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Symona Boniface

 
Actor: Symona Boniface
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Mar, 1894 in New York, New York
  • Died: Sep, 1950 in Woodland Hills, California
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '30s-'40s
  • Major Genres: Comedy, Drama
  • Career Highlights: Pirates of the High Seas
  • First Major Screen Credit: Pirates of the High Seas (1950)

Biography

Her pompous Grande Dame ego constantly deflated by having a pie hurled in her face, brunette American comedy actress Symona Boniface became for the Three Stooges what Margaret Dumont was for the Marx Brothers. Surprisingly, Boniface had been a noted stage actress and playwright before the 1929 stock market crash wiped her out financially. Moving to Hollywood, she toiled in anonymity doing bit parts and extra work until signing a stock contract with Columbia Pictures in 1935. A major addition to the studio's thriving short subject department, Boniface popped up in two-reelers all over the place but is today mostly associated with the Stooges, who regularly flattened her haughty demeanor. The quintessential Boniface characters were the snobbish Mrs. Van Bustle of Crash Goes the Hash (1944) and the conceited dowager Mrs. Smythe-Smythe in 1947's Half-Wits Holiday, the latter featuring her being furiously pelted with pies dropped from the ceiling. A talented but much overlooked part of the Stooges legacy, Symona Boniface died less than three years later at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA, but continued, eerily, to figure prominently in Stooges shorts through the middle of the decade due to the generous doses of stock footage added to keep mounting costs down. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Symona Boniface
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Symona Boniface

Boniface, as she appeared
in the film Micro-Phonies.
Born March 5, 1894(1894-03-05)
New York City, New York
Died September 2, 1950 (aged 56)
Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States
Years active 1925–1950

Symona Boniface (5 March 1894 – 2 September 1950) was an American film actress. She appeared in 120 films between 1925 and 1956.

Boniface is probably best known as a society matron foil for slapstick comedy trio the Three Stooges, in which she intercepted many a flying pie. Thanks to the daily television broadcast of the wildly popular Stooge films, Boniface is widely seen on a regular basis. Boniface employed her perfect comic timing in several of her appearances. She dealt with a shrinking or torn skirt in No Census, No Feeling and Crash Goes the Hash, squirmed uncontrollably thanks to a mouse crawling down her back in Loco Boy Makes Good, and was flooded in both Spook Louder and her final appearance, Vagabond Loafers. Conversely, she maintained her composure in Micro-Phonies and even dealt Curly Howard several painful face slaps in An Ache in Every Stake.

However, Boniface's tour de force performance came in Half-Wits Holiday opposite Moe Howard. Mischievous Curly (in his last starring role) grabs a cream pie from a pastry table, and tries to eat it whole. Moe sees this, swipes the pie, and pushes Curly out of the way. Seeing the approaching Mrs. Smythe-Smythe (Boniface), Moe tosses the pie straight up, resulting in it sticking to the ceiling. Noticing his nervousness and frequent upward glances, Smythe-Smythe sympathetically comments, "Young man, you act as if the Sword of Damocles is hanging over your head." Moe tells her she must be psychic and leaves. Bewildered, Mrs. Smythe-Smythe says "I wonder what's wrong with that young man?" and looks up to see what had him so concerned. At that moment, the pie comes crashing down in the society matron's face. The timing was perfect, and the footage would be recycled thrice more over the next 13 years in the films Pest Man Wins, Pies and Guys and Stop! Look! and Laugh!.

Boniface was 56 years of age when she died of pancreatic cancer on September 2, 1950. She is buried at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.

Selected filmography

External links



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Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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