Nora Cecil
Birthday: 1878-09-26
Place of Birth: London, England, UK
Synopsis
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.
Acting
Car 99
as Granny Adams
A story of the Michigan State Police and the strong sense of loyalty and duty it instills in its men. It follows the career of a newly-inducted rookie, Ross Martin, who has joined the force at the urging of his sweetheart, Mary Adams. Martin soon distinguishes himself by his bravery in the apprehension of criminals. But when the leader of a gang of bank robbers falls into his hands and then escapes, because of carelessness on Martin's part, he is suspended from the force.
Search for Beauty
as Miss Pettigrew
Three con artists dupe two Olympians into serving as editors of a new health and beauty magazine which is only a front for salacious stories and pictures.
Laughing Boy
as Schoolteacher
A young Navajo defies tribal custom to marry an outcast.
Peg o' My Heart
as Smythe (maid)
Peg and her father live a simple life in an Irish fishing village. One day Sir Gerald arrives at the village to tell Pat that Peg is heir to estate of her grandfather, who hated Pat. The upshot of the will is that she must go to England for 3 years to learn to be a lady and that Pat can never see her again.
The Ruling Voice
as Malcom's Nurse (uncredited)
A mob boss has a change of heart when his daughter convinces him to move on from crime.
Chip of the Flying U
as Dr. Cecil Grantham
A remake of a 1915 Tom Mix/Selig Western, this film was yet another silent oater (loosely) based on a story by popular pulp fiction writer Peter B. Kyne. Chip Bennett, a Flying U ranch hand-turned-cartoonist, despite being a confirmed misogynist falls in love with Della Whitmore, a lady doctor and sister of his employer.
Timothy's Quest
as Townswoman
A charming pastoral about two unwanted children finding acceptance and love, Timothys Quest (1922) is a rare, cinematic gem based on a novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin (Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm), who was then known as Americas best loved author of stories about children.