Adair, Jean [née Violet McNaughton] (1873–1953), character actress. With her pinched face and spinsterish appearance, Adair excelled in both comic and tragic roles, usually playing mothers and elderly aunts. She was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and learned her craft in touring stock companies before making her Manhattan debut in 1922. Adair is most remembered for creating the sweet murderess Aunt Martha in Arsenic and Old Lace (1941). Her other notable performances include the nagging Mother in the expressionistic Machinal (1928), the feisty mother‐in‐law, Mrs. Fisher, in The Show‐Off (1932), the moralizing Aunt Demetria in On Borrowed Time (1938), the small‐town gossip Cora Swanson in Morning's at Seven (1939), and the modern‐day witch Miss Holroyd in Bell, Book and Candle (1950). Adair's last Broadway performance was as the aged, saintly Rebecca Nurse in the original The Crucible (1953).
Jean Adair
| American Theater Guide: Jean Adair |
| Actor: Jean Adair |
- Born: 1872
- Died: 1953
- Occupation: Actor
- Active: '40s
- Major Genres: Musical, Comedy
- Career Highlights: Advice to the Lovelorn
- First Major Screen Credit: Advice to the Lovelorn (1933)
Biography
Canadian actress Jean Adair primarily appeared on stage and only occasionally played in films. In movies she was frequently cast as an elderly lady, and is most famous for playing one of the killer aunts in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide| Filmography: Jean Adair |
| Wikipedia: Jean Adair |
Jean Adair (June 13, 1873, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada - May 11, 1953, New York City) was a Canadian actress.
Born as Violet McNaughton, she worked primarily on stage but also made several film appearances late in her career, most notably as one of Cary Grant's dotty old aunts in Arsenic and Old Lace, a role she originated on Broadway. Like many stage actresses of her era, she also appeared in vaudeville.[1]
Contents |
Filmography
- Advice to the Lovelorn (1933) (uncredited)
- Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) as Aunt Martha Brewster
- Living in a Big Way (1947) as Abigail Morgan
- Something in the Wind (1947) as Aunt Mary Collins
- The Naked City (1948)
Broadway productions
- It's a Boy! (1922-?)
- The Jay Walker (1926)
- Devils (1926)
- The Good Fellow (1926)
- Machinal (1928)
- That Ferguson Family (1928-9)
- Scarlet Pages (1929)
- Everything's Jake (1930)
- Rock Me, Julie (1931)
- Blessed Event (1932)
- Best Years (1932)
- Black Sheep (1932)
- The Show Off (1932-3)
- For Services Rendered (1933)
- Murder at the Vanities (1933-4)
- Broomsticks, Amen! (1934)
- Picnic (1934-?)
- Mid-West (1936-?)
- Sun Kissed (1937-?)
- On Borrowed Time (1938)
- Morning's at Seven (1939-40)
- Goodbye in the Night (1940)
- Arsenic and Old Lace (1941-4)
- Star-Spangled Family (1945)
- The Next Half Hour (1945)
- Detective Story (1949-50)
- Bell, Book and Candle (1950-1)
- The Crucible (1953)
Notes
- ^ Laurie, Joe, Jr. Vaudeville: From the Honky-tonks to the Palace New York: Henry Holt, 1953; page 50
External links
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Learn More
 | Advice to the Lovelorn (1933 Comedy Drama Film) |
| On Borrowed Time (American Theater) |
| Something in the Wind (1947 Musical Film) |
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Copyrights:
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 | American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jean Adair". Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Advice to the Lovelorn (1933 Comedy Drama Film)
- On Borrowed Time (American Theater)
- Something in the Wind (1947 Musical Film)
- Arsenic and Old Lace (American Theater)
- Morning's at Seven (American Theater)
- Effie Shannon (American Theater)
- Arsenic and Old Lace (1944 Comedy Film)
- Arsenic and Old Lace (Characters) (play)
- Jean Swain
- 1953 (chronology)
- Living in a Big Way
- 1928 (chronology)
- 1938 (chronology)
- 1939 (chronology)
