
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 Waikiki

Birdie Hicks
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair

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