Marjorie Main, born on February 24, 1890, was an American character actress and singer of the Classical Hollywood era. Her father was a clergyman, so when she joined a local stock business as a teenager, she changed her identity not to humiliate her family. She performed in vaudeville and made her Broadway debut in 1916. Her first film was A House Divided (1931). She reprised her theatrical performance as Baby Face Martin’s (Humphrey Bogart) mother in Dead End (1937), which led to a series of other slum mother roles. She played the dude ranch boss Lucy in The Women with great aplomb (1939). She acquired fame as a comedienne in six 1940s films starring Wallace Beery, including Barnacle Bill (1941). In 1947, for her performance as Ma Kettle in The Egg and I, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for a best-supporting actress, she established the role that would define her career. She began her co-starring series with Percy Kilbride in 1948’s Feudin’, Fussin’, and A-Fightin’ and continued for seven more years. Her most recent film was The Kettles on Old MacDonald’s Farm sans Kilbride (1957).
