Mary Finney

Mary Finney (born Mary Whaley; September 30, 1906 – February 26, 1973) was an American comic character actress whose career spanned stage and television. Born in Spokane, Washington, she was the second child of burlesque performers Mary Hindman and James Whaley, who performed under the stage name Frank Finney. Her older brother, James Mathew Whaley, had died five months after his first birthday on December 1, 1905. Finney attended North Central High School, graduating with the class of 1924, during which time she contributed a regular column to the school's award-winning newspaper. She subsequently enrolled at the University of Oregon, where she majored in journalism.

Her professional stage debut came on March 31, 1924, when, at seventeen and still a senior at North Central High School, she performed with her father's company, the Laughlanders, in a production called A Trip to Hollywood at the Auditorium in Spokane. Both The Spokane Press and the Spokesman-Review reported the following day that she stopped the show singing "I'm Not That Kind of a Girl" and was immediately designated assistant comedian of the company. She went on to take larger roles in the Laughlanders' next two productions, playing a secretly married maid in Tiddledy Winks and a fairy queen in Woogie Woogie Land.

In the mid-1930s Finney performed in little theatre productions in Spokane, and a decade later she studied and performed at the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts. During her time at the Pasadena Playhouse, she was credited under her birth name, Mary Whaley — the only known instance in a career stretching back to her high school years in which she did not use the Finney name. She reverted to the family stage name in November 1946, when she appeared as the mother in Vina Delmar's A Rich, Full Life. Beginning in the fall of 1948 and continuing through the winter, she appeared in multiple productions at Margo Jones' Theater '48 in Dallas, including revivals of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, in which she portrayed Lady Bracknell, and Molière's The Learned Ladies, in which she played Philamente.

In 1950, again under the direction of Margo Jones, Finney made her Broadway debut as Mary Belle Tucker in Owen Crump's Southern Exposure. Daily News critic John Chapman declared her the funniest character woman he had seen since comedienne May Vokes appeared in The Bat three decades earlier. Her Broadway career continued through 1959 and encompassed a range of productions, including Make a Wish, the play The Magic and the Loss, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and the musicals Happy Hunting and First Impressions. A 1952 revival of Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour, helmed by the playwright herself, drew particular critical attention to Finney's work. Louis Sheaffer of The Brooklyn Eagle praised her "brilliant characterization" for capturing what he described as "all the anemic viciousness of the aunt," and followed up three days later to argue that most reviewers had not given her sufficient credit for a portrayal that illuminated the character's inner life so completely it inspired a grudging pity. Other Broadway appearances drew praise from critics including Joe Morgenstern of the Herald Tribune, Howard Taubman of the Times, and Martin Gottfried of Women's Wear Daily.

Finney also worked in television, co-starring on Honestly, Celeste!, a short-lived sitcom featuring Celeste Holm. A Kraft Television Theatre episode titled "We Haven't Seen Her Lately" drew a largely negative assessment from Herald Tribune critic Sid Bakal, who nonetheless singled out Finney, along with George C. Scott and Angela Thornton, as performers who managed to rise above the material.

Finney died on February 26, 1973, in Manhattan, of emphysema, at the age of 66. She was unmarried and had no living next of kin at the time of her death.