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.
Marta
The Mortal Storm
Anna Vaughn
Blondie Has Servant Trouble
Mrs. Rhinelander
Monkey Business
Mrs. Krausheimer
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Mrs. Ennis
Holiday Affair
Mrs. Fenner
Dead End
Josie
No Man of Her Own
Genevieve Graham
Curly Top
Mrs. Leeson
The Awful Truth
Martha Gravitt
Bedside Manner
Mrs. Johnson
A Stolen Life
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
Dawson, Goodwin's Housekeeper
Dangerously They Live
Miss Brown, Orphanage Secretary (uncredited)
Bad Little Angel
Aunt Matilda Collinge
All-American Co-Ed
Mrs. Dilley (uncredited)
I Dream Too Much
Miss Thompson
Walk Softly, Stranger
Mrs. McIntyre (Uncredited)
Maisie Gets Her Man
Olga
The Unfinished Dance
Matron
Private Worlds
Anna
My Reputation
Mrs. Fitzgerald
The Oklahoman
Sarah
Blackmail
Longacre Lil
Murder in Times Square
Mrs. Smith
Back Street
Grandma McSweeney
Margie
Mrs. Olsen, the Landlady
Broadway Serenade
Chief Matron Brackett
Convicted Woman
Margaret
And One Was Beautiful
Tarusa
Aloma of the South Seas
Lieschen
Stolen Heaven
Matilda
The Case Against Mrs. Ames
Mrs. Clara Glover, Head Matron
Condemned Women
Head Matron Ingles
Women Without Names
Susie
Arise, My Love
Mrs. 'Gram' Richards
Smoky
Prison Matron
6,000 Enemies
Mrs. Markham
The Great Man Votes
Mrs. Kaise Novak
The Wedding Night
Anna Kurin
The North Star
Sarah, the Housekeeper
Laddie
Lillian
Easy Living
Mrs. Haskins
Tell No Tales
Cora Waxley
Prison Farm
Mrs. Engstrom
Girls on Probation
Harriet
Old Acquaintance
Mrs. Dupont
Damaged Goods
Annie (uncredited)
Made for Each Other
Mrs. Jackson
A Letter From Bataan
Prison Matron (uncredited)
A Child Is Born
Ingrid (uncredited)
The Women
Dolly Breckenridge
In Old Kentucky
Temperance Woman
Swanee River
Mrs. McGillivray
Sergeant Madden
Miss Belinda Fentridge
On Such a Night
Minerva Withers
Village Barn Dance
Mrs. Whipple
Fury
Hitty Tarbox
Timothy's Quest
Mrs. Smith
Untamed
Martha
Hollywood Boulevard
Head Matron Ballard
Betrayed Women
Lincoln's Cook (uncredited)
Abe Lincoln in Illinois
Jenny Hawkins
Wild Money
Mrs. Murphy (uncredited)
What's Cookin'?
Ma Boyer
The Farmer in the Dell
Sarah Lowell
Behind City Lights
Mrs. McGillicuddy
Cross-Country Romance
Brumbaugh, Mrs. Gage's Housekeeper
I Live My Life
Kate
Mary Burns, Fugitive
Mrs. Carrie Dill, the Landlady
Blondie Goes to College
Aunt May
Surrender
Mrs. Mason the Landlady
Forty Little Mothers
Mrs. Thompson
Ten Gentlemen from West Point
Mrs. Mustavas
How to Sub-Let
Ma Daley
Big Town Czar
Hattie Simmerson
Outcast
Woman at Picnic
North to Alaska
Aunt Mathilda
Unfinished Business
Aunt Fannie Handley
You're Telling Me
Miss Bragg
A Song Is Born
Mike O'Glendy
Wrecking Crew
Mrs. Maud Mansfield
The Sound and the Fury
Birdie Hicks
The Egg and I
Birdie Hicks
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
Birdie Hicks
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
Mrs. Birdie Hicks
Ma and Pa Kettle
Caroline Bird, aka Anna Robbins
Swing Your Partner
Mrs. Unthank
The Great Impersonation
Ma Cassidy
On Stage Everybody
Mrs. Boykin
Too Young to Kiss
Miss Keeley (uncredited)
Crime Without Passion
Pross
A Tale of Two Cities
Miss Eccles
Lady of Secrets
Mrs. Anthony DeBorest
Opened by Mistake
On Moonlight Bay
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
95
Gender
Female
Birthday
1885-11-10
Place of Birth
Beaufort, South Carolina, USA
Also Known As
Ester Dale