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)
- Big Town as Miss Lovelace (uncredited)
- The Missing Lady as Miss Millie
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)
- Apache Trail as Passenger (uncredited)
- The Wife Takes a Flyer as Miss Updike
- Obliging Young Lady as Miss Hollyrod - Bird Lover (uncredited)
1941
- Three Girls About Town as Casket Customer
- A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob as Charwoman
1940
- Young People as Righteous Old Lady
- The Bank Dick as Lompoc Ladies Auxiliary (uncredited)
- Little Men as Head of Orphanage
- Those Were the Days! as Mrs. Moffett
- Lucky Partners as Women's Club President (uncredited)
1939
- Stagecoach as Boone's Landlady (uncredited)
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as Mrs. Shackleford (uncredited)
- Union Pacific as Snoring Woman on Train (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 Must Fall
- The Mighty Treve as Old Maid at Dog Show
- Partners in Crime as Housekeeper
- Borrowing Trouble as Dressmaker
- Champagne Waltz as Train Passenger
- Three Smart Boys as Miss Witherspoon, Superintendent
- She Asked for It as Elderly lady (uncredited)
- Blossoms On Broadway as Leader of Committee (uncredited)
- Night of Mystery
1936
- Fury as Albert's Mother (uncredited)
- Dancing Pirate as Landlady (uncredited)
- The Big Broadcast of 1937 as Home Economics Woman
- Under Your Spell as School Teacher (uncredited)
- Laughing at Trouble as Mrs. Wigby - Townswoman
- College Holiday as Miss Elkins (uncredited)
- Collegiate as Miss Curtiss
- Little Miss Nobody as Mrs. Robinson
- Two in the Dark as Mrs. Potter, Landlady (uncredited)
- Let's Make a Million
- Girl of the Ozarks as Miss Trent
1935
- Way Down East as Townswoman at Party
- Vagabond Lady as Miss Perkins (uncredited)
- Biography of a Bachelor Girl as Ship's Matron (uncredited)
- Gold Diggers of 1935 as Housekeeper (uncredited)
- Car 99 as Granny Adams
- Slightly Static as Beauty Products Announcer (uncredited)
- Memories and Melodies as Customer (uncredited)
1934
- Upperworld as Stream's Housekeeper (uncredited)
- The Merry Widow as Animal Woman (uncredited)
- Chained as Edith (uncredited)
- Bachelor Bait as Mrs. Trutmanner (uncredited)
- The Old-Fashioned Way as Mrs. Wendelschaffer
- The Spectacle Maker as Duchess
- Once to Every Woman as Miss Baxter’s Sister (uncredited)
- Laughing Boy as Schoolteacher
- You're Telling Me! as Mrs. Price
- Opened by Mistake as Head Nurse
- Search for Beauty as Miss Pettigrew
- One-Horse Farmers as Subway Passenger (uncredited)
- Mixed Nuts as Mrs. Twitchett
1933
- Stage Mother as Miss Gilford, Kitty's Music Store Boss (uncredited)
- Design for Living as Tom's Secretary (uncredited)
- Doctor Bull as Aunt Emily Banning
- Going Hollywood as Briarcroft's Teacher
- Hold Your Man as Miss Campbell (uncredited)
- Peg o' My Heart as Smythe (maid)
- Fast Workers as Tall Window-Shopper (Uncredited)
- Meet the Baron as Professor Winterbottom (uncredited)
- King of the Jungle as Spinster in park (uncredited)
- Wreckety Wrecks as Miss Winterbottom
- Asleep in the Feet as Female Police Officer
- Nature in the Wrong as Muriel's mother
1932
- The Bitter Tea of General Yen as Missionary
- Pack Up Your Troubles as Welfare Association Officer (uncredited)
- Amateur Daddy as Saleslady
- Hot Saturday as Gossip on Telephone (Uncredited)
- Mr. Bride as Mrs. Cecil
- Young Bride as Landlady (uncredited)
- Girl Grief as Miss Tuttle, Principal
- The Millionaire Cat as Aunt Mathilda
1931
- Millie as Helen and Angie's Landlady (uncredited)
- Arrowsmith as Nurse (uncredited)
- Street Scene as Alice Simpson - Welfare Worker
- East Lynne as Charity Bazaar Committee
- The Ruling Voice as Malcom's Nurse (uncredited)
- Everything’s Rosie as Hotel Proprietress
1930
- Hell's Angels as Helen's Maid (uncredited)
- Only Saps Work as Mrs. Partridge (uncredited)
- Seven Days Leave as Amelia Twymley
- Little Accident as Dr. Zernecke
- The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
1929
- Seven Footprints to Satan as Old Witch
- Footlights and Fools as (uncredited)
1928
- Driftwood as Mrs. Prouty
- The Cavalier as Lucia's Aunt
- A Trick of Hearts as The Mayor
- The Baby Cyclone as Mrs. Crandall
1927
- Sensation Seekers as Mrs. Lodge
- The Fortune Hunter as Betty Carpenter
- The Demi-Bride as School Teacher
- The Devil Dancer as Julia
- Born to Battle as Ma Cowan
- The Silent Rider as Mrs. Randall
- Girls as Matron Helen Hunt
- Too Many Crooks as (uncredited)
1926
- Midnight Faces as Mrs. Hart
- Chip of the Flying U as Dr. Cecil Grantham
1925
- His Majesty, Bunker Bean as Countess Casanova
- Three Weeks in Paris
1924
- The Deadwood Coach as Matilda Shields - in play
- Darwin Was Right as Aunt Priscilla
1922
- Manslaughter as Lydia's Chaperone (uncredited)
- The Town That Forgot God as (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
- Love Net as Miss Prudence Tilly
- The Zero Hour as Mrs. Winslow (uncredited)
- American Buds as Emily
- Appearance of Evil as Miss Spurgeon
1917
- The Wild Girl as Undetermined Role (uncredited)
- The Poor Little Rich Girl as One of Gwendolyn's Teachers (uncredited)
- A Royal Romance as Miss McPherson
- Tillie Wakes Up as Gossip in Ice Cream Parlor / Woman Having Picture Taken
1916
- The Social Secretary as Spinster (uncredited)
- A Model Husband as Mrs Gossip
1915
- The Arrival of Perpetua as Abigail Majendrie