Alice Pearce(1917-1966)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Making a career out of a post-nasal drip, this scene-stealing character
comedienne was one of the best Broadway and Hollywood had to offer.
It's too bad, then, that she wasn't utilized in films more often for
this slight, chinless, parrot-faced, squawky-voiced bundle of (kill)joy
could draw laughs from a well with a mere sniffle, gulp, or stare.
Plaintive Alice Pearce was born in New York City, the only child of a
bank vice-president, but was raised in different European schools --
wherever her father had business. Eventually Alice settled back in NYC
and began to gather experience in summer stock shows. She became a huge
hit on the nightclub circuit which eventually paved the way to
Broadway. She drew raves in the "New Faces of 1943" and was sensational
in the role of Lucy Schmeeler, the sexless, adenoidal blind date, in
the New York smash "On the Town" the very next year. As a testament to
her talent, Alice was the only performer kept on board when
Gene Kelly transferred the
sailors-on-leave musical to film. Strangely, this did not lead to a
slew of comedy vehicles, but Alice certainly sparked a number of fluffy
films, even in the tiniest of roles -- never more so than as the
hypochondriac patient who expounds on her physical ailments ad nauseam
while overly-attentive Jerry Lewis
suffers through a wrenching series of "sympathy pains" in
The Disorderly Orderly (1964).
It's slapstick comedy at its very best.
TV proved an attractive medium for her as well, hosting her own variety
show briefly in 1949. Her career ended on a high note as the nagging,
irrepressibly nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz in the
Bewitched (1964) sitcom. Ideally
teamed with George Tobias as her
hen-pecked husband, Abner, the two provided non-stop hilarity -- her
frightened gulps, blank gaze and confused exasperation coupled with his
dour disgust was comedy heaven. Sadly, Pearce developed ovarian cancer
and died in 1966, only two seasons into the show. She was only 48. She
quite deservedly won an Emmy trophy for her work a few months after her
death. Hollywood lost a treasured talent in Alice Pearce, gone way
before her time.
comedienne was one of the best Broadway and Hollywood had to offer.
It's too bad, then, that she wasn't utilized in films more often for
this slight, chinless, parrot-faced, squawky-voiced bundle of (kill)joy
could draw laughs from a well with a mere sniffle, gulp, or stare.
Plaintive Alice Pearce was born in New York City, the only child of a
bank vice-president, but was raised in different European schools --
wherever her father had business. Eventually Alice settled back in NYC
and began to gather experience in summer stock shows. She became a huge
hit on the nightclub circuit which eventually paved the way to
Broadway. She drew raves in the "New Faces of 1943" and was sensational
in the role of Lucy Schmeeler, the sexless, adenoidal blind date, in
the New York smash "On the Town" the very next year. As a testament to
her talent, Alice was the only performer kept on board when
Gene Kelly transferred the
sailors-on-leave musical to film. Strangely, this did not lead to a
slew of comedy vehicles, but Alice certainly sparked a number of fluffy
films, even in the tiniest of roles -- never more so than as the
hypochondriac patient who expounds on her physical ailments ad nauseam
while overly-attentive Jerry Lewis
suffers through a wrenching series of "sympathy pains" in
The Disorderly Orderly (1964).
It's slapstick comedy at its very best.
TV proved an attractive medium for her as well, hosting her own variety
show briefly in 1949. Her career ended on a high note as the nagging,
irrepressibly nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz in the
Bewitched (1964) sitcom. Ideally
teamed with George Tobias as her
hen-pecked husband, Abner, the two provided non-stop hilarity -- her
frightened gulps, blank gaze and confused exasperation coupled with his
dour disgust was comedy heaven. Sadly, Pearce developed ovarian cancer
and died in 1966, only two seasons into the show. She was only 48. She
quite deservedly won an Emmy trophy for her work a few months after her
death. Hollywood lost a treasured talent in Alice Pearce, gone way
before her time.