Nora Cecil
Known for: Acting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Nora Cecil (September 20, 1878 – May 1, 1951) was a British-American character actress whose 30-year career spanned both the silent and sound film eras. Cecil's career began on the stage, where she appeared in a single Broadway production, The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast, which ran for more than 240 performances at the Broadway Theatre in 1901-02. (A 1930 newspaper article says that Cecil "made her debut, three decades ago, on the London stage.") Cecil appeared in well over 100 feature films and film shorts. In 1915, she moved from the stage into films, her first appearance being in a starring role in The Arrival of Perpetua, directed by Émile Chautard. She often played "thin-lipped, stern-visaged dowagers and forbidding mothers-in-law" and "welfare workers, landladies, schoolmistresses and maiden aunts". One of the most significant roles was in the W.C. Fields vehicle, The Old Fashioned Way in 1934. Some of the other notable films in which Cecil appeared include: Ernst Lubitsch's historical romance, The Merry Widow, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald; the 1939 version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, starring Mickey Rooney; the John Ford classic, Stagecoach, with John Wayne. Her final acting performance was in a featured role in Mourning Becomes Electra in 1947, starring Rosalind Russell.
Filmography
Film
Stagecoach
Boone's Landlady (uncredited)
1939
Film
I Married a Witch
Harriet Wooley (uncredited)
1942
Film
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell
Miss Jenkins
1939
Film
Hell's Angels
Helen's Maid (uncredited)
1930
Film
The Merry Widow
Animal Woman (uncredited)
1934
Film
The Sea of Grass
Mrs. Ryan - Nurse (uncredited)
1947
Film
Fury
Albert's Mother (uncredited)
1936
Film
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mrs. Shackleford (uncredited)
1939
Film
Union Pacific
Snoring Woman on Train (uncredited)
1939
Film
Lady on a Train
1945
Film
The Thin Man Goes Home
Miss Peavy
1944
Film
Hail the Conquering Hero
Train Ticket Clerk (uncredited)
1944
Film
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
Hospital Nurse (uncredited)
1944
Film
Young People
Righteous Old Lady (uncredited)
1940
Film
Pack Up Your Troubles
Welfare Association Officer (uncredited)
1932
Film
Two Sisters from Boston
Mrs. Mulberry - Recital Guest (uncredited)
1946
Film
You're Telling Me!
Mrs. Price
1934
Film
Bachelor Bait
Mrs. Trutmanner (uncredited)
1934
Film
Easy Living
Miss Swerf
1937
Film
The Bank Dick
Lompoc Ladies Auxiliary (uncredited)
1940
Film
Miss Crusoe
Miss Meeker (uncredited)
1919
Film
The Big Parade of Comedy
Actress in 'Hollywood Party' (archive footage) (uncredited)
1964
Film
Three Girls About Town
Casket Customer
1941
Film
Nothing Sacred
Schoolteacher (uncredited)
1937
Film
Gold Diggers of 1935
Housekeeper (uncredited)
1935
Film
King of the Jungle
Spinster in park (uncredited)
1933
Film
Collegiate
Miss Curtiss
1935
Film
Biography of a Bachelor Girl
Ship's Matron (uncredited)
1935
Film
Two in the Dark
Mrs. Potter, Landlady (uncredited)
1936
Film
Girl Grief
Miss Tuttle, Principal
1932
Film
Some Like It Hot
Mrs. Beckett (uncredited)
1939
Film
Design for Living
Tom's Secretary (uncredited)
1933
Film
Lucky Partners
Women's Club President (uncredited)
1940
Film
International Settlement
English Woman
1938
Film
Mourning Becomes Electra
Louisa Ames
1947
Film
Woman, Woman!
Mrs. Lindsay
1919
Film
Obliging Young Lady
Miss Hollyrod - Bird Lover (uncredited)
1942
Film
A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob
Charwoman
1941
Film
The Big Broadcast of 1937
Home Economics Woman
1936
Film
Once to Every Woman
Miss Baxter’s Sister (uncredited)
1934
Film
Seven Footprints to Satan
Old Witch
1929
Film
Street Scene
Alice Simpson - Welfare Worker
1931
Film
Girl of the Ozarks
Miss Trent
1936
Film
Footfalls
1921
Film
The Wife Takes a Flyer
Miss Updike
1942
Film
Peg o' My Heart
Smythe (maid)
1933
Film
Going Hollywood
Briarcroft's Teacher
1933
Film
Amateur Daddy
Saleslady
1932
Film
Hold Your Man
Miss Campbell (uncredited)
1933
Film
Doctor Bull
Aunt Emily Banning
1933
Film
The Poor Little Rich Girl
One of Gwendolyn's Teachers (uncredited)
1917
Film
Those Were the Days!
Mrs. Moffett
1940
Film
Let's Make a Million
1936
Film
Arrowsmith
Nurse (uncredited)
1931
Film
Mr. Boggs Steps Out
Widow Peddie
1938
Film
Little Miss Nobody
Mrs. Robinson
1936
Film
The Old-Fashioned Way
Mrs. Wendelschaffer
1934
Film
Chip of the Flying U
Dr. Cecil Grantham
1926
Film
Mixed Nuts
Mrs. Twitchett
1934
Film
Nature in the Wrong
Muriel's mother
1933
Film
Chained
Edith (uncredited)
1934
Film
Way Down East
Townswoman at Party
1935
The Arrival of Perpetua
Abigail Majendrie
1915
Film
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
1930
Film
Night Must Fall
1937
Film
Apache Trail
Passenger (uncredited)
1942
Film
Millie
Helen and Angie's Landlady (uncredited)
1931
Film
Vagabond Lady
Miss Perkins (uncredited)
1935
Film
Dancing Pirate
Landlady (uncredited)
1936
Film
The Deadwood Coach
Matilda Shields - in play
1924
Film
The Town That Forgot God
(uncredited)
1922
Film
Meet the Baron
Professor Winterbottom (uncredited)
1933
Film
Asleep in the Feet
Female Police Officer
1933
Film
Footlights and Fools
(uncredited)
1929
Film
Night of Mystery
1937
Wreckety Wrecks
Miss Winterbottom
1933
Film
Upperworld
Stream's Housekeeper (uncredited)
1934
Film
His Majesty, Bunker Bean
Countess Casanova
1925
Film
Seven Days Leave
Amelia Twymley
1930
Film
Girls
Matron Helen Hunt
1927
Film
By Hook or Crook
Aunt Marie
1918
Film
The Unknown Guest
Martha Williams
1943
Film
Three Weeks in Paris
1925
Film
Prunella
1918
Film
Big Town
Miss Lovelace (uncredited)
1946
Film
College Holiday
Miss Elkins (uncredited)
1936
Film
The Missing Lady
Miss Millie
1946
Film
Only Saps Work
Mrs. Partridge (uncredited)
1930
Film
A Trick of Hearts
The Mayor
1928
Film
What a Life
Miss Eggleston
1939
Film
Appearance of Evil
Miss Spurgeon
1918
Film
Little Accident
Dr. Zernecke
1930
Film
The Devil Dancer
Julia
1927
Film
Darwin Was Right
Aunt Priscilla
1924
Film
Champagne Waltz
Train Passenger
1937
Film
She Asked for It
Elderly lady (uncredited)
1937
Film
Young Bride
Landlady (uncredited)
1932
Film
Stage Mother
Miss Gilford, Kitty's Music Store Boss (uncredited)
1933
Film
Hot Saturday
Gossip on Telephone (Uncredited)
1932
Film
Fast Workers
Tall Window-Shopper (Uncredited)
1933
Film
Manslaughter
Lydia's Chaperone (uncredited)
1922
Film
East Lynne
Charity Bazaar Committee
1931
Film
The Demi-Bride
School Teacher
1927
Film
The Social Secretary
Spinster (uncredited)
1916
Film
The Baby Cyclone
Mrs. Crandall
1928
Opened by Mistake
Head Nurse
1934
Film
Little Men
Head of Orphanage
1940
Film
Tillie Wakes Up
Gossip in Ice Cream Parlor / Woman Having Picture Taken
1917
Film
Slightly Static
Beauty Products Announcer (uncredited)
1935
Film
Car 99
Granny Adams
1935
Film
Partners in Crime
Housekeeper
1937
Film
Under Your Spell
School Teacher (uncredited)
1936
Film
Blossoms On Broadway
Leader of Committee (uncredited)
1937
Film
Borrowing Trouble
Dressmaker
1937
Film
Laughing at Trouble
Mrs. Wigby - Townswoman
1936
A Model Husband
Mrs Gossip
1916
Film
The Zero Hour
Mrs. Winslow (uncredited)
1918
Film
Sensation Seekers
Mrs. Lodge
1927
Film
Everything’s Rosie
Hotel Proprietress
1931
Film
The Mighty Treve
Old Maid at Dog Show
1937
One-Horse Farmers
Subway Passenger (uncredited)
1934
Film
Midnight Faces
Mrs. Hart
1926
Film
Three Smart Boys
Miss Witherspoon, Superintendent
1937
Film
Love Net
Miss Prudence Tilly
1918
Film
The Ruling Voice
Malcom's Nurse (uncredited)
1931
Film
The Fortune Hunter
Betty Carpenter
1927
Film
Too Many Crooks
(uncredited)
1927
Film
Laughing Boy
Schoolteacher
1934
An Amateur Widow
1919
The Millionaire Cat
Aunt Mathilda
1932
Film
The Wild Girl
Undetermined Role (uncredited)
1917
Film
The Silent Rider
Mrs. Randall
1927
Film
Mr. Bride
Mrs. Cecil
1932
Film
Born to Battle
Ma Cowan
1927
Film
Search for Beauty
Miss Pettigrew
1934
Film
Driftwood
Mrs. Prouty
1928
Film
The Spectacle Maker
Duchess
1934
Film
The Cavalier
Lucia's Aunt
1928
Film
Memories and Melodies
Customer (uncredited)
1935
Film
Timothy's Quest
Townswoman
1922
Film
The Daughter Pays
1920
Film
A Royal Romance
Miss McPherson
1917
Film
Red Foam
1920
Film
American Buds
Emily
1918