Adeline De Walt Reynolds

Adeline De Walt Reynolds (September 19, 1862 – August 13, 1961) was an American character actress who made her film debut at the age of 78 playing the grandmother of Jimmy Stewart's character in Come Live with Me. She continued to act in films and numerous television series into her 90s, making her last appearance at 98.

Early life Adeline De Walt was born in Vinton, Iowa, in 1862, one of 10 children. Among her earliest memories was that of Union soldiers returning from the American Civil War. She had wanted to be an actress since she was five years old, but her father - Jonathan DeWalt, a farmer - was opposed. As an 18 year old she claimed to be 20 to get a hometown teaching job. It was a difficult assignment, and had been refused by several others, but she eventually gained the support of the children and their families. She left after learning that her male colleagues earned more money than she did, and the school board refused to pay her the same.

Family life After leaving teaching, she married Vinton native Frank Reynolds, with whom she had four children. After the birth of their first child, Mary, in 1885, they moved to Arcadia, Nebraska, where her parents had moved a short time before. Reynolds was offered her father's lumber business, and the couple remained in Arcadia for five years, during which their son William was born. She began studies at a San Francisco secretarial school, prematurely ended by the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire.

Acting career

Upon graduation, De Walt Reynolds took acting courses at the university, under the tutelage of Professor von Neumeyer. While she was cast as Hecuba in a school production of The Trojan Women, she made contact with celebrated stage actress Blanche Yurka, who had played the same role in a radio production of the play. The following year, she traveled to Los Angeles and contacted Yurka, asking her advice on beginning a career in film. Yurka found an agent willing to take on an older client, and De Walt Reynolds was cast in a role in an Assistance League production of Landslide. Clarence Brown saw her in the production and cast her in his upcoming film. She also made publicity stories and photos which showed her practicing her fencing or doing calisthenics.

Partial filmography Reynolds made guest appearances on television between 1950 and 1960. The programs include Have Gun – Will Travel, Shirley Temple's Storybook, Zane Grey Theatre, and Peter Gunn

Come Live with Me (1941) - Grandma Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) - Barrow's Landlady (uncredited) The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942) - Mama Ruau Tales of Manhattan (1942) - Elsa's Old Mother (Laughton sequence) Iceland (1942) - Grandma (uncredited) Street of Chance (1942) - Grandma Diedrich The Human Comedy (1943) - Librarian Behind the Rising Sun (1943) - Grandmother Son of Dracula (1943) - Madame Zimba Happy Land (1943) - Mrs. Schneider Going My Way (1944) - Mrs. Molly Fitzgibbon (uncredited) Since You Went Away (1944) - Elderly Woman on Train (uncredited) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) - Mrs. Waters (uncredited) The Corn Is Green (1945) - Old Woman Reading (uncredited) Counter-Attack (1945) - Old Woman (uncredited) Messenger of Peace (1947) - Grandma Frommel The Girl from Manhattan (1948) - Old woman The Sickle or the Cross (1949) - Mrs. Burnside Stars in My Crown (1950) - Granny Gailbraith (uncredited) Kim (1950) - Old Maharanee (uncredited) The Du Pont Story (1950) - Old Lady in Window (uncredited) Here Comes the Groom (1951) - Aunt Amy (uncredited) Lydia Bailey (1952) - Mme. Antoinette d'Autremont Pony Soldier (1952) - White Moon Witness to Murder (1954) - The Old Lady - Mental Patient The Ten Commandments (1956) - Frail Old Lady (uncredited)