Actor · Acting

Nora Cecil

Born 1878-09-24

Died 1951-05-01

📍 London, England, UK

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 137

The Big Parade of Comedy

as Actress in 'Hollywood Party' (archive footage) (uncredited)

Mourning Becomes Electra

The Sea of Grass

as Mrs. Ryan - Nurse (uncredited)

as Miss Lovelace (uncredited)

The Missing Lady

Two Sisters from Boston

as Mrs. Mulberry - Recital Guest (uncredited)

Lady on a Train

The Thin Man Goes Home

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

as Hospital Nurse (uncredited)

Hail the Conquering Hero

as Train Ticket Clerk (uncredited)

The Unknown Guest

as Martha Williams

I Married a Witch

as Harriet Wooley (uncredited)

as Passenger (uncredited)

The Wife Takes a Flyer

Obliging Young Lady

as Miss Hollyrod - Bird Lover (uncredited)

Three Girls About Town

as Casket Customer

A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob

as Lompoc Ladies Auxiliary (uncredited)

as Head of Orphanage

as Righteous Old Lady

as Women's Club President (uncredited)

Those Were the Days!

as Mrs. Moffett

as Miss Eggleston

Some Like It Hot

as Mrs. Beckett (uncredited)

as Snoring Woman on Train (uncredited)

The Story of Alexander Graham Bell

as Miss Jenkins

as Boone's Landlady (uncredited)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

as Mrs. Shackleford (uncredited)

Mr. Boggs Steps Out

as Widow Peddie

International Settlement

as English Woman

Borrowing Trouble

as Schoolteacher (uncredited)

Blossoms On Broadway

as Leader of Committee (uncredited)

Partners in Crime

She Asked for It

as Elderly lady (uncredited)

Night of Mystery

Three Smart Boys

as Miss Witherspoon, Superintendent

Night Must Fall

Champagne Waltz

as Train Passenger

The Mighty Treve

as Old Maid at Dog Show

College Holiday

as Miss Elkins (uncredited)

Laughing at Trouble

as Mrs. Wigby - Townswoman

Under Your Spell

as School Teacher (uncredited)

The Big Broadcast of 1937

as Home Economics Woman

Let's Make a Million

Girl of the Ozarks

Little Miss Nobody

as Mrs. Robinson

as Albert's Mother (uncredited)

as Landlady (uncredited)

as Miss Curtiss

Two in the Dark

as Mrs. Potter, Landlady (uncredited)

as Townswoman at Party

Slightly Static

as Beauty Products Announcer (uncredited)

as Miss Perkins (uncredited)

Gold Diggers of 1935

as Housekeeper (uncredited)

as Granny Adams

Memories and Melodies

as Customer (uncredited)

Biography of a Bachelor Girl

as Ship's Matron (uncredited)

The Merry Widow

as Animal Woman (uncredited)

The Spectacle Maker

as Edith (uncredited)

as Mrs. Trutmanner (uncredited)

The Old-Fashioned Way

as Mrs. Wendelschaffer

as Stream's Housekeeper (uncredited)

as Schoolteacher

You're Telling Me!

Once to Every Woman

as Miss Baxter’s Sister (uncredited)

as Mrs. Twitchett

Search for Beauty

as Miss Pettigrew

Design for Living

as Tom's Secretary (uncredited)

Going Hollywood

as Briarcroft's Teacher

as Professor Winterbottom (uncredited)

as Miss Gilford, Kitty's Music Store Boss (uncredited)

as Aunt Emily Banning

as Miss Campbell (uncredited)

Peg o' My Heart

as Smythe (maid)

Nature in the Wrong

as Muriel's mother

King of the Jungle

as Spinster in park (uncredited)

as Tall Window-Shopper (Uncredited)

Asleep in the Feet

as Female Police Officer

The Bitter Tea of General Yen

as Gossip on Telephone (Uncredited)

as Miss Tuttle, Principal

Pack Up Your Troubles

as Welfare Association Officer (uncredited)

as Landlady (uncredited)

as Nurse (uncredited)

The Ruling Voice

as Malcom's Nurse (uncredited)

as Alice Simpson - Welfare Worker

Everything’s Rosie

as Hotel Proprietress

as Charity Bazaar Committee

as Helen and Angie's Landlady (uncredited)

as Mrs. Partridge (uncredited)

as Helen's Maid (uncredited)

Little Accident

as Dr. Zernecke

The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu

Seven Days Leave

as Amelia Twymley

Footlights and Fools

as (uncredited)

Seven Footprints to Satan

as Lucia's Aunt

The Baby Cyclone

as Mrs. Crandall

A Trick of Hearts

The Devil Dancer

Too Many Crooks

as (uncredited)

as Matron Helen Hunt

Sensation Seekers

as School Teacher

The Fortune Hunter

as Betty Carpenter

The Silent Rider

as Mrs. Randall

Chip of the Flying U

as Dr. Cecil Grantham

Three Weeks in Paris

His Majesty, Bunker Bean

as Countess Casanova

The Deadwood Coach

as Matilda Shields - in play

Darwin Was Right

as Aunt Priscilla

The Town That Forgot God

as (uncredited)

as Lydia's Chaperone (uncredited)

Timothy's Quest

The Daughter Pays

as Mrs. Lindsay

as Miss Meeker (uncredited)

as Miss Prudence Tilly

as Mrs. Winslow (uncredited)

Appearance of Evil

as Miss Spurgeon

By Hook or Crook

as Undetermined Role (uncredited)

A Royal Romance

as Miss McPherson

The Poor Little Rich Girl

as One of Gwendolyn's Teachers (uncredited)

The Social Secretary

as Spinster (uncredited)