Career Highlights: Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair, The Farmer in the Dell, Holiday Affair
First Major Screen Credit: The Farmer in the Dell (1936)
Biography
American actress Esther Dale concentrated her cinematic efforts on portraying warm-hearted aunts, mothers, nurses, neighbors and shopkeepers--though there were a few domineering dowagers along the way. She began her career on a semi-professional basis with a New England stock troupe operated by her husband, Arthur Beckhard. Esther was the resident character actress in stage productions of the late '20s and early '30s featuring such stars-to-be as Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan. She first appeared before the cameras in 1934's Crime Without Passion, filmed in Long Island. Esther then moved to Hollywood, where she popped up with increasing frequency in such films as The Awful Truth (1937) (as Ralph Bellamy's mother), Back Street (1941), Margie (1946) and The Egg and I (1947). Her participation in the last-named film led to a semi-regular stint in Universal's Ma and Pa Kettle series as the Kettles' neighbor Birdie Hicks. Esther Dale's last film, made one year before her death, was the John Wayne vehicle North to Alaska (1960), in which she had one scene as "Woman at Picnic." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
July 23, 1961 (aged 75)
at Queen of Angels Hospital, in Hollywood, California following surgery
Occupation
American stage, film, and television actress often cast as authoritarian figures such as prison matrons, head nurses, busybody neighbors, and grande dames
Years active
1934-1960 (film and television roles, though in earlier years appeared on stage including Broadway)
Spouse(s)
Arthur Beckhard, writer and director
Esther Dale (November 10, 1885 – July 23, 1961) was an American actress, best known perhaps for her role as Aunt Genevieve in the 1935Shirley Temple vehicle, Curly Top. She was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, November 10, 1885, and attended Leland and Gray Seminary in Townsend, Vermont. In Berlin, Germany, she studied music and enjoyed a successful career as a singer of lieder. In America, she cultivated a career as an actress in summer stock, and starred in Carrie Nation on Broadway in 1933. Her first film was Crime Without Passion in 1934. 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. 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. She played many roles in television over the years. She was married to writer and director Arthur J. Beckhard. Dale died July 23, 1961 following surgery in Queen of Angels Hospital in Hollywood, California.[1]