Jessie Ralph

Infobox actor
name = Jessie Ralph


imagesize = 150px
caption = from the trailer for the film
"After the Thin Man" (1936).
birthdate = birth date|1864|11|5|mf=y
birthplace = Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States
deathdate = death date and age|1944|5|30|1864|11|5|mf=y
deathplace = Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States
birthname = Jessie Ralph Chambers

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, of Yankee Doodle Dandy fame, cast her in many of his musicals, but she also excelled at dramatic roles.

Although she made her Hollywood debut in 1916, she only became a permanent Hollywood actress in 1933. She was nearly 70 at this time, so her roles were restricted to those of dumpy old ladies, 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", and as W.C. Fields' terrifying old battleaxe of a mother-in-law in "The Bank Dick", the two roles demonstrating her ability to play both tragic and comic parts. she starred in 55 movies altogether, 52 of them made between 1933 and 1940. She retired in 1940, after her leg was amputated, and she died 4 years later at the age of 79.

Her husband, Bill Patton (1894-1951), was a bit- part actor in Westerns.

Partial filmography

* "New York" (1916)
* "Child of Manhattan" (1933)
* "Murder at the Vanities" (1934)
* "The Affairs of Cellini" (1934)
* "One Night of Love" (1934)
* "We Live Again" (1934)
* "Evelyn Prentice" (1934)
* "Les Miserables" (1935)
* "Metropolitan" (1935)
* "I Found Stella Parish" (1935)
* "Captain Blood" (1935)
* "Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger" (1935)
* "Little Lord Fauntleroy" (1936)
* "The Unguarded Hour" (1936)
* "San Francisco" (1936)
* "Camille" (1936)
* "After the Thin Man" (1936)
* "The Good Earth" (1937)
* "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney" (1937)
* "Double Wedding" (1937)
* "Port of Seven Seas" (1938)
* "St. Louis Blues" (1939)
* "Drums Along the Mohawk" (1939)
* "The Blue Bird" (1940)
* "I Want a Divorce" (1940)
* "The Bank Dick" (1940)
* "They Met in Bombay" (1941)

External links

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Persondata
NAME= Ralph, Jessie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Chambers, Jessie Ralph
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Actor
DATE OF BIRTH= 1864-11-5
PLACE OF BIRTH= Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States
DATE OF DEATH= 1944-5-30
PLACE OF DEATH= Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States