Esther Howard

Esther Howard (April 4, 1892 – March 8, 1965) was an American actress whose career spanned both Broadway and film, encompassing stage work from 1917 to 1928 and a screen career of 108 films over 23 years. Born in Butte, Montana, to Martha Esther Howard (née Boggs) and James Howard Jr., she grew up in a household shaped by music and medicine. Her father worked as a conductor at the Butte Opera House, while her paternal grandfather, James Howard Sr., was a physician who maintained practices in Butte and Dillon, Montana, and served as coroner of Silver Bow County. When Howard was five, the family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where her father had previously lived. She received her education there at the Girls' Latin School.

Howard launched her stage career in stock theater in Lynn, Massachusetts, before making her Broadway debut in 1917 in Eve's Daughter, a production that did not find success with audiences. Over the following decade she appeared in eleven additional Broadway productions, including the musicals Wildflower, Sunny, Tell Me More, and The Sweetheart Shop, as well as the play She Would and She Did. Her final Broadway appearance came in The New Moon in 1929.

In 1930, Howard transitioned to film work, beginning with a Vitaphone comedy short titled The Victim. From that point through her retirement in 1952, at least one film featuring Howard was released every year. She was frequently cast in supporting roles ranging from oversexed dowagers and decrepit old hags to glamorous society figures and amoral criminals. Among her more prominent screen roles were Miss Prescott in Meet the Mayor (1932), the frowsy Jessie Florian in the Raymond Chandler adaptation Murder My Sweet (1944), an aunt with a romantic interest in Oliver Hardy in the Laurel and Hardy film The Big Noise (1944), diner waitress Holly in Detour (1945), Filthy Flora in Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946), Mrs. Kraft in Born to Kill (1947), and Kirk Douglas' mother in Champion (1949). Howard also worked as a ghost singer, dubbing vocals for larger-name stars who lacked singing ability, though she never sang onscreen herself.

Between 1940 and 1949, Howard appeared in seven films written and directed by Preston Sturges, making her a consistent presence in his informal company of character players. From 1937 onward she was also a regular performer in short-subject films produced at Columbia Pictures, where she was frequently paired with comedian Andy Clyde. Her final screen credit was the Columbia comedy short Caught on the Bounce (1952), in which she played the aunt of Joe Besser.

Howard died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California, on March 8, 1965, at the age of 72. She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.