You were right if you guessed it’s Thelma Ritter. That’s her with Jeanne Crain.
Ritter has the dubious distinction of being nominated for the Oscar SIX times in that category and NEVER winning. And she should have been nominated a few more times, too. As she noted, “always a bridesmaid, never a bride.”
What a spectacular career for a stage and radio actress from New York City who had married and raised two children before starting in movies.
Her debut was in a brief, uncredited role as a disgruntled parent visiting Macy’s Santa in 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street. There were two more uncredited roles, one in Northside 777, and one in Joseph Mankiewicz’s A Letter to Three Wives.
She was so singularly outstanding in that film that everyone took notice. Darryl Zanuck put her under contract at 20th Century Fox and Mankiewicz wrote her a fabulous part in his next picture, All About Eve. It garnered her her first Oscar nomination.
Then the parts and nominations began rolling in. Throughout the 1950s and 50s she was the first choice for any part in her age group. See any film she’s in and you won’t be disappointed. She bounced between comedy and drama, and was excellent in both. She’s even in a few noir films.
Today she’s probably best remembered for her role in Rear Window with James Stewart and Grace Kelly.
She her in Pillow Talk and Birdman of Alcatraz. But don’t miss her in Joe’s favorite — a small film (for which she received her second Oscar nomination) The Mating Season. Star billing goes to Gene Tierney and John Lund. And even Miriam Hopkins is billed above Ritter, but everyone knew she was the REAL star of the movie.
For those of you who keep records on the Oscars– yes, we know, Deborah Kerr received six nominations and never won, but that was in the Best Actress category. And Glenn Close has received six nominations and never won. But she has three in Best Actress and three in Best Supporting Actress categories.
No quiz for THELMA RITTER?
She was a born scene-stealer, a natural, that was just another one of those legions of actors that were taken for granted and ignored come awards time.
Of course Thelma’s most famous role was in REAR WINDOW… but she was just as memorable as the ‘birdman’s’ mother in THE BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ.
And who could forget her as Agatha Clegg who’s forever “looking for a man” and gets a ‘magnet’ like Debbie Reynolds to accompany her on the wagon train in HOW THE WEST WAS WON.
It was her neighbor writer/director George Seaton who gave Thelma her big break casting her in MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET.
Yes, you could certainly talk a WHOLE lot more on Thelma Ritter, and if she was here today, she’d REALLY have something to say about it!
Watch her in THE MISFITS, where she plays a character named Isabelle. In one scene she and Eli Wallach arrive at the house Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe are staying in and Gable greets her with “Hi, Thelma!” Gable died shortly after the production wrapped so he couldn’t go back and redub the line.