Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver (November 9, 1883 – November 9, 1942) was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the best-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters.
She was born Edna May Nutter in Malden, Massachusetts. The daughter of Ida May and Charles Edward Nutter, Edna was a descendant of the 6th American president John Quincy Adams. Miss Oliver took an early interest in the stage, and she would quit school at the age of 14 to pursue her ambitions in the theater.
Despite abandoning traditional schooling, Edna continued to study the performing arts, including speech and piano. One of her first jobs was as pianist with an all female orchestra which toured America around the turn of the century. By 1917 she had achieved success on Broadway in the hit play "Oh, Boy". By 1923 she had appeared in her first film. Edna May Oliver seems to have been born to play the classics of American and British literature. Some of her most memorable film roles were in adaptations of works of Charles Dickens. Although some have described her as plain or "horse faced", Edna May Oliver's comedic talents lent a beautiful droll warmth to her characters. She was usually called upon to play less glamorous roles such as a spinsters, but she played them with such soul, wit, and depth that to this day she remains one of the best loved of Hollywood's character actresses. A fine example of her comedic talent can be found in Laugh and Get Rich (1931). Here we find her playing a role almost autobiographical in nature, that of a proud woman with Boston roots who has married "down". As the plot unwinds, she is invited to a society gala despite her modest circumstances. At the gala she becomes tipsy. With a frolicsome air Edna May seems to use the role to gently mock her real self. Her slightly drunk character seizes upon a bit of flattery, and alluding to her old New England family, proudly proclaims to each who will listen, "I am a Cranston. That explains everything!". In real life, Edna May Oliver was a Nutter, and perhaps that explains everything.
Edna May Oliver married stock broker David Pratt in 1928, but the marriage ended in divorce five years later. In 1939 she received an Oscar nomination for her supporting role as Widow McKlennar in the picture Drums Along the Mohawk (1939). That was to be one of her last films. Miss Oliver was struck ill in August of 1942. Although she seemed to recover briefly, she was re-admitted to Los Angeles's Cedars of Lebanon hospital in October Her dear friend actress Virginia Hammond flew out from New York to stay by her bedside. Edna May Oliver died on her 59th birthday, 9th November 1942. Virginia Hammond was with her and said, "She died without ever being aware of the gravity of her condition. She just went peacefully asleep."
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 2.821 |
Birthday | 1883-11-08 |
Place of Birth | Malden, Massachusetts, USA |
Also Known As |
1933
Alice in Wonderland
6.056/54
In Victorian England, a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland, populated by even more fantastic characters.
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Alice in Wonderland
1937
Rosalie
5.5/6
West Point cadet Dick Thorpe falls in love with a girl, who turns out to be a princess from an European kingdom.
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Rosalie
1933
Ann Vickers
5.9/9
After a love affair ending in an abortion, a young prison reformer submerges herself in her work. She then falls for a controversial and married judge...
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Ann Vickers
1939
Second Fiddle
5/5
Studio publicist discovers Minnesota skating teacher and takes her to Hollywood. She goes back to Minnesota but he follows her.
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Second Fiddle
1936
Romeo and Juliet
6/26
Young love is poisoned by a generations long feud between two noble families.
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Romeo and Juliet
1935
David Copperfield
6.532/62
Charles Dickens' timeless tale of an ordinary young man who lives an extraordinary life, filled with people who help and hinder him.
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David Copperfield
1935
A Tale of Two Cities
6.8/61
The exciting story of Dr. Manette, who escapes the horrors of the infamous Bastille prison in Paris. The action switches between London and Paris on t...
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A Tale of Two Cities
1933
Little Women
6.7/127
Little Women is a coming-of-age drama tracing the lives of four sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. During the American Civil War, the girls father is awa...
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Little Women
1939
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
7/36
In 1911, minor stage comic, Vernon Castle meets the stage-struck Irene Foote. A few misadventures later, they marry and then abandon comedy to attempt...
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The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
1939
Drums Along the Mohawk
6.4/104
Albany, New York, 1776. After marrying, Gil and Lana travel north to settle on a small farm in the Mohawk River Valley, but soon their growing prosper...
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Drums Along the Mohawk
1941
Lydia
6.4/9
Lydia MacMillan, a wealthy woman who has never married, invites several men her own age to her home to reminisce about the times when they were young...
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Lydia
1932
Penguin Pool Murder
5.5/10
New York schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers assists a detective when a body of unscrupulous stockbroker Gerald Parker suddenly appears in the penguin tank...
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Penguin Pool Murder
1935
Murder on a Honeymoon
5.8/6
A schoolteacher and amateur sleuth suspects foul play when a fellow passenger on a seaplane gets sick and dies. The third and final film with Edna May...
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Murder on a Honeymoon
1930
Half Shot at Sunrise
6.182/11
Two soldiers go absent without leave in Paris during World War I.
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Half Shot at Sunrise
1935
No More Ladies
5.143/7
A society girl tries to reform her playboy husband by making him jealous.
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No More Ladies
1933
Meet the Baron
4.3/3
A charlatan posing as Baron Munchhausen is invited to be guest speaker at a girls' school.
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Meet the Baron
1929
The Saturday Night Kid
4.4/10
Mayme and sister Janie are salesgirls in Ginsberg's Department Store. Mayme is in love with store clerk Bill, but Janie tries to steal him from her. H...
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The Saturday Night Kid
1937
My Dear Miss Aldrich
6.1/5
A young woman inherits a newspaper whose editor refuses to hire lady reporters.
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My Dear Miss Aldrich
1934
The Last Gentleman
3/1
In New England circa 1933, a niece is reported missing and presumed dead and Cabot Barr (George Arliss) summons his relatives to the family estate for...
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The Last Gentleman
1934
Murder on the Blackboard
5.3/3
There are plenty of guilty secrets at the school where Hildegarde Withers teaches. When she finds the body of the pretty music teacher, she calls in h...
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Murder on the Blackboard
1934
The Poor Rich
0/0
Albert Stuyvesant Spottiswood and his cousin Harriet Winthrop Spottiswood arrive separately at their long abandoned and very much run down family mano...
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The Poor Rich
1931
Laugh and Get Rich
4.7/3
An inept inventor and his stoic wife believe an oil well investment has paid off and that they've become wealthy overnight.
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Laugh and Get Rich
1999
Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl
7.7/3
Clara Bow: Discovering the 'It' Girl features scenes from 25 of her films, as well as interviews with family members and acquaintances.
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Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl
1934
We're Rich Again
4/2
A polo-playing grandmother and her broke brood get back in the money with a Wall Street bet.
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We're Rich Again
1938
Paradise for Three
6.8/4
A businessman mingles with German laborers to learn more about their lives.
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Paradise for Three
1932
The Conquerors
5.7/3
A newlywed couple journeys west to make their fortune, and begins a banking empire.
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The Conquerors
1937
Parnell
4.6/7
Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell struggles to free his country from English rule, but his relationship with married Katie O'Shea threatens to...
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Parnell
1939
Nurse Edith Cavell
6.4/9
British nurse Edith Cavell is stationed at a hospital in Brussels during World War I. When the son of a former patient escapes from a German prisoner-...
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Nurse Edith Cavell
1931
Cracked Nuts
7/2
To impress his fiancee's aunt, a young man tries to become king in a small kingdom, but the people there have already crowned one, who has won this ho...
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Cracked Nuts
1938
Little Miss Broadway
6.6/12
An orphan is provisionally adopted by the manager of a hotel populated by show business people. The hotel's owner doesn't like the entertainers and wa...
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Little Miss Broadway
1932
Ladies of the Jury
6.4/8
Society matron Mrs. Livingston Baldwin Crane is selected as a juror in the trial of former chorus girl Yvette Gordon, who's accused of murdering her r...
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Ladies of the Jury
1933
Only Yesterday
6.8/5
On the back of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, a young business man is about to commit suicide. With the note to his wife scribbled down and a gun in h...
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Only Yesterday
1924
Icebound
0/0
Ben Jordan runs away after accidentally setting fire to a barn in his small New England community. He returns when his mother dies to find that she ha...
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Icebound
1933
The Great Jasper
0/0
Generational saga about a failed streetcar conductor, who finds success as an Atlantic City fortune teller, and his son. Drama.
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The Great Jasper
1931
Cimarron
5.521/120
When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat claims a plot of the free land for himself and moves his fa...
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Cimarron
1931
Fanny Foley Herself
0/0
A vaudeville performer has trouble dividing her time equally between her career and her two daughters.
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Fanny Foley Herself
1932
Hold 'Em Jail
6.75/4
Two yokels are framed and sent to prison, but wind up playing football on the warden's championship team.
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Hold 'Em Jail
1940
Pride and Prejudice
6.9/139
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have five unmarried daughters, and Mrs. Bennet is especially eager to find suitable husbands for them. When the rich single gentle...
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Pride and Prejudice
1931
Newly Rich
3/2
Two small town widows bring their children to Hollywood, where their children become competing film stars. The girl is sweet, the boy is a killjoy sis...
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Newly Rich
1926
The American Venus
0/0
A lost film - Mary Gray, whose father manufactures cold cream, is engaged to sappy Horace Niles, the son of Hugo Niles, the elder Gray's most competit...
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The American Venus
1933
It's Great to Be Alive
5/1
An aviator who crash landed on an island in the South Pacific returns home to find that he is the last fertile man left on Earth after an epidemic of...
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It's Great to Be Alive
1926
Let's Get Married
0/0
College football star Billy Dexter is prone to getting into public fights. His father demands he reform and sends him to mend his ways with a devout o...
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Let's Get Married
1925
Lovers in Quarantine
0/0
Lovers in Quarantine is an extant 1925 silent film comedy starring Bebe Daniels and directed by Frank Tuttle. It was produced by Famous Players-Lasky...
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Lovers in Quarantine
1925
The Lucky Devil
6.5/4
Richard Dix, a displayer in a department store, enters a raffle and wins the so-called 'hoodoo' bad-luck automobile formerly owned by the store owner'...
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The Lucky Devil
1923
Wife in Name Only
0/0
Wealthy orphan Philippa L'Estrange loves handsome Norman Arleigh and is confident of marrying him until he discloses that he has only brotherly affect...
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Wife in Name Only
1923
Three O'Clock in the Morning
0/0
Impulsive flapper Elizabeth Winthrop, rebels against her parents and moves to New York after breaking with her fiance, Clayton Webster. Hugo Von Stroh...
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Three O'Clock in the Morning
1924
Restless Wives
0/0
1924 picture directed by Gregory La Cava.
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Restless Wives
1924
Manhattan
6/1
A wealthy New Yorker falls in love with a burglar's sister.
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Manhattan
1925
The Lady Who Lied
0/0
During a carnival in Venice, Horace Pierpont, a wealthy American (Lewis Stone), falls in love with Fay Kennion (Virginia Valli). Their romance is dera...
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