Maudie Prickett
Maudie Prickett (born Maudie Marie Doyle, October 25, 1914 – April 14, 1976) was an American character actress who performed in over 300 stage, film, and television productions during a career that spanned nearly four decades.[1][2]
Maudie Prickett | |
---|---|
Prickett as "Rosie" in the sitcom Hazel, c. 1961 | |
Born | Maudie Marie Doyle[1] October 25, 1914 Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
Died | April 14, 1976 61) Pasadena, California, U.S. | (aged
Resting place | Mountain View Cemetery |
Other names | Maud Prickett Maude Prickett |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1938–1974 |
Spouse(s) | Charles Fillmore Prickett II
( m. 1941; died 1954)Eakle W. Cartwright
( m. 1961; died 1962)Cyril Bernard Cooper
( m. 1966; died 1971) |
Children | 2 |
Career
Born in Portland, Oregon, Prickett often portrayed maids, secretaries, busybodies, spinsters, and nosy neighbors. She made 36 appearances on the television series Hazel starring Shirley Booth. On that sitcom she was cast in the recurring role of Rosie, a maid and friend of the title character.
One of Prickett's notable film portrayals is as a maid named Elsie at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest in 1959.
Prickett was also cast in the 1950s Western series The Adventures of Kit Carson and 26 Men. She portrays Miss Tazey, Lois Lane's nurse, in a 1952 episode of the Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves and Phyllis Coates. Some of her other television credits include nine appearances as Ms. Gordon on CBS's The Jack Benny Program. She plays a secretary, Miss Sanders, to the Howard McNear's character, Wilbur Wilgus, on a 1959 episode of the ABC sitcom The Donna Reed Show. Prickett also portrays Alice MacAvity in a 1954 installment of the NBC sitcom It's a Great Life, featuring Frances Bavier. She guest-stars too in the 1957-1958 NBC sitcom Sally, starring Joan Caulfield, and on CBS's Dennis the Menace, with Jay North. She appears as a dentist's secretary in the episode "The Dentist" on another CBS sitcom, Angel, starring Annie Fargé. Prickett appears in the 1962 short-lived ABC/Warner Bros. sitcom Room for One More, starring Andrew Duggan. In another short-lived series of the 1960s, The Tammy Grimes Show, she is a regular character.
Prickett can also be seen in several episodes of The Andy Griffith Show as Mrs. Edna Larch and Aunt Nora, as well as in the role of Myrtle on Mayberry R.F.D.. On the comedy series Get Smart, she plays Maxwell Smart's Aunt Bertha in the 1965 episode "My Nephew the Spy". She appears too as a landlord on a 1970 episode of the police drama Dragnet and as various characters in five episodes of the sitcom Bewitched. Among her final television performances are her 1974 roles as Mabel on the CBS series Dirty Sally and as Mrs. Chandler on McMillan & Wife.
Personal life
Maudie was married three times; all three of her husbands predeceased her. Her first marriage was in 1941 to Charles Fillmore Prickett II (1901–1954), the co-founder and general manager of the Pasadena Playhouse, with whom she had two children: Charles Fillmore Prickett III (1949–2006), who became an orthopedic surgeon, and a daughter, Charie Doyle Prickett, (1950- ). In 1961, seven years after the death of her first husband, she married Dr. Eakle W. Cartwright, a physician, who died the following year. Maudie's final marriage was to Cyril Bernard Cooper (1900–1971), who served as mayor of Pasadena from 1968 to 1970. [3]
Death
In 1976, at age 61, Prickett died of uremic poisoning in Pasadena, California. She is interred at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, California.[4]
Selected filmography
- Gold Mine in the Sky (1938) - Customer (uncredited)
- Go West, Young Lady (1941) - Townswoman (uncredited)
- Two-Fisted Stranger (1946) - Widow Simpson (uncredited)
- The Fighting Frontiersman (1946) - Kate the Barber (uncredited)
- Boston Blackie and the Law (1946) - Miss Burton, Librarian (uncredited)
- The Lone Hand Texan (1947) - Hattie Hatfield (uncredited)
- Time Out of Mind (1947) - Annie
- Messenger of Peace (1947) - Matty Frommel
- Song of Idaho (1948) - Millie (uncredited)
- Eight-Ball Andy (1948) - Ruth Clyde
- Whirlwind Raiders (1948) - Mrs. Wallace (uncredited)
- Whiplash (1948) - Mrs. Gruman (uncredited)
- One Sunday Afternoon (1948) - Woman Barber (uncredited)
- The Fighting O'Flynn (1949) - Wife (uncredited)
- Lust for Gold (1949) - Wife (uncredited)
- Colorado Territory (1949) - Mrs. Wallace (uncredited)
- Mr. Soft Touch (1949) - Ugly Old Maid Tenant (uncredited)
- The Cowboy and the Indians (1949) - Ms. Summers (uncredited)
- Abandoned (1949) - Nurse Ferris (uncredited)
- The Inspector General (1949) - Townwoman (uncredited)
- Montana (1950) - Rancher's Wife (uncredited)
- No Sad Songs for Me (1950) - Anna, Woman at Train Depot (uncredited)
- Beyond the Purple Hills (1950) - Agnes (uncredited)
- No Way Out (1950) - Woman (uncredited)
- Between Midnight and Dawn (1950) - Nagging Wife (uncredited)
- Harvey (1950) - Elvira—Cook (uncredited)
- Her First Romance (1951) - Miss Pond - Schoolteacher
- The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951) - Delia Seaton (uncredited)
- Pecos River (1951) - Stage Passenger (uncredited)
- Belles on Their Toes (1952) - Lady with Fan (uncredited)
- Wait till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952) - Mrs. Burdge (uncredited)
- Lost in Alaska (1952) - Woman in Window (uncredited)
- The Trap-Hopalong Cassidy TV Series (1952) - Christine, wife of the President of the Cattlemen's Association
- Monkey Business (1952) - Clerk (uncredited)
- Something for the Birds (1952) - Woman with Vacuum Cleaner (uncredited)
- Everything I Have Is Yours (1952) - Ella (uncredited)
- Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) - Grace - Nurse / Receptionist (uncredited)
- Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) - Thelma - Sousa's Maid (uncredited)
- Man in the Dark (1953) - Nurse Receptionist (uncredited)
- Scandal at Scourie (1953) - Mrs. Holahan (uncredited)
- Hannah Lee: An American Primitive (1953) - Mrs. Miller (uncredited)
- No Escape (1953) - Bookstore Clerk
- City of Bad Men (1953) - Indignant Townswoman (uncredited)
- Hot News (1953) - Screaming Woman (uncredited)
- Gun Fury (1953) - Mrs. Rogers (uncredited)
- Wyoming Renegades (1954) - Mrs. Argyle (uncredited)
- Woman's World (1954) - Mother (uncredited)
- Deep in My Heart (1954) - Lodge Manager (uncredited)
- A Man Called Peter (1955) - Mrs. Pike (uncredited)
- Man with the Gun (1955) - Mrs. Elderhorn (uncredited)
- Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955) - Miss Rice (uncredited)
- Navy Wife (1956) - Nurse (uncredited)
- The Phantom Stagecoach (1957) - Mrs. Wiggins
- Kiss Them for Me (1957) - Chief Nurse (uncredited)
- Thundering Jets (1958) - Mrs. Blocher
- The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959) - 2nd Old Maid (uncredited)
- North by Northwest (1959) - Elsie, the maid (uncredited)
- The Big Fisherman (1959) - Perturbed Mother (uncredited)
- The Absent Minded Professor (1961) - Woman in Street Interviewee (uncredited)
- Joy in the Morning (1965) - Saleslady (uncredited)
- I'll Take Sweden (1965) - Spinster
- The Gnome-Mobile (1967) - Katie Barrett
- With Six You Get Eggroll (1968) - Party Guest (uncredited)
- Sweet Charity (1969) - Nurse on Bridge (uncredited)
- Rascal (1969) - Miss Pince-nez (uncredited)
- The Maltese Bippy (1969) - Mrs. Potter
References
- "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952", Charles Fillmore Prickett to Maudie Marie Doyle, August 17, 1941, Pasadena, California. FamilySearch, archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. Retrieved April 19, 2019. Maudie Prickett’s full birth name is documented on both her 1941 marriage license and certificate.
- "Maudie Prickett, Veteran Character Actress, Dies" obituary, Los Angeles Times (1923-1995), April 16, 1976, p. C6. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
- Galm, Bernard, interviewer, "Pasadena Playhouse Oral History Series" (UCLA Library, Center for Oral History Research, n.d. [c1982]
- Ellenberger, A.R. (2001). Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-7864-0983-9. Retrieved 17 March 2020.