Norma Varden

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Norma Varden (born January 20, 1898 in London , † January 19, 1989 in Santa Barbara , California ) was a British actress who played as a supporting actress mainly comical matrons or old maids in American film, radio and television.

Life

The daughter of a retired ship's captain and his much younger wife grew up in London at the turn of the century . Initially, Norma Varden appeared as a pianist , but soon switched to acting. She appeared regularly in British films of the 1920s and 1930s, but only in supporting roles because of her tall stature and distinctive face. In 1940 she took her now widowed and ailing mother on a trip to California to take a cure and finally settled there. She soon established herself as a sought-after character actress in Hollywood . Among other things, she played the wife of the Englishman who was stolen from the pickpocket in the classic film Casablanca . In the following decades, Norma Varden was seen particularly in the role of the English lady or the " funny old woman ".

At the side of many well-known stars, Varden also played in films by Alfred Hitchcock , Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder , through which she became better known in Germany. In Der Fremde im Zug (1951) she played a lady from better company who was strangled for fun by the murderer Bruno Anthony ( Robert Walker ) at a party ; in the comedy blondes preferred (1952), as the jealous wife of Charles Coburn , she accuses the innocent Marilyn Monroe of stealing her precious tiara ; and in flashbacks in Witness for the Prosecution , she embodied the lonely widow who falls victim to a murder. Her later film roles included the housekeeper in the musical My Songs - My Dreams (1965) alongside Julie Andrews and a noble lady in Doctor Dolittle (1967) with Rex Harrison . In addition to her film work, Varden appeared in numerous American radio shows in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and most recently in US television series.

In 1969 she ended her career. In her private life, Norma Varden worked for the Screen Actors Guild, among others . Varden died of heart failure in January 1989, the day before her 91st birthday.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Norma Varden obituary in The New York Times
personal data
SURNAME Varden, Norma
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1989
Place of death Santa Barbara , California