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Nora Cecil (September 20, 1878 – May 1, 1951) was a British-American character actress whose 30-year career spanned both the silent and sound film eras. Cecil's career began on the stage, where she appeared in a single Broadway production, The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast, which ran for more than 240 performances at the Broadway Theatre in 1901-02. (A 1930 newspaper article says that Cecil "made her debut, three decades ago, on the London stage.")
Cecil appeared in well over 100 feature films and film shorts.
In 1915, she moved from the stage into films, her first appearance being in a starring role in The Arrival of Perpetua, directed by Émile Chautard. She often played "thin-lipped, stern-visaged dowagers and forbidding mothers-in-law" and "welfare workers, landladies, schoolmistresses and maiden aunts".
One of the most significant roles was in the W.C. Fields vehicle, The Old Fashioned Way in 1934. Some of the other notable films in which Cecil appeared include: Ernst Lubitsch's historical romance, The Merry Widow, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald; the 1939 version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, starring Mickey Rooney; the John Ford classic, Stagecoach, with John Wayne.
Her final acting performance was in a featured role in Mourning Becomes Electra in 1947, starring Rosalind Russell.
Movies
Night of Mystery
Big Town
Miss Lovelace (uncredited)
His Majesty, Bunker Bean
Countess Casanova
Seven Footprints to Satan
Old Witch
The Deadwood Coach
Matilda Shields - in play
The Wild Girl
Undetermined Role (uncredited)
The Thin Man Goes Home
Miss Peavy
The Silent Rider
Mrs. Randall
The Demi-Bride
School Teacher
Three Smart Boys
Miss Witherspoon, Superintendent
A Royal Romance
Miss McPherson
Manslaughter
Lydia's Chaperone (uncredited)
Night Must Fall
Under Your Spell
School Teacher (uncredited)
Nature in the Wrong
Muriel's mother
A Trick of Hearts
The Mayor
The Devil Dancer
Julia
Arrowsmith
Nurse (uncredited)
Mixed Nuts
Mrs. Twitchett
Lady on a Train
Seven Days Leave
Amelia Twymley
Laughing Boy
Schoolteacher
Footfalls
Mr. Boggs Steps Out
Widow Peddie
College Holiday
Miss Elkins (uncredited)
Girl Grief
Miss Tuttle, Principal
Little Miss Nobody
Mrs. Robinson
Car 99
Granny Adams
Partners in Crime
Housekeeper
Search for Beauty
Miss Pettigrew
The Unknown Guest
Martha Williams
Asleep in the Feet
Female Police Officer
American Buds
Emily
She Asked for It
Elderly lady (uncredited)
The Daughter Pays
What a Life
Miss Eggleston
The Poor Little Rich Girl
One of Gwendolyn's Teachers (uncredited)
Peg o' My Heart
Smythe (maid)
Chip of the Flying U
Dr. Cecil Grantham
Sensation Seekers
Mrs. Lodge
One-Horse Farmers
Subway Passenger (uncredited)
Opened by Mistake
Head Nurse
Easy Living
Miss Swerf
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
Hospital Nurse (uncredited)
Hot Saturday
Gossip on Telephone (Uncredited)
Slightly Static
Beauty Products Announcer (uncredited)
Going Hollywood
Briarcroft's Teacher
Way Down East
Townswoman at Party
East Lynne
Charity Bazaar Committee
The Bank Dick
Lompoc Ladies Auxiliary (uncredited)
Stage Mother
Miss Gilford, Kitty's Music Store Boss
Only Saps Work
Mrs. Partridge
King of the Jungle
Spinster in park (uncredited)
Everything’s Rosie
Hotel Proprietress
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mrs. Shackleford (uncredited)
Stagecoach
Boone's Landlady (uncredited)
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell
Miss Jenkins
Union Pacific
Snoring Woman on Train (uncredited)
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
Fury
Albert's Mother (uncredited)
International Settlement
English Woman
Fast Workers
Tall Window-Shopper (Uncredited)
Some Like It Hot
Mrs. Beckett (uncredited)
Design for Living
Tom's Secretary (uncredited)
Mourning Becomes Electra
Louisa Ames
Amateur Daddy
Saleslady
The Fortune Hunter
Betty Carpenter
The Sea of Grass
Mrs. Ryan - Nurse (uncredited)
The Social Secretary
Spinster (uncredited)
Tillie Wakes Up
Gossip in Ice Cream Parlor / Woman Having Picture Taken
Timothy's Quest
Townswoman
Two in the Dark
Mrs. Potter, Landlady
Wreckety Wrecks
Miss Winterbottom
A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob
Charwoman
Lucky Partners
Women's Club President (uncredited)
Little Men
Head of Orphanage
Young People
Righteous Old Lady
Champagne Waltz
Train Passenger
Nothing Sacred
Schoolteacher (uncredited)
Meet the Baron
Professor Winterbottom (uncredited)
The Big Broadcast of 1937
Home Economics Woman
The Merry Widow
Animal Woman (uncredited)
The Old-Fashioned Way
Mrs. Wendelschaffer
Doctor Bull
Aunt Emily Banning
I Married a Witch
Harriet Wooley (uncredited)
Mr. Bride
Mrs. Cecil
Three Girls About Town
Casket Customer
Apache Trail
Passenger (uncredited)
Footlights and Fools
(uncredited)
The Wife Takes a Flyer
Miss Updike
The Ruling Voice
Malcom's Nurse (uncredited)
Biography of a Bachelor Girl
Ship's Matron (uncredited)
Upperworld
Housekeeper (uncredited)
A Model Husband
Mrs Gossip
Little Accident
Dr. Zernecke
Obliging Young Lady
Miss Hollyrod - Bird Lover (uncredited)
Hell's Angels
Helen's Maid (uncredited)
Memories and Melodies
Customer (uncredited)
Gold Diggers of 1935
Housekeeper (uncredited)
Young Bride
Landlady (uncredited)
Street Scene
Alice Simpson - Welfare Worker
Pack Up Your Troubles
Welfare Association Officer (uncredited)
Girls
Matron Helen Hunt
Chained
Edith (uncredited)
Borrowing Trouble
Dressmaker
You're Telling Me!
Mrs. Price
The Baby Cyclone
Mrs. Crandall
The Spectacle Maker
Duchess
The Mighty Treve
Old Maid at Dog Show
The Cavalier
Lucia's Aunt
Prunella
The Big Parade of Comedy
Actress in 'Hollywood Party' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Midnight Faces
Mrs. Hart
Bachelor Bait
Mrs. Trutmanner (uncredited)
Millie
Helen and Angie's Landlady (uncredited)
Blossoms On Broadway
Leader of Committee (uncredited)
Two Sisters from Boston
Mrs. Mulberry - Recital Guest (uncredited)
Dancing Pirate
Landlady (uncredited)
The Missing Lady
Miss Millie
Let's Make a Million
Too Many Crooks
(uncredited)
Collegiate
Miss Curtiss
Love Net
Miss Prudence Tilly
By Hook or Crook
Aunt Marie
Vagabond Lady
Miss Perkins (uncredited)
The Bitter Tea of General Yen
Missionary
The Arrival of Perpetua
Abigail Majendrie
Red Foam
An Amateur Widow
Hail the Conquering Hero
Train Ticket Clerk (uncredited)
Hold Your Man
Miss Campbell (uncredited)