Jane Darwell

Infobox actor
name = Jane Darwell


imagesize = 170px
caption = in "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940)
birthdate = birth date|1879|10|15
birthplace = Palmyra, Missouri, U.S.
deathdate = death date and age|1967|8|13|1879|10|15
deathplace = Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
birthname = Patti Woodard
academyawards = Best Supporting Actress
1940 "The Grapes of Wrath"

Jane Darwell (October 15, 1879 – August 13, 1967) was an Academy Award-winning American theater and film actress.

Biography

Born Patti Woodard in Palmyra, Missouri, she originally intended to become a circus performer; her father objected, however, and she compromised by becoming an actress.cite news | work=The New York Times | title=Jane Darwell, 87, Actress, Is Dead | date=August 15, 1967 | author=Associated Press | url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A17FF345E137A93C7A81783D85F438685F9 | format=PDF, fee required | authorlink=Associated Press | accessdate=2008-05-14]

She began her acting career in theater productions in Chicago and made her first film appearance in 1913. She appeared in almost twenty films over the next two years before returning to the stage. After a 15 year absence from films, she resumed her film career in 1930 with a role in "Tom Sawyer", and her career as a Hollywood character actress began. Short, stout and plain-faced she was quickly cast in a succession of films usually as the mother of one of the major characters. She was especially prevalent in Shirley Temple films; she appeared in six films with Temple, usually as the housekeeper or grandmother.

She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as "Ma Joad" in "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940), a role she was given at the insistence of the film's star, Henry Fonda. A contract player with 20th Century Fox, Darwell occasionally starred in "B" movies and played featured parts in scores of major films.

Darwell had noted appearances on the stage as well; in 1944, she was popular in the stage comedy "Suds in Your Eye", in which she played an Irishwoman who had inherited a junkyard.

By the end of her career she had appeared in more than 170 films, including "Huckleberry Finn" (1931), "Roman Scandals" (1933), "Once to Every Woman" (1934), "Little Miss Broadway" (1938), "Jesse James", "The Rains Came", "Gone with the Wind" (all 1939), "The Ox-Bow Incident" (1943), "My Darling Clementine" (1946), "3 Godfathers" (1948) and "Caged" (1950).

Always popular within the film industry, her final role as the old woman feeding the birds in "Mary Poppins" was personally given to her by Walt Disney.

Darwell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures, at 6735 Hollywood Boulevard.

Darwell died from a heart attack in Woodland Hills, California at the age of 87, and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

References

External links

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###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
years=1940
for "The Grapes of Wrath"
before=Hattie McDaniel
for "Gone with the Wind"
after=Mary Astor
for "The Great Lie"

Persondata
NAME= Darwell, Jane
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Woodard, Patti
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actress
DATE OF BIRTH= October 15, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH= Palmyra, Missouri, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH= August 13, 1967
PLACE OF DEATH= Woodland Hills, California, U.S.