Nora Cecil
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.
Acting
Movie
Stagecoach
as Boone's Landlady (uncredited)
1939
Movie
Fury
as Albert's Mother (uncredited)
1936
Movie
I Married a Witch
as Harriet Wooley (uncredited)
1942
Movie
Design for Living
as Tom's Secretary (uncredited)
1933
Movie
The Bank Dick
as Lompoc Ladies Auxiliary (uncredited)
1940
Movie
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
as Hospital Nurse (uncredited)
1944
Movie
Nothing Sacred
as Schoolteacher (uncredited)
1937
Movie
The Thin Man Goes Home
as Miss Peavy
1944
Movie
Hell's Angels
as Helen's Maid (uncredited)
1930
Movie
The Bitter Tea of General Yen
as Missionary
1932
Movie
Union Pacific
as Snoring Woman on Train (uncredited)
1939
Movie
Hail the Conquering Hero
as Train Ticket Clerk (uncredited)
1944
Movie
Pack Up Your Troubles
as Welfare Association Officer (uncredited)
1932
Movie
Easy Living
as Miss Swerf
1937
Movie
The Merry Widow
as Animal Woman (uncredited)
1934
Movie
Gold Diggers of 1935
as Housekeeper (uncredited)
1935
Movie
Lady on a Train
1945
Movie
Night Must Fall
1937
Movie
Street Scene
as Alice Simpson - Welfare Worker
1931
Movie
The Poor Little Rich Girl
as One of Gwendolyn's Teachers (uncredited)
1917
Movie
Arrowsmith
as Nurse (uncredited)
1931
Movie
The Sea of Grass
as Mrs. Ryan - Nurse (uncredited)
1947
Movie
Millie
as Helen and Angie's Landlady (uncredited)
1931
Movie
Hot Saturday
as Gossip on Telephone (Uncredited)
1932