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
- Mourning Becomes Electra as Louisa Ames
- The Sea of Grass as Mrs. Ryan - Nurse (uncredited)
1946
- Big Town as Miss Lovelace (uncredited)
- Two Sisters from Boston as Mrs. Mulberry - Recital Guest (uncredited)
- The Missing Lady as Miss Millie
1945
1944
- The Thin Man Goes Home as Miss Peavy
- The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek as Hospital Nurse (uncredited)
- Hail the Conquering Hero as Train Ticket Clerk (uncredited)
1943
- The Unknown Guest as Martha Williams
1942
- I Married a Witch as Harriet Wooley (uncredited)
- The Wife Takes a Flyer as Miss Updike
- Obliging Young Lady as Miss Hollyrod - Bird Lover (uncredited)
- Apache Trail as Passenger (uncredited)
1941
- A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob as Charwoman
- Three Girls About Town as Casket Customer
1940
- Young People as Righteous Old Lady
- Little Men as Head of Orphanage
- Lucky Partners as Women's Club President (uncredited)
- The Bank Dick as Lompoc Ladies Auxiliary (uncredited)
- Those Were the Days! as Mrs. Moffett
1939
- The Story of Alexander Graham Bell as Miss Jenkins
- Stagecoach as Boone's Landlady (uncredited)
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as Mrs. Shackleford (uncredited)
- Union Pacific as Snoring Woman on Train (uncredited)
- What a Life as Miss Eggleston
- Some Like It Hot as Mrs. Beckett (uncredited)
1938
- Mr. Boggs Steps Out as Widow Peddie
- International Settlement as English Woman
1937
- Borrowing Trouble as Dressmaker
- Nothing Sacred as Schoolteacher (uncredited)
- Easy Living as Miss Swerf
- Night Must Fall
- Night of Mystery
- Three Smart Boys as Miss Witherspoon, Superintendent
- Blossoms On Broadway as Leader of Committee (uncredited)
- The Mighty Treve as Old Maid at Dog Show
- Champagne Waltz as Train Passenger
- Partners in Crime as Housekeeper
- She Asked for It as Elderly lady (uncredited)
1936
- Collegiate as Miss Curtiss
- College Holiday as Miss Elkins (uncredited)
- Laughing at Trouble as Mrs. Wigby - Townswoman
- Little Miss Nobody as Mrs. Robinson
- Fury as Albert's Mother (uncredited)
- Two in the Dark as Mrs. Potter, Landlady (uncredited)
- The Big Broadcast of 1937 as Home Economics Woman
- Girl of the Ozarks as Miss Trent
- Under Your Spell as School Teacher (uncredited)
- Dancing Pirate as Landlady (uncredited)
- Let's Make a Million
1935
- Car 99 as Granny Adams
- Slightly Static as Beauty Products Announcer (uncredited)
- Way Down East as Townswoman at Party
- Gold Diggers of 1935 as Housekeeper (uncredited)
- Vagabond Lady as Miss Perkins (uncredited)
- Biography of a Bachelor Girl as Ship's Matron (uncredited)
- Memories and Melodies as Customer (uncredited)
1934
- Chained as Edith (uncredited)
- Mixed Nuts as Mrs. Twitchett
- Bachelor Bait as Mrs. Trutmanner (uncredited)
- The Merry Widow as Animal Woman (uncredited)
- Upperworld as Stream's Housekeeper (uncredited)
- The Old-Fashioned Way as Mrs. Wendelschaffer
- One-Horse Farmers as Subway Passenger (uncredited)
- Once to Every Woman as Miss Baxter’s Sister (uncredited)
- You're Telling Me! as Mrs. Price
- Opened by Mistake as Head Nurse
- Search for Beauty as Miss Pettigrew
- The Spectacle Maker as Duchess
- Laughing Boy as Schoolteacher
1933
- Fast Workers as Tall Window-Shopper (Uncredited)
- Doctor Bull as Aunt Emily Banning
- Going Hollywood as Briarcroft's Teacher
- Design for Living as Tom's Secretary (uncredited)
- Hold Your Man as Miss Campbell (uncredited)
- King of the Jungle as Spinster in park (uncredited)
- Meet the Baron as Professor Winterbottom (uncredited)
- Asleep in the Feet as Female Police Officer
- Stage Mother as Miss Gilford, Kitty's Music Store Boss (uncredited)
- Nature in the Wrong as Muriel's mother
- Peg o' My Heart as Smythe (maid)
- Wreckety Wrecks as Miss Winterbottom
1932
- Young Bride as Landlady (uncredited)
- Girl Grief as Miss Tuttle, Principal
- Mr. Bride as Mrs. Cecil
- Hot Saturday as Gossip on Telephone (Uncredited)
- The Bitter Tea of General Yen as Missionary
- Pack Up Your Troubles as Welfare Association Officer (uncredited)
- The Millionaire Cat as Aunt Mathilda
- Amateur Daddy as Saleslady
1931
- Arrowsmith as Nurse (uncredited)
- Street Scene as Alice Simpson - Welfare Worker
- Everything’s Rosie as Hotel Proprietress
- The Ruling Voice as Malcom's Nurse (uncredited)
- East Lynne as Charity Bazaar Committee
- Millie as Helen and Angie's Landlady (uncredited)
1930
- Hell's Angels as Helen's Maid (uncredited)
- Seven Days Leave as Amelia Twymley
- The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
- Only Saps Work as Mrs. Partridge (uncredited)
- Little Accident as Dr. Zernecke
1929
- Footlights and Fools as (uncredited)
- Seven Footprints to Satan as Old Witch
1928
- The Cavalier as Lucia's Aunt
- The Baby Cyclone as Mrs. Crandall
- A Trick of Hearts as The Mayor
- Driftwood as Mrs. Prouty
1927
- Sensation Seekers as Mrs. Lodge
- Too Many Crooks as (uncredited)
- The Demi-Bride as School Teacher
- The Devil Dancer as Julia
- The Fortune Hunter as Betty Carpenter
- Girls as Matron Helen Hunt
- The Silent Rider as Mrs. Randall
- Born to Battle as Ma Cowan
1926
- Chip of the Flying U as Dr. Cecil Grantham
- Midnight Faces as Mrs. Hart
1925
- His Majesty, Bunker Bean as Countess Casanova
1924
- The Deadwood Coach as Matilda Shields - in play
1922
- Manslaughter as Lydia's Chaperone (uncredited)
- The Town That Forgot God as (uncredited)
- Timothy's Quest as Townswoman
1921
1919
- An Amateur Widow
- Woman, Woman! as Mrs. Lindsay
1918
- Appearance of Evil as Miss Spurgeon
- Prunella
- 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)
- A Royal Romance as Miss McPherson
- The Wild Girl as Undetermined Role (uncredited)
1916
- The Social Secretary as Spinster (uncredited)
- A Model Husband as Mrs Gossip
1915
- The Arrival of Perpetua as Abigail Majendrie