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Beulah Bondi – Character Actress
Movies are so different nowadays. Nothing like they were in the thirties through the fifties. Most of us baby boomers remember those old-time stars. People like John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart (my favorite male lead), Barbara Stanwyck (my favorite female lead), James Cagney, and many more. We may have been born in the late forties into the fifties, but, primarily due to TV and the influence of our parents, many of us learned to fall in Love with people who have been immortalized on the big screen.
My Mom had a photograph album, where she collected pictures of old stars like Henry Fonda, Hedy Lamar, and others. Maybe by watching and enjoying old movies reminds me of her, and how she is always in my heart.
But there were other memorable actors and actresses too. They were called Character Actors. People like Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz; Jayne Withers, who played the annoying and spoiled little girl in Bright Eyes; or Edgar Bucannon, who played many bad guy roles in westerns, and ended up doing the part of Uncle Joe in Petticoat Junction.
But I think my favorite Character Actress was Beulah Bondi. I believe she was in almost a hundred movies, which spanned a career that stated before 1900 and didn’t end until 1976. She died just five years later, due to a fall. She was 91.
I believe her last role was in The Waltons, where she played the Matriarch of a Hill Family, which at first put up a fight because they didn’t want to leave the land the family had spent generations on. Miss Bondi (she never married) usually played the Mother of actors like Jimmy Stewart. She was his Mom in four movies, among which were Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It’s a Wonderful Life. She played Fred MacMurray’s Mom in Remember the Night (a grand Christmas movie, with Barbara Stanwyck).
Unlike many actors, she only changed her name slightly, spelling Bondi with a “I” instead of the “Y” she was born with. Born in Illinois, the family moved to Indiana when Beulah was 3. She waited four more years to begin her career, appearing in a production of Little Lord Fauntleroy, at seven.
One cannot help liking a movie in which she made an appearance. Always a soothing presence, she made you feel that she was not just acting but being the way she must have been in real life.
To me, this is what a good movie does: Involves us in good stories, with the kinds of believable characters you wish you knew. This is as good a way I know of to get us away from whatever problems we may have.
God Bless the Memory of Thomas Edison, for inventing the form!
Published in Entertainment
Movies today, if they aren’t real cartoons, are mainly glorified cartoons.
Well, many of them are. But, as I said when I reviewed Wonder:
http://ricochet.com/578849/movie-review-wonder/
If you practice a little good discrimination, you can still find some good films.
I’ve always thought about writing a book about the supporting actors of Hollywood’s golden age. So, many good ones and so many films that they helped to make great – Ward Bond (Gentleman Jim, My Darling Clementine, Gone With The Wind, It Happened One Night, It’s A Wonderful Life, Mr. Roberts and on and on…), Claude Raines (Casablanca, King’s Row, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Notorious, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Lawrence of Arabia, ad infinitum), Donald Crisp who seemed to be everywhere and whose performance in How Green Was My Valley is amazing, Claire Trevor (Key Largo, Stagecoach), Gloria Grahame, Agnes Moorehead (her performance in The Magnificent Ambersons carries the picture), Thelma Ritter (Rear Window, The Misfits), and many, many more.
Beulah Bondi’s performance in It’s A Wonderful Life really displays her talent since she goes from a loving and devoted wife and mother quick to blush at a compliment to a dark, scowling and bitter woman during the sequence when George Bailey is shown what life would have been had he never been born. Her character’s rejection of George when he calls her ‘mother’ is always shocking in the sneering and dismissive way she responds with the same line, “Mother?!” What a gut punch!
I’m going with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as the best movie in which she had a part.
Another interesting topic is character actors who “broke out” (e.g., Warren Oates, Ben Johnson).
Nice post George. Here are a few of my favorite character actors from Hollywood’s golden age.
Spring Byington probably played as many mothers in the movies as Ms. Bondi. Here she is with child actress Virginia Weidler in The Affairs of Martha (1942).
A couple more actresses who made their mark as wise-cracking second fiddles. First, Eve Arden with Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (1945).
Next, Mary Wickes (as her mothers nurse) with Bette Davis in Now Voyager (1942).
Finally, I’ll bet there can’t be more than a handful of actors who have more screen credits than Frank McHugh seen here with James Cagney in Footlight Parade (1933).
Oh I was just talking about Now Voyager to a friend the other day. I loved Spring Byington in December Bride.
I saw It’s A Wonderful Life this morning, and you totally right. Beulah is just wonderful in her role.
And, even though she often played dark, pitiless characters, I agree about Agnes Moorehead. She was just fabulous.
Perfect post for the season! I’ll be watching for many of the actors you’ve mentioned: Thanks!
Thank you, Nanda!
We were checking out the holidays or just movies in general at the box office this season – wow! Can it get any worse?? A movie about a gay teenager’s struggle in an “ultra-religious” family, a movie about (of all people) Dick Cheney (doesn’t look flattering), one comic book hero after another. The Mary Poppins one may be worth seeing, or possibly the Nutcracker, but what happened to talent and good story lines? We watch TCM a lot and no wonder.
I heard that the Cheney movie was very anti-Cheney. I’d like to see Mary Poppins. I don’t think it’d be as good as the original. Julie Andrews is so good. I have both Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. What great movies. I watched them both the other day. Julie is 83 now. Can you believe it?
By the way, check out the Hallmark Channels. The regular one, and Hallmark Movies and Mysteries. Terrific movies, I think, especially this time of year.