From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Marjorie Main (born Mary Tomlinson, February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975) was an American actress, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player and for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies. Main worked in vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit and in Chautauqua presentations, and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her first film was A House Divided in 1931. Main began playing upper class dowagers, but ultimately was typecast in abrasive, domineering, salty roles, for which her distinctive voice was well suited. She repeated her stage role in Dead End in the 1937 film version, and was subsequently cast repeatedly as the mother of gangsters. She again transferred a strong stage performance, as a dude-ranch operator in The Women, to film in 1939. At this time, she guest-starred on radio programs such as Columbia Presents Corwin and The Goldbergs. Main was signed to a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract in 1940 and stayed with the studio until the mid-1950s. She made six films with Wallace Beery in the 1940s, including Barnacle Bill (1941), Jackass Mail (1942), and Bad Bascomb (1946). She played Sonora Cassidy, the chief cook, in The Harvey Girls (1946). The director George Sidney remarked in the commentary for the film that Miss Main was a "great lady" as well as a great actress who donated most of her paychecks over the years to the support of a school. Perhaps her most famous role is that of Ma Kettle, which she first played in The Egg and I in 1947 opposite Percy Kilbride as Pa Kettle. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the part and portrayed the character in nine more Ma and Pa Kettle films. By the early 1950s, she had appeared in several MGM musicals, including, Meet Me in St. Louis and The Belle of New York. She played Mrs. Wrenley in the studio's all-star film It's a Big Country (1951). In 1954, Marjorie Main played her last roles for the studio: Mrs. Hittaway in The Long, Long Trailer and Jane Dunstock in Rose Marie. In 1956, Main's performance as the widow Hudspeth in the hit film Friendly Persuasion was well-received, earning her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 1958, Main appeared twice as rugged frontierswoman Cassie Tanner in the episodes "The Cassie Tanner Story" and "The Sacramento Story" on NBC's television series Wagon Train. In the first segment, she joins the wagon train, casts her romantic interest on Ward Bond as Major Adams, and helps the train locate needed horses despite a Paiute threat.

Filmography

• 2006Summer Stock: Get Happy! — Esme (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 1965The World of Abbott and Costello — Widow Hawkins in The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap
• 1957The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm — Ma Kettle
• Wagon Train — Cassie Tanner
• 1956Friendly Persuasion — The Widow Hudspeth
• 1956The Kettles in the Ozarks — Ma Kettle
• 1955Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki — Ma' Kettle
• December Bride
• 1954Ma and Pa Kettle at Home — Ma Kettle
• 1954Ricochet Romance — Pansy Jones
• 1954Rose Marie — Lady Jane Dunstock
• 1954The Long, Long Trailer — Mrs. Hittaway
• 1953Fast Company — Ma Parkson
• 1952Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair — Ma Kettle
• 1952Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation — Ma Kettle
• 1952The Belle of New York — Mrs Phineas Hill
• 1951It's a Big Country — Mrs. Wrenley
• 1951Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm — Ma Kettle
• 1951Mr. Imperium — Mrs. Cabot
• 1951The Law and the Lady — Julia Wortin
• 1950Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town — Ma Kettle
• 1950Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone — Harriet O'Malley
• 1950Summer Stock — Esmé
• 1949Big Jack — Flapjack Kate
• 1949Ma and Pa Kettle — Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
• 1948Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin' — Maribel Mathews
• 1947The Egg and I — Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
• 1947The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap — Widow Hawkins
• 1946Bad Bascomb — Abbey Hanks
• 1946The Harvey Girls — Sonora Cassidy
• 1946The Show-Off — Mrs. Fisher
• 1946Undercurrent — Lucy
• 1945Murder, He Says — Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
• 1944Gentle Annie — Annie Goss
• 1944Meet Me in St. Louis — Katie
• 1944Rationing — Iris Tuttle
• 1943Heaven Can Wait — Mrs. Strabel
• 1943Johnny Come Lately — 'Gashouse' Mary
• 1942Jackass Mail — Clementine 'Tina' Tucker
• 1942Tennessee Johnson — Mrs. Maude Fisher
• 1942The Affairs of Martha — Mrs. McKissick
• 1942The Bugle Sounds — Susie 'Suz'
• 1942Tish — Miss Letitia 'Tish' Carberry
• 1942We Were Dancing — Judge Hawkes
• 1941A Woman's Face — Emma Kristiansdotter
• 1941Barnacle Bill — Marge Cavendish
• 1941Honky Tonk — Mrs. Varner
• 1941The Shepherd of the Hills — Granny Becky
• 1941The Trial of Mary Dugan — Mrs. Collins
• 1941The Wild Man of Borneo — Irma, the Cook
• 1940Dark Command — Mrs. Cantrell / Mrs. Adams
• 1940I Take This Woman — Gertie
• 1940Susan and God — Mary Maloney
• 1940The Captain is a Lady — Sarah May Willett
• 1940Turnabout — Nora, the Cook
• 1940Women Without Names — Mrs. Lowery
• 1940Wyoming — Mehitabel
• 1939Angels Wash Their Faces — Mrs. Arkelian
• 1939Another Thin Man — Mrs. Dolley
• 1939Lucky Night — Mrs. Briggs
• 1939The Women — Lucy
• 1939They Shall Have Music — Mrs. Miller
• 1939Two Thoroughbreds — Hildegarde 'Hildy' Carey
• 1938Boy of the Streets — Mrs. Mary Brennan
• 1938City Girl — Mrs. Ward (uncredited)
• 1938Girls' School — Miss Armstrong
• 1938King of the Newsboys — Mrs. Stephens (uncredited)
• 1938Little Tough Guy — Mrs. Boylan
• 1938Penitentiary — Miss Katie Mathews
• 1938Prison Farm — Matron Brand
• 1938Romance of the Limberlost — Nora
• 1938Test Pilot — Landlady
• 1938There Goes My Heart — Fireless Cooker Customer (uncredited)
• 1938Three Comrades — Old woman by phone (uncredited)
• 1938Too Hot to Handle — Miss Wayne
• 1938Under the Big Top — Sara Post
• 1937Dead End — Mrs. Martin
• 1937Love in a Bungalow — Miss Emma Bisbee
• 1937Stella Dallas — Mrs. Martin
• 1937The Man Who Cried Wolf — Amelia Bradley
• 1937The Shadow — Hannah Gillespie
• 1937The Wrong Road — Martha Foster
• 1934Art Trouble — Woman Who Sits on Painting
• 1934Crime Without Passion — Backstage Wardrobe Woman (uncredited)
• 1934Music in the Air — Anna (Uncredited)
• 1933Close Relations — Woman in Depot (uncredited)
• 1933New Deal Rhythm — Arizona Representative
• 1932Broken Lullaby — Frau Schmidt - Townswoman (uncredited)
• 1932Hot Saturday — Gossip in Window (uncredited)
• 1931A House Divided — Townswoman at Wedding (uncredited)
• 1929Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties — Statler Hotel Beauty

Appearances as themselves (1)

• 1936Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1) — Self