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
- Two Sisters from Boston as Mrs. Mulberry - Recital Guest (uncredited)
- The Missing Lady as Miss Millie
- Big Town as Miss Lovelace (uncredited)
1945
1944
- The Miracle of Morgan's Creek as Hospital Nurse (uncredited)
- The Thin Man Goes Home as Miss Peavy
- 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)
- Obliging Young Lady as Miss Hollyrod - Bird Lover (uncredited)
- The Wife Takes a Flyer as Miss Updike
- Apache Trail as Passenger (uncredited)
1941
- Three Girls About Town as Casket Customer
- A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob as Charwoman
1940
- The Bank Dick as Lompoc Ladies Auxiliary (uncredited)
- Those Were the Days! as Mrs. Moffett
- Young People as Righteous Old Lady (uncredited)
- Little Men as Head of Orphanage
- Lucky Partners as Women's Club President (uncredited)
1939
- Stagecoach as Boone's Landlady (uncredited)
- Union Pacific as Snoring Woman on Train (uncredited)
- The Story of Alexander Graham Bell as Miss Jenkins
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as Mrs. Shackleford (uncredited)
- 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
- Champagne Waltz as Train Passenger
- Night Must Fall
- Partners in Crime as Housekeeper
- She Asked for It as Elderly lady (uncredited)
- Night of Mystery
- The Mighty Treve as Old Maid at Dog Show
- Blossoms On Broadway as Leader of Committee (uncredited)
- Three Smart Boys as Miss Witherspoon, Superintendent
- Borrowing Trouble as Dressmaker
1936
- Fury as Albert's Mother (uncredited)
- Under Your Spell as School Teacher (uncredited)
- Girl of the Ozarks as Miss Trent
- Two in the Dark as Mrs. Potter, Landlady (uncredited)
- The Big Broadcast of 1937 as Home Economics Woman
- Laughing at Trouble as Mrs. Wigby - Townswoman
- Dancing Pirate as Landlady (uncredited)
- Little Miss Nobody as Mrs. Robinson
- Let's Make a Million
- College Holiday as Miss Elkins (uncredited)
1935
- Gold Diggers of 1935 as Housekeeper (uncredited)
- Biography of a Bachelor Girl as Ship's Matron (uncredited)
- Way Down East as Townswoman at Party
- Car 99 as Granny Adams
- Collegiate as Miss Curtiss
- Vagabond Lady as Miss Perkins (uncredited)
- Slightly Static as Beauty Products Announcer (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)
- You're Telling Me! as Mrs. Price
- Once to Every Woman as Miss Baxter’s Sister (uncredited)
- Mixed Nuts as Mrs. Twitchett
- The Old-Fashioned Way as Mrs. Wendelschaffer
- Opened by Mistake as Head Nurse
- Laughing Boy as Schoolteacher
- Upperworld as Stream's Housekeeper (uncredited)
- The Spectacle Maker as Duchess
- Search for Beauty as Miss Pettigrew
- One-Horse Farmers as Subway Passenger (uncredited)
1933
- Design for Living as Tom's Secretary (uncredited)
- King of the Jungle as Spinster in park (uncredited)
- Fast Workers as Tall Window-Shopper (Uncredited)
- Peg o' My Heart as Smythe (maid)
- Hold Your Man as Miss Campbell (uncredited)
- Wreckety Wrecks as Miss Winterbottom
- Going Hollywood as Briarcroft's Teacher
- Nature in the Wrong as Muriel's mother
- Stage Mother as Miss Gilford, Kitty's Music Store Boss (uncredited)
- Asleep in the Feet as Female Police Officer
- Meet the Baron as Professor Winterbottom (uncredited)
- Doctor Bull as Aunt Emily Banning
1932
- Pack Up Your Troubles as Welfare Association Officer (uncredited)
- Amateur Daddy as Saleslady
- Mr. Bride as Mrs. Cecil
- Girl Grief as Miss Tuttle, Principal
- Young Bride as Landlady (uncredited)
- Hot Saturday as Gossip on Telephone (Uncredited)
- 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)
- East Lynne as Charity Bazaar Committee
- Everything’s Rosie as Hotel Proprietress
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
- Seven Footprints to Satan as Old Witch
- Footlights and Fools as (uncredited)
1928
- A Trick of Hearts as The Mayor
- The Baby Cyclone as Mrs. Crandall
- The Cavalier as Lucia's Aunt
- Driftwood as Mrs. Prouty
1927
- The Devil Dancer as Julia
- Too Many Crooks as (uncredited)
- The Demi-Bride as School Teacher
- Girls as Matron Helen Hunt
- Sensation Seekers as Mrs. Lodge
- The Silent Rider as Mrs. Randall
- Born to Battle as Ma Cowan
- The Fortune Hunter as Betty Carpenter
1926
- Chip of the Flying U as Dr. Cecil Grantham
- Midnight Faces as Mrs. Hart
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
- Miss Crusoe as Miss Meeker (uncredited)
- Woman, Woman! as Mrs. Lindsay
- An Amateur Widow
1918
- By Hook or Crook as Aunt Marie
- Prunella
- The Zero Hour as Mrs. Winslow (uncredited)
- Appearance of Evil as Miss Spurgeon
- Love Net as Miss Prudence Tilly
- American Buds as Emily
1917
- The Poor Little Rich Girl as One of Gwendolyn's Teachers (uncredited)
- Tillie Wakes Up as Gossip in Ice Cream Parlor / Woman Having Picture Taken
- The Wild Girl as Undetermined Role (uncredited)
- A Royal Romance as Miss McPherson
1916
- The Social Secretary as Spinster (uncredited)
- A Model Husband as Mrs Gossip
1915
- The Arrival of Perpetua as Abigail Majendrie