Almira Sessions

Almira Sessions (September 16, 1888 – August 3, 1974) was an American character actress whose work spanned stage, screen, and television across more than six decades. Born in Washington, D.C., she appeared in over 500 films and television productions during her career and continued working into her eighties, retiring shortly before her death in Los Angeles in 1974.

Sessions came from a prominent Washington family and made her acting debut in 1909 in a performance of the comic operetta The Sultan of Sulu, written by George Ade and Nathaniel D. Mann. Her early professional years were spent performing in cabarets before she relocated to New York City, where she pursued stage work and appeared on Bob Hope's radio program. During the 1930s she established herself on Broadway, with credits including Ethan Frome, Shadow and Substance, Curtain Call, the musical White Horse Inn, and Yokel Boy, among other productions spanning 1932 to 1939.

While active on Broadway, Sessions made her film debut in Edward Sloman's 1932 picture Wayward, shot at Paramount Publix studios in New York. Her film appearances during the 1930s were sporadic, limited largely to occasional shorts such as the 1935 comedy Two Boobs in a Balloon, starring Edgar Bergen. She did not begin appearing regularly in feature films until 1940, when she was cast in Norman Taurog's Little Nellie Kelly alongside Judy Garland.

The 1940s marked the most concentrated period of her film work. She appeared in Preston Sturges's Sullivan's Travels (1942), starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake, and again worked with Sturges on The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), with Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton. Her performance as Hattie the cook in the 1943 comedy My Kingdom for a Cook, starring Charles Coburn, drew notice for her comedic abilities. Additional credits from the decade include William Wellman's The Ox-Bow Incident, starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, and Anthony Quinn; the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical State Fair (1945); the Cole Porter biopic Night and Day (1946), with Cary Grant and Alexis Smith; the 1946 film noir Fear; Charlie Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux (1947), in which she had one of her infrequent featured roles; Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1947), starring James Stewart; Henry Koster's The Bishop's Wife (1948), with Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven; the musical comedy Take Me Out to the Ball Game, starring Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Esther Williams; and King Vidor's 1949 adaptation of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal.

Sessions carried her film momentum into the 1950s with appearances in Koster's Harvey (1950), again starring James Stewart; The Lemon Drop Kid, based on a Damon Runyon story and starring Bob Hope; Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955), with James Dean and Natalie Wood; Michael Curtiz's crime drama The Scarlet Hour (1956); and Elvis Presley's third film, Loving You (1957). The decade also marked her entry into television. Beginning with The Adventures of Kit Carson, she accumulated guest appearances across numerous series, including Adventures of Superman, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Hopalong Cassidy, Lassie, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, and Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. In 1957 she appeared as Mrs. Thatcher in the Cheyenne episode titled "The Iron Trail." She also appeared in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, playing Mrs. Merrell in the 1959 episode "The Dusty Drawer" and Martha Henderson in the 1959 episode "Craig's Will."

Her pace slowed in the 1960s, though she remained active in both mediums. Film credits from the period include the Tennessee Williams adaptation Summer and Smoke (1961), with Laurence Harvey, Geraldine Page, and Rita Moreno; the comedy Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963), featuring Jack Lemmon, Carol Lynley, Dean Jones, and Edie Adams; The Boston Strangler (1968), starring Tony Curtis and Henry Fonda; and Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968), with Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, and Ruth Gordon. Her television work during the same years included appearances on The Donna Reed Show, The Munsters, F Troop, The Carol Burnett Show, and The Andy Griffith Show, in which she played Mrs. Fletcher in the final episode, Mayberry R.F.D.

Sessions's final film credit was the horror picture Willard (1971), and her last television appearances included guest roles on Marcus Welby, M.D., Night Gallery, and Love, American Style before she retired ahead of her death in 1974.