Dorothy Stickney

Dorothy Stickney (June 21, 1896 – June 2, 1998) was an American film, stage, and television actress, best known for appearing in the long-running Broadway hit Life with Father.

Stickney attended the North Western Dramatic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota in addition to La Salle Seminary in Auburndale, Massachusetts; Oak Hall in Saint Paul, Minnesota; and Saint Catherine's College in Minneapolis. and the two stayed married until Lindsay's death in 1968. Another Language, On Borrowed Time, The Small Hours, To Be Continued and The Honeys. In 1940, Stickney received the Barter Theatre Award for "outstanding performance for an American player" for her role as Vinnie in Life with Father, which had been written by her husband, Lindsay, who also co-starred. The award was presented to her by Eleanor Roosevelt.

She also appeared in some films and TV programs, and wrote several poems including "You're Not the Type" and "My Dressing Room". Her early TV appearances included "On Borrowed Time", a episode of Ford Theatre on CBS in 1949. She played the Queen in the original 1957 TV production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, The one-woman show She performed a condensed version of the show on WNEW-TV's Festival of Performing Arts on April 17, 1962. A review of that broadcast in The New York Times said, "Out of a literary personality, Miss Stickney has created a living one." Barbara Delatiner, in a review in Newsday, wrote that Stickney's portrayal of Millay "was simply superb".

In 1961, she was the second inductee of the North Dakota Roughrider Award. On November 16, 1966, Stickney appeared on ABC's Stage 67 anthology program in Stephen Sondheim's macabre television musical "Evening Primrose" as Mrs. Monday, the leader of the mannequins who come to life every evening in a department store. She created the role of Emily Baldwin, one of the Baldwin sisters, in the television film The Homecoming : A Christmas Story, which was the pilot for The Waltons.

In 1979, Doubleday published Stickney's book, Openings and Closings, a memoir that chronicled her long career as well as her secret battle with stage fright.

Recognition Bowdoin College presented honorary degrees to Stickney and Lindsay in 1951.

In 1968 Stickney received the Mary MacArthur Memorial Award from the March of Dimes with the award also going posthumously to Lindsay. The annual award recognized significant activities on behalf of civic and humanitarian causes in addition to distinguished contributions to the American theater.

On October 20, 1976, Dickinson State University named an auditorium on its campus Dorothy Stickney Auditorium. A plaque that hangs with her portrait in the auditorium describes her as "... a loyal friend and benefactress of Dickinson State University".

Death She died on June 2, 1998, in New York City, just 19 days before her 102nd birthday. She had 2 children and no immediate family survivors.

Papers Stickney's and Lindsay's papers are housed at the New York Public Library. The collection contains articles, photographs, programs, scripts, and writings related to the couple.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes1931 My Sin Mrs. Jenkins, the Landlady Uncredited1931 Working Girls Loretta 1932 Wayward Hattie 1934 Murder at the Vanities Norma Watson 1934 The Little Minister Jean 1936 The Moon's Our Home Hilda 1936 And So They Were Married Miss Peabody 1938 I Met My Love Again Mrs. Emily Towner 1939 What a Life Miss Wheeler 1944 The Uninvited Miss Bird 1948 Miss Tatlock's Millions Emily Tatlock 1954 The Great Diamond Robbery Emily Drumman 1956 The Catered Affair Mrs. Rafferty 1956 Studio One "A Special Announcement"1956 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Cissie Enright Season 2 Episode 8: "Conversation Over a Corpse"1957 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Emma Paisley Season 3 Episode 12: "Mrs. Paisley's Cat"1959 The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker Aunt Jane Pennypacker 1962 Arsenic & Old Lace Abby Brewster TV movie1970 I Never Sang for My Father Margaret Garrison 1971 The Homecoming: A Christmas Story Emily Baldwin TV movie; pilot for The Waltons