Jessie Ralph
Acting
1864-11-04 · Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jessie Ralph (born 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 cast her in many of his musicals, but she also excelled at dramatic roles. Although she made her Hollywood debut in 1916, in a motion picture career that would eventually span 25 years, she only became a permanent Hollywood actress in 1933. She was nearly 70 at this time, so her roles were limited to matronly roles, 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, as W.C. Fields' battle-axe of a mother-in-law in The Bank Dick, as Myrna Loy's supercilious aunt Katherine in After the Thin Man, and as Nurse Peggotty in David Copperfield. She starred in 55 movies altogether, 52 between 1933 and 1941. Jessie Ralph retired from Hollywood in 1941, after her leg was amputated. She died four years later in her home town of Gloucester at the age of 79. She was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Filmography
MGM Parade
1955 · Series
They Met in Bombay
1941 · Movie
The Lady from Cheyenne
1941 · Movie
The Bank Dick
1940 · Movie
I Want a Divorce
1940 · Movie
The Girl from Avenue A
1940 · Movie
I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby
1940 · Movie
Star Dust
1940 · Movie
The Blue Bird
1940 · Movie
Drums Along the Mohawk
1939 · Movie
Mickey the Kid
1939 · Movie
The Kid From Texas
1939 · Movie
Cafe Society
1939 · Movie
St. Louis Blues
1939 · Movie
Four Girls in White
1939 · Movie
Port of Seven Seas
1938 · Movie
Hold That Kiss
1938 · Movie
Love Is a Headache
1938 · Movie
Double Wedding
1937 · Movie
The Romance of Celluloid
1937 · Movie
The Good Earth
1937 · Movie
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
1937 · Movie
Camille
1936 · Movie
After the Thin Man
1936 · Movie
Walking on Air
1936 · Movie
San Francisco
1936 · Movie
Bunker Bean
1936 · Movie
The Unguarded Hour
1936 · Movie
Yellow Dust
1936 · Movie
Little Lord Fauntleroy
1936 · Movie
The Garden Murder Case
1936 · Movie
Captain Blood
1935 · Movie
I Found Stella Parish
1935 · Movie
Metropolitan
1935 · Movie
I Live My Life
1935 · Movie
Jalna
1935 · Movie
Paris in Spring
1935 · Movie
Mark of the Vampire
1935 · Movie
Les Misérables
1935 · Movie
Vanessa: Her Love Story
1935 · Movie
Enchanted April
1935 · Movie
David Copperfield
1935 · Movie
Evelyn Prentice
1934 · Movie
We Live Again
1934 · Movie
The Affairs of Cellini
1934 · Movie
One Night of Love
1934 · Movie
Murder at the Vanities
1934 · Movie
Coming Out Party
1934 · Movie
Nana
1934 · Movie
Cocktail Hour
1933 · Movie
Ann Carver's Profession
1933 · Movie
Elmer, the Great
1933 · Movie
Child of Manhattan
1933 · Movie
Such a Little Queen
1921 · Movie
The Madonna of the Slums
1919 · Movie