Symona Boniface

Symona Ferner Boniface was born on March 5, 1894, in New York City, the daughter of actor George C. Boniface, who was of English descent, and his wife Norma, née Ferner, an inventor of German ancestry, both of whom were New York natives. She died on September 2, 1950, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, from pancreatic cancer, at the age of 56.

Boniface developed an interest in theater from an early age, participating in both writing and performing for the stage. In 1919 she appeared on Broadway in the play A Young Man's Fancy. She subsequently transitioned to film work, joining Hal Roach Studios in 1925, where she appeared alongside Charley Chase, the Our Gang children, Max Davidson, and Laurel and Hardy in short comedies and feature films. Her screen presence led to her being cast regularly as society women, vamps, and matronly figures across both short subjects and features.

In 1935 Boniface began working at Columbia Pictures, where she became a recurring supporting player in the studio's two-reel comedy unit. She appeared with a range of Columbia comedians, including Andy Clyde, Monte Collins, Tom Kennedy, Buster Keaton, Hugh Herbert, Vera Vague, and The Three Stooges. Director Edward Bernds cast her frequently in larger roles in his Columbia shorts, including Micro-Phonies in 1945. Her characters in Stooge films were regularly placed in slapstick situations, among them a mouse gag in Loco Boy Makes Good (1942) and water-soaked scenes in Spook Louder (1943) and Vagabond Loafers (1949).

One of her most recognized performances came in Half-Wits Holiday (1947), a remake of the 1935 Stooge short Hoi Polloi. In the film, Moe Howard tosses a pie into the air to avoid detection, and it lands on Boniface's character, Mrs. Smythe-Smythe, after a moment of comedic suspense. The sequence was reused through stock footage in Pest Man Wins (1951), Scheming Schemers (1956), and Pies and Guys (1958), all released after her death. Her final screen appearance was in the unaired 1949 television pilot Jerks of All Trades, which featured The Three Stooges and Emil Sitka. Across her career she appeared in 120 films between 1925 and 1950.

Boniface was married to Frank Pharr Simms, a salesman and real estate broker originally from Decatur, Georgia.