From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Esther Dale (November 10, 1885 – July 23, 1961) was an American actress, best known perhaps for her role as Aunt Genevieve in the 1935 Shirley Temple vehicle, Curly Top.
On the stage, Dale starred in Carrie Nation on Broadway in 1933. Her other Broadway credits include Harvest of Years (1947), And Be My Love (1944), and Another Language (1932).
Dale's first film was Crime Without Passion (1934) in an uncredited role. She was a familiar face in films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, frequently playing stern, authoritarian characters such as prison matrons and head nurses, although she was equally adept at playing grande dames and ladies of the aristocracy.
Dale played many roles in television over the years. In the 1958-1959 season of The Donna Reed Show, Dale played a job-seeking housekeeper who is frightened from the Stone home by Jeff Stone's pet mouse, and she appeared in the 1957 Maverick episode "According to Hoyle" opposite James Garner.
Movies
The Mortal Storm
Marta
Blondie Has Servant Trouble
Anna Vaughn
Monkey Business
Mrs. Rhinelander
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Mrs. Krausheimer
Holiday Affair
Mrs. Ennis
Dead End
Mrs. Fenner
No Man of Her Own
Josie
Curly Top
Genevieve Graham
The Awful Truth
Mrs. Leeson
Her Favorite Patient
Martha Gravitt
A Stolen Life
Mrs. Johnson
Dangerously They Live
Dawson, Goodwin's Housekeeper
All-American Co-Ed
Aunt Matilda Collinge
Walk Softly, Stranger
Miss Thompson
Maisie Gets Her Man
Mrs. McIntyre (Uncredited)
The Unfinished Dance
Olga
The Oklahoman
Mrs. Fitzgerald
Murder in Times Square
Longacre Lil
Private Worlds
Matron
My Reputation
Anna
Back Street
Mrs. Smith
Blackmail
Sarah
Margie
Grandma McSweeney
Broadway Serenade
Mrs. Olsen, the Landlady
Convicted Woman
Chief Matron Brackett
And One Was Beautiful
Margaret
Aloma of the South Seas
Tarusa
Stolen Heaven
Lieschen
The Case Against Mrs. Ames
Matilda
Women Without Names
Head Matron Ingles
Arise, My Love
Susie
Smoky
Mrs. 'Gram' Richards
The Great Man Votes
Mrs. Markham
6,000 Enemies
Prison Matron
Laddie
Sarah, the Housekeeper
The Wedding Night
Mrs. Kaise Novak
The North Star
Anna Kurin
Easy Living
Lillian
Condemned Women
Mrs. Clara Glover, Head Matron
Tell No Tales
Mrs. Haskins
Prison Farm
Cora Waxley
Damaged Goods
Mrs. Dupont
Girls on Probation
Mrs. Engstrom
Old Acquaintance
Harriet
Made for Each Other
Annie (uncredited)
A Child Is Born
Prison Matron (uncredited)
The Women
Ingrid (uncredited)
Sergeant Madden
Mrs. McGillivray
Swanee River
Temperance Woman
In Old Kentucky
Dolly Breckenridge
Village Barn Dance
Minerva Withers
Fury
Mrs. Whipple
Untamed
Mrs. Smith
Bad Little Angel
Miss Brown, Orphanage Secretary (uncredited)
Hollywood Boulevard
Martha
Betrayed Women
Head Matron Ballard
Abe Lincoln in Illinois
Lincoln's Cook (uncredited)
The Farmer in the Dell
Ma Boyer
Behind City Lights
Sarah Lowell
Wild Money
Jenny Hawkins
What's Cookin'?
Mrs. Murphy (uncredited)
Cross-Country Romance
Mrs. McGillicuddy
I Live My Life
Brumbaugh, Mrs. Gage's Housekeeper
Mary Burns, Fugitive
Kate
Blondie Goes to College
Mrs. Carrie Dill, the Landlady
Surrender
Aunt May
Forty Little Mothers
Mrs. Mason the Landlady
Ten Gentlemen from West Point
Mrs. Thompson
Big Town Czar
Ma Daley
How to Sub-Let
Mrs. Mustavas
Outcast
Hattie Simmerson
North to Alaska
Woman at Picnic
Unfinished Business
Aunt Mathilda
You're Telling Me
Aunt Fannie Handley
A Song Is Born
Miss Bragg
Wrecking Crew
Mike O'Glendy
The Sound and the Fury
Mrs. Maud Mansfield
The Egg and I
Birdie Hicks
Swing Your Partner
Caroline Bird, aka Anna Robbins
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
Birdie Hicks
Ma and Pa Kettle
Mrs. Birdie Hicks
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
Birdie Hicks
The Great Impersonation
Mrs. Unthank
On Stage Everybody
Ma Cassidy
Too Young to Kiss
Mrs. Boykin
Crime Without Passion
Miss Keeley (uncredited)
A Tale of Two Cities
Pross
Lady of Secrets
Miss Eccles
Opened by Mistake
Mrs. Anthony DeBorest
On Moonlight Bay
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
I Dream Too Much
Mrs. Dilley (uncredited)
A Letter From Bataan
Mrs. Jackson
On Such a Night
Miss Belinda Fentridge
Timothy's Quest
Hitty Tarbox
Shows
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
December Bride
The Donna Reed Show
Thriller
Ellen the Maid
M Squad
Julia Sheldon
Lock-Up
Cavalcade of America
Aunt Tabitha
Mr. & Mrs. North
Maverick
Ma Braus
Four Star Playhouse
Mrs. Weston