PROFILBARU.COM

Mildred Natwick
Mildred Natwick
	Natwick in 1947
Born	June 19, 1905; Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Died	October 25, 1994 (aged 89); Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Resting place	Lorraine Park Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Education	Bennett College
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1932–1988
Relatives	Grim Natwick (first cousin)

Mildred Natwick (June 19, 1905 – October 25, 1994) was an American actress. She won a Primetime Emmy Award and was nominated for an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.^[1]

Early life

Natwick was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Mildred Marion (née Dawes) and Joseph Natwick of Wisconsin.^[2]^[3] Her father was a sawmill baron and dairy farmer who owned Dunloggin Dairy Farm. He established the farm on land that was cleared of its white oaks; the community of Dunloggin in Ellicott City, Maryland, was so named because Natwick was "done logging" the land.^[4] Her grandfather, Ole Natwick, was one of the earliest Norwegian immigrants to the United States, arriving in Wisconsin in 1847.^[5] Her first cousin was animator and cartoonist Grim Natwick.^[6] Natwick attended the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore and later graduated from Bennett College.^[1]

Career

Natwick began performing on the stage at age 21 with "The Vagabonds", a non-professional theatre group in Baltimore. She soon joined the University Players on Cape Cod. Natwick made her Broadway debut in 1932 playing Mrs. Noble in Frank McGrath’s play Carry Nation, about the famous temperance crusader Carrie Nation. Throughout the 1930s she starred in a number of plays, frequently collaborating with friend and actor-director-playwright Joshua Logan.^[7] On Broadway, she played "Prossy" in Katharine Cornell's production of Candida. She made her film debut in John Ford's The Long Voyage Home as a Cockney slattern, and portrayed the landlady in The Enchanted Cottage (1945).

Natwick is remembered for small but memorable roles in several John Ford film classics, including 3 Godfathers (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and The Quiet Man (1952). She played Miss Ivy Gravely, in Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955), and a sorceress in The Court Jester (1956).

She continued to appear onstage, and made regular guest appearances in television series. On May 30, 1950, she starred in "Listen, Listen" on Suspense.^[8]

She was twice nominated for Tony Awards: in 1957 for The Waltz of the Toreadors, the same year she also starred in Tammy and the Bachelor with Debbie Reynolds and Leslie Nielsen^{[citation needed]} and in 1972 for the musical 70 Girls 70. She returned to film in Barefoot in the Park (1967) as the mother of the character played by Jane Fonda. The role earned Natwick her only Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting actress.^[7] One of Natwick's memorable roles was in The House Without a Christmas Tree (1972), which starred Jason Robards and Lisa Lucas. The program's success spawned three sequels: The Thanksgiving Treasure, The Easter Promise, and Addie and The King of Hearts.

In 1971, Natwick co-starred with Helen Hayes in the ABC Movie of the Week, Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate, in which their characters worked together as amateur sleuths. The success of that telefilm resulted in a similar team-up the next year, portraying two mystery-writing and solving sisters; this spawned the 1973-74 series The Snoop Sisters, which was part of The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie. For her performance, Natwick won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.^[2] In 1981, Natwick joined Hayes as the first members of the Board of Advisors to the Riverside Shakespeare Company.^[9] Both attended and supported several fund raisers for that off-Broadway theatre company.^[10]

She guest-starred on such television series as McMillan & Wife, Family, Alice, The Love Boat, Hawaii Five-O, The Bob Newhart Show and Murder, She Wrote. She made her final film appearance at age 83 in the historical drama Dangerous Liaisons (1988).^[11]

Personal life and death

Natwick, who never married or had children, lived in a duplex on Park Avenue in Manhattan for the majority of her life. She was a devout Christian Scientist.^[12] A Republican, she supported Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.^[13]

On October 25, 1994, Natwick died of cancer at her home in Manhattan at age 89.^[2]^[11] She is interred at Lorraine Park Cemetery in Baltimore.^[11]

Broadway credits

Date	Production	Role	Notes
October 29 – November 1932	Carry Nation	Mrs. Noble
September 27 – October 1933	Amourette	Drusilla Thorpe
October 24 – November 1933	Spring in Autumn	Pura
February 1 – May 1934	The Wind and the Rain	Mrs. McFie
September 25, 1934 – February 1935	The Distaff Side	Mrs. Venables
November 7 – November 1935	Mrs. Venables	May Beringer
February 17, 1936 – June 1936	End of Summer	Mrs. Wyle
September 1 – November 1, 1936	Love from a Stranger	Ethel
March 10 – May 8, 1937	Candida	Miss Proserpine Garnett
September 29, 1937 – April 1938	The Star-Wagon	Mrs. Rutledge
September 19 – October 1938	Missouri Legend	The Widow Weeks
February 9 – May 27, 1939	Stars In Your Eyes	Bess
December 27–30, 1939	Christmas Eve	Mother McGlory
January 2–4, 1941	The Lady Who Came to Stay	Milly
November 5, 1941 – June 5, 1943	Blithe Spirit	Madame Arcati
April 27 – May 31, 1942	Candida	Miss Proserpine Garnett	Revival
September 6 – October 2, 1943	Blithe Spirit	Madame Arcati
April 3 – May 2, 1946	Candida	Miss Proserpine Garnett	Revival
October 26, 1946 – January 4, 1947	The Playboy of the Western World	Widow Quin
March 27 – April 26, 1952	The Grass Harp	Dolly Talbo
January 17 – May 11, 1957	The Waltz of the Toreadors	Mme. St. Pé	Nominated—Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play
February 20–22, 1958	The Day the Money Stopped	Kathie Morrow
April 30 – May 31, 1958	The Firstborn	Miriam
March 2–19, 1960	The Good Soup	Marie-Paule and Armand's Mother, Angele
December 14, 1960 – May 27, 1961	Critic's Choice	Charlotte Orr
October 23, 1963 - June 25, 1967	Barefoot in the Park	Mrs. Banks
November 27 – December 27, 1969	Our Town	Mrs. Gibbs
April 15 – May 15, 1971	70, Girls, 70	Ida Dodd	Nominated—Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical
March 29 – November 24, 1979	Bedroom Farce	Delia	Replacement

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1940	The Long Voyage Home	Freda
1945	The Enchanted Cottage	Mrs. Abigail Minnett
1945	Yolanda and the Thief	Aunt Amarilla
1947	The Late George Apley	Amelia Newcombe
1948	A Woman's Vengeance	Nurse Caroline Braddock
	The Kissing Bandit	Isabella
	3 Godfathers	The Mother
1949	She Wore a Yellow Ribbon	Abby Allshard
1950	Cheaper by the Dozen	Mrs. Mebane
1952	The Quiet Man	The Widow Sarah Tillane
1952	Against All Flags	Molvina MacGregor
1955	The Trouble with Harry	Miss Ivy Gravely
1955	The Court Jester	Griselda
1956	Teenage Rebel	Grace Hewitt
1957	Tammy and the Bachelor	Aunt Renie
1967	Barefoot in the Park	Ethel Banks	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1969	If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium	Jenny Grant
	The Maltese Bippy	Molly Fletcher
	Trilogy	Miss Miller	Segment: "Miriam"
1974	Daisy Miller	Mrs. Costello
1975	At Long Last Love	Mabel Pritchard
1982	Kiss Me Goodbye	Mrs. Reilly
1988	Dangerous Liaisons	Madame de Rosemonde	Final film role

Partial television credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1949	Starring Boris Karloff		Episode: "Five Golden Guineas"
1950	Starlight Theatre		2 episodes
1950	Somerset Maugham TV Theatre	Mrs. Albert Forrester	Episode: "The Creative Impulse"
1953	Lux Video Theatre	Mrs. Boyd	Episode: "The Brooch"
1954	You Are There	Mary, Queen of Scots	Episode: "The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots"
1956	Ford Star Jubilee	Madame Arcati	Episode: "Blithe Spirit"
1956	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Aunt Rosalie Tallendier	Season 1 Episode 24: "The Perfect Murder"
1958	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Millicent Bracegirdle	Season 3 Episode 18: "Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty"
1961	Naked City	Irma Mahoney	Episode: "Take and Put"
1962	Arsenic & Old Lace	Martha Brewster	TV movie
1969	Bonanza	Mrs. Wharton	Episode: "Mrs. Wharton and the Lesser Breeds"
1971	Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate	Shelby Saunders	TV movie
1972	The House Without a Christmas Tree	Grandma Mills	TV movie
1973	Money to Burn	Emily Finnegan	TV movie
1973	The Thanksgiving Treasure	Grandma Mills	TV movie
1973–1974	The Snoop Sisters	Gwendolyn Snoop Nicholson	4 episodes
1975	McMillan & Wife	Beatrice McMillan	2 episodes
1978–1979	Hawaii Five-O	Millicent Shand	2 episodes
1978	Little Women	Aunt Kathryn March	TV miniseries
1980	Alice	Aunt Agatha	Episode: "Vera's Aunt Agatha"
1982	Maid in America	Mrs. Angstrom	TV movie
1983	Magnum, P.I.	Madge LaSalle	Episode: "Limited Engagement"
1986	Murder, She Wrote	Carrie McKittrick	Episode: "Murder in the Electric Cathedral "
1987	Deadly Deception	Sarah Cleason	TV movie

References

^ ^a ^b "Natwick never lost her love for stage". The Milwaukee Journal. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. October 28, 1994. p. D4. Retrieved February 17, 2015.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ ^a ^b ^c Flint, Peter B. (October 26, 1994). "Mildred Natwick, 89, Actress Who Excelled at Eccentricity". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 16, 2013. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
^ "YOUTH MOVEMENT FOCUSES ON CHILDREN". Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-01-14.
^ "HO-1066" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
^ Jones, George O.; McVean, Norman S. (1923). History of Wood County, Wisconsin. Vol. 1. Brookhaven Press. p. 362.
^ Meuel, David (2014). Women in the Films of John Ford. McFarland. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-786-47789-0.
^ ^a ^b "Mildred Natwick". masterworksbroadway.com.
^ "Television Highlights of the Week". The Boston Globe. May 28, 1590. p. 30-A. Retrieved May 5, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Helen Hayes (1900-1993)". The Daily Bulletin. Frederick, Maryland: Maryland School for the Deaf. October 10, 2013. p. 1.
^ Nemy, Enid (December 4, 1981). "The Evening Hours". The New York Times. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c Nissen 2007, p. 132.
^ Nissen 2007, p. 131.
^ Motion Picture and Television Magazine, November 1952, page 34, Ideal She lived in Moorefield, WV on Natwick Circle- (which was named after her family)Publishers

Nissen, Axel (2007). Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-786-42746-8.