Jessie Ralph

Jessie Ralph
230px Jessie Ralph
Born	Jessie Ralph Chambers (1864-11-05)November 5, 1864 Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1880–1941
Spouse(s)	William Patton (his death)

Jessie Ralph (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 Jessie Ralph Chambers 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, 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, as W.C. Fields' battleaxe of a mother-in-law in The Bank Dick, and as Myrna Loy's supercilious aunt Katherine in After the Thin Man. 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 Glouchester at the age of 79. She was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Partial filmography

• New York (1916)
• Such a Little Queen (1921)
• Child of Manhattan (1933)
• Cocktail Hour (1933)
• Murder at the Vanities (1934)
• The Affairs of Cellini (1934)
• One Night of Love (1934)
• We Live Again (1934)
• Evelyn Prentice (1934)
• Enchanted April (1935)
• Paris in Spring (1935)
• Metropolitan (1935)
• I Found Stella Parish (1935)
• Captain Blood (1935)
• David Copperfield (1935)
• Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)
• The Unguarded Hour (1936)
• San Francisco (1936)
• Camille (1936)
• After the Thin Man (1936)
• The Good Earth (1937)
• The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937)
• Double Wedding (1937)
• Hold That Kiss (1938)
• Port of Seven Seas (1938)
• Love Is a Headache (1938)
• St. Louis Blues (1939)
• Cafe Society (1939)
• Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
• The Blue Bird (1940)
• I Want a Divorce (1940)
• The Bank Dick (1940)
• They Met in Bombay (1941)

External links

• Jessie Ralph at the Internet Movie Database
• Jessie Ralph at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jessie Ralph portrait at NY Public Library Billy Rose Collection