Beulah Bondi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beulah Bondi (born May 3, 1888 in Chicago , Illinois , † January 11, 1981 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actress .

Life

Although born in Chicago, Beulah Bondi grew up in Valparaiso , Indiana . After attending the local Valparaiso University , she began her acting career in the theater in the 1910s. In 1925 she made the leap to Broadway , where she quickly established herself as a character actress with a role in Kenneth S. Webb's play One of the Family . Appearances in popular Broadway plays by Maxwell Anderson , Clemence Dane , Philip Barry and Sidney Howard followed . Her greatest success was probably the play Street Scene by Elmer Rice from 1929. Bondi was hired to Hollywood in 1931 for the film adaptation of Street Scene , in which the 43-year-old made her film debut. From then on, she was to play the main actors' mothers in numerous Hollywood film productions, and later their grandmothers.

For her appearances in The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) and Of Human Hearts (1938), Bondi received two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress . She played James Stewart's mother in four films, including the Frank Capra classic films Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Isn't Life Beautiful? . A fifth and final time she appeared on an episode of the Jimmy Stewart Show in 1971 as his mother. Her better-known appearances include an adoption broker in Chords of Love (1941) alongside Cary Grant and Irene Dunne , a contentious grandmother in Jean Renoir's western The Man from the South (1945), and the role of Miss Greer in the drama The Snake Pit (1948) alongside Olivia de Havilland . Beulah Bondi was considered a versatile character actress who could easily play roles that were actually much older than herself. She had a high point of her career (and one of her few leading roles) in the 1937 film No Place for Parents . Here she played an old woman who had been hit by the global economic crisis and had to live apart from her beloved husband due to financial problems.

In addition to her film work, Bondi continued to perform regularly on the Broadway stages. With the beginning of television in the 1950s, the actress could also be seen there regularly. In the 1960s and 1970s, Bondi worked less often as an actress, given her age. She celebrated a late success in 1977 when she won an Emmy for Best Guest Actress for her appearance as Aunt Martha Corinne Walton in two episodes of the family series The Waltons . She died in 1981 at the age of 92 from lung problems from falling over her cat. Although Bondi regularly played mothers on screen, she was never married or had no children. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is dedicated to her.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Beulah Bondi  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 463.
personal data
SURNAME Bondi, Beulah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois , United States
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 1981
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States