, Kay's Grandmother
Released: 1935-10-04

A society girl tries to make a go of her marriage to an archaeologist.

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Cafe Society

as Mrs. De Witt
Released: 1939-03-03

A pampered heiress (Madeleine Carroll) elopes with a shipboard reporter (Fred MacMurray) just to...

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Paris in Spring

as Countess de Charelle
Released: 1935-05-27

Afraid of marriage, Simone (Mary Ellis) breaks off her long term engagement with her fiancé Paul...

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Elmer, the Great

as Sarah Crosby (uncredited)
Released: 1933-04-29

Elmer does not want to leave Gentryville, because Nellie is the one that he loves. Even when Mr....

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Four Girls in White

as Miss Tobias
Released: 1939-01-27

Young Women go through Nursing School together, each with their own motivation for being there....

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Bunker Bean

as Grandmother
Released: 1936-06-26

A shy office worker becomes a hero when a fortune teller calls him another Napoleon.

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Murder at the Vanities

as Mrs. Helene Smith
Released: 1934-05-18

Shortly before the curtain goes up the first time at the latest performance of Earl Carroll's...

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Yellow Dust

as Mrs. Brian
Released: 1936-03-12

After he's accused of a series of stagecoach robberies, an innocent man has to find the real crooks.

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The Girl from Avenue A

as Mrs. Van Dyne
Released: 1940-08-09

A tough girl raised in the streets finds that her dialect and manners are helpful as source...

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Hold That Kiss

as Aunt Lucy
Released: 1938-05-13

Two young people meet at a wedding and begin dating, each thinking the other is extremely...

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Walking on Air

as Evelyn Bennett
Released: 1936-09-11

A strong-willed young woman hires a student to impersonate a boorish French count and brings him...

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Coming Out Party

as Nora
Released: 1934-03-09

In this romance, a lovely young debutante falls in love with a jazz violinist. Her mother wants...

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I Want a Divorce

as Grandma Brokaw
Released: 1940-09-20

Comedy about newlyweds wondering if their marriage was a mistake.

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The Lady from Cheyenne

as Mrs. McGuinness
Released: 1941-04-11

Fictionalized story of the 1869 adoption of women's suffrage in Wyoming Territory. In the...

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Enchanted April

as Mrs. Phoebe Fisher
Released: 1935-02-01

Mrs. Lotty Wilkins is an unhappily wife whom's life husband and romance have departed. In order...

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Jalna

as Gran Whiteoaks
Released: 1935-08-09

A young poet, accompanied by his new bride, returns home to his large family at their Canadian farm.

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I Found Stella Parish

as Nana
Released: 1935-11-16

A blackmailer preys on an actress who is trying to protect her daughter from her past.

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The Unguarded Hour

as Lady Agatha Hathaway
Released: 1936-04-10

A blackmailer tries to stop a woman from revealing evidence that could save a condemned man.

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Vanessa: Her Love Story

as Lady Mullion
Released: 1935-03-01

The Victorian wife of a mad baron waits years for a British soldier sent to Egypt.

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The Kid From Texas

as Aunt Minetta
Released: 1939-04-14

A loud-mouthed Texas cowpuncher tries his hand at polo finding himself at odds with high society...

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Mickey the Kid

as Veronica Hudson
Released: 1939-07-03

A bank robber and his boy make a run for it during winter in a bus full of children.

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Ann Carver's Profession

as Terry
Released: 1933-06-09

Newlyweds experience marital problems when the wife's highly successful job as an attorney...

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The Romance of Celluloid

as Self
Released: 1937-08-27

Several behind the scenes aspects of the movie-making business, which results in the enjoyment...

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Port of Seven Seas

as Honorine
Released: 1938-07-01

In the French port of Marseille, a young woman named Madelon is in love with a young sailor,...

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Child of Manhattan

as Aunt Minnie
Released: 1933-02-11

Paul Vanderkill is extraordinarily wealthy because his grandfather happened to buy farmland in...

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The Madonna of the Slums

as uncredited
Released: 1919-11-05

A rich artist has never completed a master painting because he could not find a model for the...

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