Mildred Natwick

from Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

Artwork for Dangerous LiaisonsImage of Mildred Natwick

Biography

Mildred Natwick (June 19, 1905 – October 25, 1994) was an American stage, film and television actress. In 1967, she earned an Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in Barefoot in the Park. She was nominated for two Tony Awards in 1957 and 1972 and won a Primetime Emmy Award for her work in the miniseries The Snoop Sisters, opposite Helen Hayes.

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. 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 Trouble with Harry (1955), and a sorceress in The Court Jester (1956).

Natwick in the film The Trouble with Harry in 1955

She continued to appear onstage, and made regular guest appearances in television series. 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 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. 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 1973-74 series, also called 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. In 1981, Natwick joined Hayes as the first members of the Board of Advisors to the Riverside Shakespeare Company. Both attended and supported several fund raisers for that off-Broadway theatre company.

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 the age of 83 in the 1988 historical drama Dangerous Liaisons.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Mildred Natwick, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Timeline

1988Aged 83

  • Poster for Dangerous Liaisons

    Madame de Rosemonde

1987Aged 82

  • Poster for Deadly Deception

    Sarah Cleason

1982Aged 77

  • Poster for Maid in America

    Mrs. Angstrom

  • Poster for Kiss Me Goodbye

    Mrs. Reilly

1979Aged 74

  • Poster for You Can't Take it With You

    Grand Duchess Olga Katrina

1976Aged 71

  • Poster for Addie and the King of Hearts

    Grandma Mills

1975Aged 70

  • Poster for At Long Last Love

    Mabel Pritchard

  • Poster for The Easter Promise

    Grandma Mills

1974Aged 69

  • Poster for Daisy Miller

    Mrs. Costello

1973Aged 68

  • Poster for Money to Burn

    Emily Finnegan

  • Poster for The Thanksgiving Treasure

    Grandma Mills

1972Aged 67

  • Poster for The House Without a Christmas Tree

    Grandma Mills

  • Poster for The Female Instinct

    Gwendolyn Snoop Nicholson

1971Aged 66

  • Poster for Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate

    Shelby Saunders

1969Aged 64

  • Poster for If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium

    Jenny Grant

  • Poster for Trilogy

    Miss Miller

  • Poster for The Maltese Bippy

    Molly Fletcher

1967Aged 62

  • Poster for Barefoot in the Park

    Ethel Banks

1963Aged 58

  • Poster for The Power and the Glory

    (Unknown)

1962Aged 57

  • Poster for Arsenic & Old Lace

    Martha Brewster

1957Aged 52

  • Poster for Tammy and the Bachelor

    Aunt Renie

1956Aged 51

  • Poster for Blithe Spirit

    Madame Arcati

  • Poster for Teenage Rebel

    Grace Hewitt

  • Poster for Eloise

    Nanny

1955Aged 50

  • Poster for The Trouble with Harry

    Miss Gravely

  • Poster for The Court Jester

    Griselda

1952Aged 47

  • Poster for The Quiet Man

    The Widow Sarah Tillane

  • Poster for Against All Flags

    Molvina MacGregor

1950Aged 45

  • Poster for Cheaper by the Dozen

    Mrs. Mebane

1949Aged 44

  • Poster for She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

    Abby Allshard

1948Aged 43

  • Poster for A Woman's Vengeance

    Nurse Caroline Braddock

  • Poster for The Kissing Bandit

    Isabella

  • Poster for 3 Godfathers

    The Mother

1947Aged 42

  • Poster for The Late George Apley

    Amelia Newcombe

1945Aged 40

  • Poster for The Enchanted Cottage

    Mrs. Abigail Minnett

  • Poster for Yolanda and the Thief

    Aunt Amarilla

1940Aged 35

  • Poster for The Long Voyage Home

    Freda