Queenie Smith

Queenie Smith (September 8, 1898 – August 5, 1978) was an American actress whose career spanned stage, film, and television across more than five decades. Born in Texas, she moved with her family to New York, where she trained in ballet and dance at the Metropolitan Opera's ballet school. During her teenage years, Smith performed as a dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Company, appearing in productions of Aida, La Traviata, and Faust. She later established a talent agency and worked as a teacher and mentor to young actors.

Smith's Broadway career ran from 1919 to 1934. Among her stage credits were Helen of Troy, New York (1923), Sitting Pretty (1924), the musical The Street Singer (1929), the play The Blue Widow, and the musical A Little Racketeer. Her final Broadway appearance came in 1934 with a two-month run of the play Every Thursday.

Following her stage career, Smith moved to California to pursue work in film. She appeared in the Lillian Roth musical featurette Masks and Memories (1934) before being cast as a showboat entertainer in the W. C. Fields and Bing Crosby film Mississippi (1935). The following year she costarred in Universal Pictures' 1936 adaptation of Jerome Kern's Show Boat, playing Ellie May Chipley alongside Irene Dunne and Allan Jones. In taking on that role, Smith succeeded Eva Puck, who had originated the part of Chipley in the 1927 stage premiere and returned to it in the 1932 revival. After a single feature film appearance in 1939, Smith made no further screen appearances until 1946, when she resumed work in character roles. She also played Jimmy Durante's wife in the 1950 Christmas film The Great Rupert.

Beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith became a recognizable television presence. She appeared as an Irish landlady in The Bowery Boys from 1956 to 1957 and went on to guest roles on numerous television series, among them Hawaii Five-O, The Monkees, The Odd Couple, The Waltons, Here's Lucy, Barney Miller, Maude, McMillan & Wife, Rhoda, Chico and the Man, Love American Style, The Love Boat, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, A.E.S. Hudson Street, Mother Jugs & Speed, The Funny Side, and Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway. She held a recurring role as Mrs. Whipple on Little House on the Prairie.

Away from performing, Smith taught at the Hollywood Professional School and served as director of the training program at Melodyland Theater in Anaheim, California, during the 1960s. She continued working until the final year of her life, with her last role being Elsie in the Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn film Foul Play (1978). Smith died of cancer at the age of 79 on August 5, 1978.