Nora Cecil
Acting
Born September 24, 1878, London, England, UK
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
- 1964The Big Parade of Comedy — Actress in 'Hollywood Party' (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 1947Mourning Becomes Electra — Louisa Ames
- 1947The Sea of Grass — Mrs. Ryan - Nurse (uncredited)
- 1946Big Town — Miss Lovelace (uncredited)
- 1946The Missing Lady — Miss Millie
- 1946Two Sisters from Boston — Mrs. Mulberry - Recital Guest (uncredited)
- 1945Lady on a Train
- 1944Hail the Conquering Hero — Train Ticket Clerk (uncredited)
- 1944The Miracle of Morgan's Creek — Hospital Nurse (uncredited)
- 1944The Thin Man Goes Home — Miss Peavy
- 1943The Unknown Guest — Martha Williams
- 1942Apache Trail — Passenger (uncredited)
- 1942I Married a Witch — Harriet Wooley (uncredited)
- 1942Obliging Young Lady — Miss Hollyrod - Bird Lover (uncredited)
- 1942The Wife Takes a Flyer — Miss Updike
- 1941A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob — Charwoman
- 1941Three Girls About Town — Casket Customer
- 1940Little Men — Head of Orphanage
- 1940Lucky Partners — Women's Club President (uncredited)
- 1940The Bank Dick — Lompoc Ladies Auxiliary (uncredited)
- 1940Those Were the Days! — Mrs. Moffett
- 1940Young People — Righteous Old Lady (uncredited)
- 1939Some Like It Hot — Mrs. Beckett (uncredited)
- 1939Stagecoach — Boone's Landlady (uncredited)
- 1939The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn — Mrs. Shackleford (uncredited)
- 1939The Story of Alexander Graham Bell — Miss Jenkins
- 1939Union Pacific — Snoring Woman on Train (uncredited)
- 1939What a Life — Miss Eggleston
- 1938International Settlement — English Woman
- 1938Mr. Boggs Steps Out — Widow Peddie
- 1937Blossoms On Broadway — Leader of Committee (uncredited)
- 1937Borrowing Trouble — Dressmaker
- 1937Champagne Waltz — Train Passenger
- 1937Easy Living — Miss Swerf
- 1937Night Must Fall
- 1937Night of Mystery
- 1937Nothing Sacred — Schoolteacher (uncredited)
- 1937Partners in Crime — Housekeeper
- 1937She Asked for It — Elderly lady (uncredited)
- 1937The Mighty Treve — Old Maid at Dog Show
- 1937Three Smart Boys — Miss Witherspoon, Superintendent
- 1936College Holiday — Miss Elkins (uncredited)
- 1936Dancing Pirate — Landlady (uncredited)
- 1936Fury — Albert's Mother (uncredited)
- 1936Girl of the Ozarks — Miss Trent
- 1936Laughing at Trouble — Mrs. Wigby - Townswoman
- 1936Let's Make a Million
- 1936Little Miss Nobody — Mrs. Robinson
- 1936The Big Broadcast of 1937 — Home Economics Woman
- 1936Two in the Dark — Mrs. Potter, Landlady (uncredited)
- 1936Under Your Spell — School Teacher (uncredited)
- 1935Biography of a Bachelor Girl — Ship's Matron (uncredited)
- 1935Car 99 — Granny Adams
- 1935Collegiate — Miss Curtiss
- 1935Gold Diggers of 1935 — Housekeeper (uncredited)
- 1935Memories and Melodies — Customer (uncredited)
- 1935Slightly Static — Beauty Products Announcer (uncredited)
- 1935Vagabond Lady — Miss Perkins (uncredited)
- 1935Way Down East — Townswoman at Party
- 1934Bachelor Bait — Mrs. Trutmanner (uncredited)
- 1934Chained — Edith (uncredited)
- 1934Laughing Boy — Schoolteacher
- 1934Mixed Nuts — Mrs. Twitchett
- 1934Once to Every Woman — Miss Baxter’s Sister (uncredited)
- 1934One-Horse Farmers — Subway Passenger (uncredited)
- 1934Opened by Mistake — Head Nurse
- 1934Search for Beauty — Miss Pettigrew
- 1934The Merry Widow — Animal Woman (uncredited)
- 1934The Old-Fashioned Way — Mrs. Wendelschaffer
- 1934The Spectacle Maker — Duchess
- 1934Upperworld — Stream's Housekeeper (uncredited)
- 1934You're Telling Me! — Mrs. Price
- 1933Asleep in the Feet — Female Police Officer
- 1933Design for Living — Tom's Secretary (uncredited)
- 1933Doctor Bull — Aunt Emily Banning
- 1933Fast Workers — Tall Window-Shopper (Uncredited)
- 1933Going Hollywood — Briarcroft's Teacher
- 1933Hold Your Man — Miss Campbell (uncredited)
- 1933King of the Jungle — Spinster in park (uncredited)
- 1933Meet the Baron — Professor Winterbottom (uncredited)
- 1933Nature in the Wrong — Muriel's mother
- 1933Peg o' My Heart — Smythe (maid)
- 1933Stage Mother — Miss Gilford, Kitty's Music Store Boss (uncredited)
- 1933Wreckety Wrecks — Miss Winterbottom
- 1932Amateur Daddy — Saleslady
- 1932Girl Grief — Miss Tuttle, Principal
- 1932Hot Saturday — Gossip on Telephone (Uncredited)
- 1932Mr. Bride — Mrs. Cecil
- 1932Pack Up Your Troubles — Welfare Association Officer (uncredited)
- 1932The Millionaire Cat — Aunt Mathilda
- 1932Young Bride — Landlady (uncredited)
- 1931Arrowsmith — Nurse (uncredited)
- 1931East Lynne — Charity Bazaar Committee
- 1931Everything’s Rosie — Hotel Proprietress
- 1931Millie — Helen and Angie's Landlady (uncredited)
- 1931Street Scene — Alice Simpson - Welfare Worker
- 1931The Ruling Voice — Malcom's Nurse (uncredited)
- 1930Hell's Angels — Helen's Maid (uncredited)
- 1930Little Accident — Dr. Zernecke
- 1930Only Saps Work — Mrs. Partridge (uncredited)
- 1930Seven Days Leave — Amelia Twymley
- 1930The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
- 1929Footlights and Fools — (uncredited)
- 1929Seven Footprints to Satan — Old Witch
- 1928A Trick of Hearts — The Mayor
- 1928Driftwood — Mrs. Prouty
- 1928The Baby Cyclone — Mrs. Crandall
- 1928The Cavalier — Lucia's Aunt
- 1927Born to Battle — Ma Cowan
- 1927Girls — Matron Helen Hunt
- 1927Sensation Seekers — Mrs. Lodge
- 1927The Demi-Bride — School Teacher
- 1927The Devil Dancer — Julia
- 1927The Fortune Hunter — Betty Carpenter
- 1927The Silent Rider — Mrs. Randall
- 1927Too Many Crooks — (uncredited)
- 1926Chip of the Flying U — Dr. Cecil Grantham
- 1926Midnight Faces — Mrs. Hart
- 1925His Majesty, Bunker Bean — Countess Casanova
- 1925Three Weeks in Paris
- 1924Darwin Was Right — Aunt Priscilla
- 1924The Deadwood Coach — Matilda Shields - in play
- 1922Manslaughter — Lydia's Chaperone (uncredited)
- 1922The Town That Forgot God — (uncredited)
- 1922Timothy's Quest — Townswoman
- 1921Footfalls
- 1920Red Foam
- 1920The Daughter Pays
- 1919An Amateur Widow
- 1919Miss Crusoe — Miss Meeker (uncredited)
- 1919Woman, Woman! — Mrs. Lindsay
- 1918American Buds — Emily
- 1918Appearance of Evil — Miss Spurgeon
- 1918By Hook or Crook — Aunt Marie
- 1918Love Net — Miss Prudence Tilly
- 1918Prunella
- 1918The Zero Hour — Mrs. Winslow (uncredited)
- 1917A Royal Romance — Miss McPherson
- 1917The Poor Little Rich Girl — One of Gwendolyn's Teachers (uncredited)
- 1917The Wild Girl — Undetermined Role (uncredited)
- 1917Tillie Wakes Up — Gossip in Ice Cream Parlor / Woman Having Picture Taken
- 1916A Model Husband — Mrs Gossip
- 1916The Social Secretary — Spinster (uncredited)
- 1915The Arrival of Perpetua — Abigail Majendrie