| Jessie Ralph | |
|---|---|
 from the trailer for the film After the Thin Man (1936). | |
| Birth name | Jessie Ralph Chambers |
| Born | November 5, 1864 Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA |
| Died | May 30, 1944, age 79 Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA |
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, of Yankee Doodle Dandy fame, cast her in many of his musicals, but she also excelled at dramatic roles. Although she made her Hollywood debut in 1916, she only became a permanent Hollywood actress in 1933. She was nearly 70 at this time, so her roles were restricted to those of dumpy old ladies, 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, and as W.C. Fields' terrifying old battleaxe of a mother-in-law in The Bank Dick, the two roles demonstrating her ability to play both tragic and comic parts. she starred in 55 movies altogether, 52 of them made between 1933 and 1940. She retired in 1940, after her leg was amputated, and she died 4 years later at the age of 79. Her husband, Bill Patton (1894-1951), was a bit- part actor in Westerns.
Selective Filmography
- New York (1916)
- Elmer the Great (1933)
- Captain Blood (1935)
- Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger (1935)
- San Francisco (1936)
- After the Thin Man (1936)
- Camille (1936)
- Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)
- Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
- The Blue Bird (1940)
- The Bank Dick (1940)
- The Lady from Cheyenne (1941)
