Nora Cecil
Born: 1878-09-24 in London, England, UK
Died: 1951-05-01
Known For: Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Nora Cecil (September 20, 1878 – May 1, 1951) was a British-American character actress whose 30-year career spanned both the silent and sound film eras. Cecil's career began on the stage, where she appeared in a single Broadway production, The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast, which ran for more than 240 performances at the Broadway Theatre in 1901-02. (A 1930 newspaper article says that Cecil "made her debut, three decades ago, on the London stage.") Cecil appeared in well over 100 feature films and film shorts. In 1915, she moved from the stage into films, her first appearance being in a starring role in The Arrival of Perpetua, directed by Émile Chautard. She often played "thin-lipped, stern-visaged dowagers and forbidding mothers-in-law" and "welfare workers, landladies, schoolmistresses and maiden aunts". One of the most significant roles was in the W.C. Fields vehicle, The Old Fashioned Way in 1934. Some of the other notable films in which Cecil appeared include: Ernst Lubitsch's historical romance, The Merry Widow, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald; the 1939 version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, starring Mickey Rooney; the John Ford classic, Stagecoach, with John Wayne. Her final acting performance was in a featured role in Mourning Becomes Electra in 1947, starring Rosalind Russell.
Filmography
1964
- The Big Parade of Comedy as Actress in 'Hollywood Party' (archive footage) (uncredited)
1947
- The Sea of Grass as Mrs. Ryan - Nurse (uncredited)
- Mourning Becomes Electra as Louisa Ames
1946
- The Missing Lady as Miss Millie
- Two Sisters from Boston as Mrs. Mulberry - Recital Guest (uncredited)
- Big Town as Miss Lovelace (uncredited)
1945
1944
- The Thin Man Goes Home as Miss Peavy
- Hail the Conquering Hero as Train Ticket Clerk (uncredited)
- The Miracle of Morgan's Creek as Hospital Nurse (uncredited)
1943
- The Unknown Guest as Martha Williams
1942
- I Married a Witch as Harriet Wooley (uncredited)
- Obliging Young Lady as Miss Hollyrod - Bird Lover (uncredited)
- Apache Trail as Passenger (uncredited)
- The Wife Takes a Flyer as Miss Updike
1941
- Three Girls About Town as Casket Customer
- A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob as Charwoman
1940
- Young People as Righteous Old Lady (uncredited)
- The Bank Dick as Lompoc Ladies Auxiliary (uncredited)
- Lucky Partners as Women's Club President (uncredited)
- Little Men as Head of Orphanage
- Those Were the Days! as Mrs. Moffett
1939
- Stagecoach as Boone's Landlady (uncredited)
- Union Pacific as Snoring Woman on Train (uncredited)
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as Mrs. Shackleford (uncredited)
- The Story of Alexander Graham Bell as Miss Jenkins
- Some Like It Hot as Mrs. Beckett (uncredited)
- What a Life as Miss Eggleston
1938
- International Settlement as English Woman
- Mr. Boggs Steps Out as Widow Peddie
1937
- Nothing Sacred as Schoolteacher (uncredited)
- Easy Living as Miss Swerf
- Night of Mystery
- Champagne Waltz as Train Passenger
- Night Must Fall
- Borrowing Trouble as Dressmaker
- The Mighty Treve as Old Maid at Dog Show
- Partners in Crime as Housekeeper
- Three Smart Boys as Miss Witherspoon, Superintendent
- Blossoms On Broadway as Leader of Committee (uncredited)
- She Asked for It as Elderly lady (uncredited)
1936
- Fury as Albert's Mother (uncredited)
- Little Miss Nobody as Mrs. Robinson
- Laughing at Trouble as Mrs. Wigby - Townswoman
- Girl of the Ozarks as Miss Trent
- Dancing Pirate as Landlady (uncredited)
- Two in the Dark as Mrs. Potter, Landlady (uncredited)
- Let's Make a Million
- The Big Broadcast of 1937 as Home Economics Woman
- Under Your Spell as School Teacher (uncredited)
- College Holiday as Miss Elkins (uncredited)
1935
- Collegiate as Miss Curtiss
- Way Down East as Townswoman at Party
- Vagabond Lady as Miss Perkins (uncredited)
- Slightly Static as Beauty Products Announcer (uncredited)
- Gold Diggers of 1935 as Housekeeper (uncredited)
- Car 99 as Granny Adams
- Biography of a Bachelor Girl as Ship's Matron (uncredited)
- Memories and Melodies as Customer (uncredited)
1934
- The Merry Widow as Animal Woman (uncredited)
- Bachelor Bait as Mrs. Trutmanner (uncredited)
- Chained as Edith (uncredited)
- Mixed Nuts as Mrs. Twitchett
- You're Telling Me! as Mrs. Price
- Upperworld as Stream's Housekeeper (uncredited)
- Once to Every Woman as Miss Baxter’s Sister (uncredited)
- Opened by Mistake as Head Nurse
- The Old-Fashioned Way as Mrs. Wendelschaffer
- Search for Beauty as Miss Pettigrew
- Laughing Boy as Schoolteacher
- The Spectacle Maker as Duchess
- One-Horse Farmers as Subway Passenger (uncredited)
1933
- Design for Living as Tom's Secretary (uncredited)
- Wreckety Wrecks as Miss Winterbottom
- Doctor Bull as Aunt Emily Banning
- Stage Mother as Miss Gilford, Kitty's Music Store Boss (uncredited)
- Meet the Baron as Professor Winterbottom (uncredited)
- King of the Jungle as Spinster in park (uncredited)
- Going Hollywood as Briarcroft's Teacher
- Hold Your Man as Miss Campbell (uncredited)
- Fast Workers as Tall Window-Shopper (Uncredited)
- Peg o' My Heart as Smythe (maid)
- Asleep in the Feet as Female Police Officer
- Nature in the Wrong as Muriel's mother
1932
- Girl Grief as Miss Tuttle, Principal
- Pack Up Your Troubles as Welfare Association Officer (uncredited)
- The Bitter Tea of General Yen as Missionary
- Amateur Daddy as Saleslady
- Hot Saturday as Gossip on Telephone (Uncredited)
- Young Bride as Landlady (uncredited)
- Mr. Bride as Mrs. Cecil
- The Millionaire Cat as Aunt Mathilda
1931
- Arrowsmith as Nurse (uncredited)
- Street Scene as Alice Simpson - Welfare Worker
- Millie as Helen and Angie's Landlady (uncredited)
- The Ruling Voice as Malcom's Nurse (uncredited)
- Everything’s Rosie as Hotel Proprietress
- East Lynne as Charity Bazaar Committee
1930
- Hell's Angels as Helen's Maid (uncredited)
- Only Saps Work as Mrs. Partridge (uncredited)
- The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
- Seven Days Leave as Amelia Twymley
- Little Accident as Dr. Zernecke
1929
- Footlights and Fools as (uncredited)
- Seven Footprints to Satan as Old Witch
1928
- The Baby Cyclone as Mrs. Crandall
- The Cavalier as Lucia's Aunt
- A Trick of Hearts as The Mayor
- Driftwood as Mrs. Prouty
1927
- The Demi-Bride as School Teacher
- The Fortune Hunter as Betty Carpenter
- The Devil Dancer as Julia
- Girls as Matron Helen Hunt
- Sensation Seekers as Mrs. Lodge
- Too Many Crooks as (uncredited)
- Born to Battle as Ma Cowan
- The Silent Rider as Mrs. Randall
1926
- Midnight Faces as Mrs. Hart
- Chip of the Flying U as Dr. Cecil Grantham
1925
- Three Weeks in Paris
- His Majesty, Bunker Bean as Countess Casanova
1924
- Darwin Was Right as Aunt Priscilla
- The Deadwood Coach as Matilda Shields - in play
1922
- The Town That Forgot God as (uncredited)
- Manslaughter as Lydia's Chaperone (uncredited)
- Timothy's Quest as Townswoman
1921
1919
- Woman, Woman! as Mrs. Lindsay
- Miss Crusoe as Miss Meeker (uncredited)
- An Amateur Widow
1918
- Prunella
- The Zero Hour as Mrs. Winslow (uncredited)
- Appearance of Evil as Miss Spurgeon
- Love Net as Miss Prudence Tilly
- By Hook or Crook as Aunt Marie
- American Buds as Emily
1917
- Tillie Wakes Up as Gossip in Ice Cream Parlor / Woman Having Picture Taken
- The Poor Little Rich Girl as One of Gwendolyn's Teachers (uncredited)
- The Wild Girl as Undetermined Role (uncredited)
- A Royal Romance as Miss McPherson
1916
- A Model Husband as Mrs Gossip
- The Social Secretary as Spinster (uncredited)
1915
- The Arrival of Perpetua as Abigail Majendrie