Esther Dale

Biography

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.

Known For

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

Personal Info

Known For

Acting

Known Credits

95

Gender

Female

Birthday

1885-11-10

Place of Birth

Beaufort, South Carolina, USA

Also Known As

Ester Dale