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Marjorie Main (born Mary Tomlinson, February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975) was an American actress, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player and for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.
Main worked in vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit and in Chautauqua presentations, and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her first film was A House Divided in 1931.
Main began playing upper class dowagers, but ultimately was typecast in abrasive, domineering, salty roles, for which her distinctive voice was well suited. She repeated her stage role in Dead End in the 1937 film version, and was subsequently cast repeatedly as the mother of gangsters. She again transferred a strong stage performance, as a dude-ranch operator in The Women, to film in 1939. At this time, she guest-starred on radio programs such as Columbia Presents Corwin and The Goldbergs.
Main was signed to a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract in 1940 and stayed with the studio until the mid-1950s. She made six films with Wallace Beery in the 1940s, including Barnacle Bill (1941), Jackass Mail (1942), and Bad Bascomb (1946). She played Sonora Cassidy, the chief cook, in The Harvey Girls (1946). The director George Sidney remarked in the commentary for the film that Miss Main was a "great lady" as well as a great actress who donated most of her paychecks over the years to the support of a school.
Perhaps her most famous role is that of Ma Kettle, which she first played in The Egg and I in 1947 opposite Percy Kilbride as Pa Kettle. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the part and portrayed the character in nine more Ma and Pa Kettle films.
By the early 1950s, she had appeared in several MGM musicals, including, Meet Me in St. Louis and The Belle of New York. She played Mrs. Wrenley in the studio's all-star film It's a Big Country (1951). In 1954, Marjorie Main played her last roles for the studio: Mrs. Hittaway in The Long, Long Trailer and Jane Dunstock in Rose Marie. In 1956, Main's performance as the widow Hudspeth in the hit film Friendly Persuasion was well-received, earning her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1958, Main appeared twice as rugged frontierswoman Cassie Tanner in the episodes "The Cassie Tanner Story" and "The Sacramento Story" on NBC's television series Wagon Train. In the first segment, she joins the wagon train, casts her romantic interest on Ward Bond as Major Adams, and helps the train locate needed horses despite a Paiute threat.
as Esme (archive footage) (uncredited)
as Widow Hawkins in The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap
as Cassie Tanner(1 ep)
as Ma Kettle
as The Widow Hudspeth
as Ma Kettle
as Ma' Kettle
as Pansy Jones
as Ma Kettle
as Lady Jane Dunstock
as Mrs. Hittaway
as Ma Parkson
as Ma Kettle
as Ma Kettle
as Mrs Phineas Hill
as Mrs. Wrenley
as Julia Wortin
as Ma Kettle
as Mrs. Cabot
as Harriet O'Malley
as Esmé
as Ma Kettle
as Flapjack Kate
as Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
as Maribel Mathews
as Widow Hawkins
as Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
as Mrs. Fisher
as Lucy
as Abbey Hanks
as Sonora Cassidy
as Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
as Annie Goss
as Katie
as Iris Tuttle
as 'Gashouse' Mary
as Mrs. Strabel
as Mrs. Maude Fisher
as Miss Letitia 'Tish' Carberry
as Clementine 'Tina' Tucker
as Mrs. McKissick
as Judge Hawkes
as Susie 'Suz'
as Mrs. Varner
as Granny Becky
as Emma Kristiansdotter
as Marge Cavendish
as Mrs. Collins
as Irma, the Cook
as Mehitabel
as Sarah May Willett
as Mary Maloney
as Nora, the Cook
as Mrs. Cantrell / Mrs. Adams
as Mrs. Lowery
as Gertie
as Hildegarde 'Hildy' Carey
as Mrs. Dolley
as Lucy
as Mrs. Arkelian
as Mrs. Miller
as Mrs. Briggs
as Fireless Cooker Customer (uncredited)
as Miss Armstrong
as Miss Wayne
as Sara Post
as Mrs. Boylan
as Matron Brand
as Nora
as Old woman by phone (uncredited)
as Landlady
as Mrs. Stephens (uncredited)
as Miss Katie Mathews
as Mrs. Mary Brennan
as Mrs. Ward (uncredited)
as Hannah Gillespie
as Martha Foster
as Amelia Bradley
as Mrs. Martin
as Mrs. Martin
as Miss Emma Bisbee
as Anna (Uncredited)
as Backstage Wardrobe Woman (uncredited)
as Woman Who Sits on Painting
as Woman in Depot (uncredited)
as Arizona Representative
as Gossip in Window (uncredited)
as Frau Schmidt - Townswoman (uncredited)
as Townswoman at Wedding (uncredited)
as Statler Hotel Beauty
