Nora Cecil

Nora Cecil

1878-09-24 – 1951-05-01 (age 72) London, England, UK
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Biography

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.

Photos

Known For

Stagecoach
Stagecoach

1939

as Boone's Landlady (uncredited)

I Married a Witch
I Married a Witch

1942

as Harriet Wooley (uncredited)

Union Pacific
Union Pacific

1939

as Snoring Woman on Train (uncredited)

Hell's Angels
Hell's Angels

1930

as Helen's Maid (uncredited)

Woman, Woman!
Woman, Woman!

1919

as Mrs. Lindsay

Fury
Fury

1936

as Albert's Mother (uncredited)

Bachelor Bait
Bachelor Bait

1934

as Mrs. Trutmanner (uncredited)

Pack Up Your Troubles
Pack Up Your Troubles

1932

as Welfare Association Officer (uncredited)

The Thin Man Goes Home
The Thin Man Goes Home

1944

as Miss Peavy

The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow

1934

as Animal Woman (uncredited)

Nothing Sacred
Nothing Sacred

1937

as Schoolteacher (uncredited)

The Sea of Grass
The Sea of Grass

1947

as Mrs. Ryan - Nurse (uncredited)

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

1944

as Hospital Nurse (uncredited)

The Story of Alexander Graham Bell
The Bank Dick
The Bank Dick

1940

as Lompoc Ladies Auxiliary (uncredited)

Easy Living
Easy Living

1937

as Miss Swerf

Young People
Young People

1940

as Righteous Old Lady (uncredited)

The Bitter Tea of General Yen
Night Must Fall
Hail the Conquering Hero
Hail the Conquering Hero

1944

as Train Ticket Clerk (uncredited)