Madge Kennedy

Madge Kennedy (April 19, 1891 – June 9, 1987) was a Chicago-born actress whose career spanned stage, film, television, and radio across more than six decades. Her father served as a judge in a criminal court. After her family relocated to California, Kennedy moved to New York City with her mother with the intention of becoming an illustrator, studying for two years at the Art Students League. A recommendation from artist Luis Mora led her to spend a summer in Siasconset, Nantucket, Massachusetts, where the colony's mix of actors and artists drew her toward performance. She appeared in a skit written by Kenneth and Roy Webb, catching the attention of professional actor Harry Woodruff, who arranged for her to take the lead opposite him in The Genius. Work with Robert McLaughlin's stock company in Cleveland followed before she made her Broadway debut.

Kennedy's first Broadway appearance came in 1912 in Little Miss Brown, a three-act farce presented at the 48th Street Theater, where critics noted her youth, physical appeal, and comic instincts. That same year she appeared in The Point of View. In 1914 she was featured in Twin Beds, and in 1915 she delivered what was described as a sensational performance at the Eltinge Theater, playing Blanny Wheeler opposite John Cumberland in Avery Hopwood's Fair and Warmer, a production that ran 377 performances. Critic Louis Vincent DeFoe wrote that Kennedy demonstrated consummate art even in farcical acting, and in 1921 journalist Heywood Broun called her the best farce actress in New York.

After leaving the stage for roughly three years to work in silent films, Kennedy returned to Broadway in November 1920 in Cornered, staged at the Astor Theatre. Produced by Henry Savage and drawn from the writing of Dodson Mitchell, the play gave Kennedy a dual role. In 1923 she starred opposite W.C. Fields in Poppy, receiving top billing. She appeared in the comedy Beware of Widows in 1925 at the Maxine Elliott Theatre, where a New York Times reviewer again cited both her physical beauty and her comedic skill. Philip Barry's Paris Bound followed in 1927, and in 1931 she took over the role originated by Gertrude Lawrence in Noël Coward's Private Lives. Kennedy also starred in Love in a Mist. After an absence of 33 years from Broadway, she returned in August 1965 to appear alongside Ruth Gordon in A Very Rich Woman, written by Gordon and Garson Kanin.

Kennedy's film career began in 1917 when Sam Goldwyn of Goldwyn Pictures signed her to a contract. She starred in 21 five-reel films for Goldwyn, including Baby Mine (1917), Nearly Married (1917), Our Little Wife (1918), The Service Star (1918), and Dollars and Sense (1920). In Our Little Wife she played the role of Dodo Warren, a character in a story adapted from a comedy by Avery Hopwood. A Perfect Lady (1918), adapted from a stage play by Channing Pollock and Rennold Wolf, featured Kennedy alongside James Montgomery. Her contract with Goldwyn ended in 1921. Kennedy and her husband Harold Bolster formed Kenma Corporation, a film production company, which produced The Purple Highway (1923) and Three Miles Out (1924), both starring Kennedy. The Purple Highway was adapted from the stage play Dear Me, written by Luther Reed and Hale Hamilton. Additional film roles during the 1920s included Scandal Sheet (1925), Bad Company (1925), Lying Wives (1925), Oh, Baby! (1926), and Walls Tell Tales (1928).

Kennedy resumed her film career after a lengthy absence with The Marrying Kind (1952) and Main Street to Broadway (1953). Through the late 1950s she appeared in The Rains of Ranchipur (1955), The Catered Affair (1956), Lust for Life (1956), Houseboat (1958), A Nice Little Bank That Should Be Robbed (1958), Plunderers of Painted Flats (1959), and North by Northwest (1959). She had an uncredited role as a secretary in the 1960 Marilyn Monroe film Let's Make Love. Her film work continued into the 1970s with They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), The Baby Maker (1970), The Day of the Locust (1975), and Marathon Man (1976).

On radio, Kennedy appeared as a guest on the NBC Red Davis series in 1934, working alongside Burgess Meredith, who held the title role. The program's creator, Elaine Sterne Carrington, wrote Kennedy into the full script. Her television work began with an episode of Schlitz Playhouse of Stars in 1954 and extended through appearances on Studio 57 (1954), General Electric Theater (1954), Science Fiction Theater (1955), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956–1961), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1960), The Best of the Post (1961), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962), The Twilight Zone (1963), and CBS Playhouse (1967). She held a semi-recurring role as Theodore Cleaver's Aunt Martha on Leave It to Beaver from 1957 to 1963, playing June Cleaver's aunt. In 1972 she appeared on The Odd Couple as Mimi, the wife of Albert, Felix's grandfather, a character played by Tony Randall.

Kennedy's first husband was Harold Bolster, a former Goldwyn executive and member of the New York banking firm Bennett, Bolster & Coghill. Bolster died on August 3, 1927, at age 38, from an illness contracted during a business trip to South America. He was a veteran of World War I. Kennedy inherited more than $500,000 upon his death. On August 13, 1934, she married actor and radio personality William B. Hanley Jr. in Kingman, Arizona. The couple lived in Los Angeles and remained married until Hanley's death in 1959. Kennedy held a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1600 Vine Street in the Motion Pictures section, dedicated on February 8, 1960. She died of respiratory failure at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, in 1987 at the age of 96.