Beulah Bondi(1889-1981)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Character actress Beulah Bondi was a favorite of directors and
audiences and is one of the reasons so many films from the 1930s and
1940s remain so enjoyable, as she was an integral part of many of the
ensemble casts (a hallmark of the studio system) of major and/or great
films, including
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936),
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939),
Our Town (1940) and
Penny Serenade (1941). Highly
respected as a first-tier character actress, Bondi won two Best
Supporting Actress Oscar nominations, for
The Gorgeous Hussy (1936)
and Of Human Hearts (1938), and
an Emmy Award in 1976 for her turn in the television program
The Waltons (1972).
She was born Beulah Bondy on May 3, 1888, in Chicago, and established
herself as a stage actress in the first phase of her career. She made
her Broadway debut in Kenneth S. Webb's
"One of the Family" at the 49th Street Theatre on December 21, 1925.
The show was a modest hit, racking up 238 performances. She next
appeared in another hit,
Maxwell Anderson's "Saturday's
Children," which ran for 326 performances, before appearing in her
first flop, Clemence Dane's "Mariners" in
1927. Philip Barry's and
Elmer Rice's "Cock Robin" was an extremely
modest hit in 1928, reaching the century mark (100 performances), but
it was Bondi's performance in Rice's "Street Scene," which opened at
the Playhouse Theatre on Jamuary 10, 1929, that made her career. This
famous play won Rice the 1929 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was a big
hit, playing for 601 performances. Most importantly, though, it brought
Bondi to the movies at the advanced age of 43. She made her motion
picture debut in 1931 in the movie adaptation
(Street Scene (1931)), recreating
the role she had originated on the Broadway stage. The talkies were
still new, and she had the talent and the voice to thrive in Hollywood.
Bondi appeared in four more Broadway plays from 1931 to 1934, only one
of which, "The Late Christopher Bean", a comedy by
Sidney Howard, was a hit. Her last
appearance on Broadway for a generation was in a flop staged by
Melvyn Douglas, "Mother Lode" (she made
two more appearances on the Great White Way, in "Hilda Crane" (1950)
and "On Borrowed Time" in 1953; neither was a success). For the rest of
her professional life, her career lay primarily in film and television.
She was typecast as mothers and, later, grandmothers, and played
James Stewart's mother four times,
most famously as "Ma Bailey" in
It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
Her greatest role is considered her turn in
Leo McCarey's Depression-era melodrama
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937),
in which she played a mother abandoned by her children.
Beulah Bondi died on January 1, 1981, from complications from an
accident, when she broke her ribs after falling over her cat. She was
92 years old.
audiences and is one of the reasons so many films from the 1930s and
1940s remain so enjoyable, as she was an integral part of many of the
ensemble casts (a hallmark of the studio system) of major and/or great
films, including
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936),
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939),
Our Town (1940) and
Penny Serenade (1941). Highly
respected as a first-tier character actress, Bondi won two Best
Supporting Actress Oscar nominations, for
The Gorgeous Hussy (1936)
and Of Human Hearts (1938), and
an Emmy Award in 1976 for her turn in the television program
The Waltons (1972).
She was born Beulah Bondy on May 3, 1888, in Chicago, and established
herself as a stage actress in the first phase of her career. She made
her Broadway debut in Kenneth S. Webb's
"One of the Family" at the 49th Street Theatre on December 21, 1925.
The show was a modest hit, racking up 238 performances. She next
appeared in another hit,
Maxwell Anderson's "Saturday's
Children," which ran for 326 performances, before appearing in her
first flop, Clemence Dane's "Mariners" in
1927. Philip Barry's and
Elmer Rice's "Cock Robin" was an extremely
modest hit in 1928, reaching the century mark (100 performances), but
it was Bondi's performance in Rice's "Street Scene," which opened at
the Playhouse Theatre on Jamuary 10, 1929, that made her career. This
famous play won Rice the 1929 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was a big
hit, playing for 601 performances. Most importantly, though, it brought
Bondi to the movies at the advanced age of 43. She made her motion
picture debut in 1931 in the movie adaptation
(Street Scene (1931)), recreating
the role she had originated on the Broadway stage. The talkies were
still new, and she had the talent and the voice to thrive in Hollywood.
Bondi appeared in four more Broadway plays from 1931 to 1934, only one
of which, "The Late Christopher Bean", a comedy by
Sidney Howard, was a hit. Her last
appearance on Broadway for a generation was in a flop staged by
Melvyn Douglas, "Mother Lode" (she made
two more appearances on the Great White Way, in "Hilda Crane" (1950)
and "On Borrowed Time" in 1953; neither was a success). For the rest of
her professional life, her career lay primarily in film and television.
She was typecast as mothers and, later, grandmothers, and played
James Stewart's mother four times,
most famously as "Ma Bailey" in
It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
Her greatest role is considered her turn in
Leo McCarey's Depression-era melodrama
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937),
in which she played a mother abandoned by her children.
Beulah Bondi died on January 1, 1981, from complications from an
accident, when she broke her ribs after falling over her cat. She was
92 years old.