Mildred Natwick

Mildred Natwick (June 19, 1905 – October 25, 1994) was an American actress. She won a Primetime Emmy Award and was nominated for an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.

Early life Mildred Natwick was born on June 19, 1905, in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Mildred Marion (née Dawes) and Joseph Natwick of Wisconsin. Her father was a sawmill baron and dairy farmer who owned Dunloggin Dairy Farm. He established the farm on land that was cleared of its white oaks; the community of Dunloggin in Ellicott City, Maryland, was so named because Natwick was "done logging" the land. Her grandfather, Ole Natwick, was one of the earliest Norwegian immigrants to the United States, arriving in Wisconsin in 1847. Her first cousin was animator and cartoonist Grim Natwick. Natwick attended the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore and later graduated from Bennett College. On Broadway, she played "Prossy" in Katharine Cornell's production of Candida. She made her film debut in John Ford's The Long Voyage Home as a Cockney slattern, and portrayed the landlady in The Enchanted Cottage (1945).

Natwick is remembered for small but memorable roles in several John Ford film classics, including 3 Godfathers (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and The Quiet Man (1952). She played Miss Ivy Gravely, in Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955), and a sorceress in The Court Jester (1956).

She continued to appear onstage, and made regular guest appearances in television series. On May 30, 1950, she starred in "Listen, Listen" on Suspense.

She was twice nominated for Tony Awards: in 1957 for The Waltz of the Toreadors, the same year she also starred in Tammy and the Bachelor with Debbie Reynolds and Leslie Nielsen and in 1972 for the musical 70 Girls 70. She returned to film in Barefoot in the Park (1967) as the mother of the character played by Jane Fonda. The role earned Natwick her only Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting actress. Both attended and supported several fund raisers for that off-Broadway theatre company.

She guest-starred on such television series as McMillan & Wife, Family, Alice, The Love Boat, Hawaii Five-O, The Bob Newhart Show and Murder, She Wrote. She made her final film appearance at age 83 in the historical drama Dangerous Liaisons (1988).

Personal life and death Natwick, who never married or had children, lived in a duplex on Park Avenue in Manhattan for the majority of her life. She was a devout Christian Scientist.

On October 25, 1994, Natwick died of cancer at her home in Manhattan at age 89. She is interred at Lorraine Park Cemetery in Baltimore.

Broadway credits Date Production Role Notes October 29 – November 1932 Carry Nation Mrs. Noble September 27 – October 1933 Amourette Drusilla Thorpe October 24 – November 1933 Spring in Autumn Pura February 1 – May 1934 The Wind and the Rain Mrs. McFie September 25, 1934 – February 1935 The Distaff Side Mrs. Venables November 7 – November 1935 Mrs. Venables May Beringer February 17, 1936 – June 1936 End of Summer Mrs. Wyle September 1 – November 1, 1936 Love from a Stranger Ethel March 10 – May 8, 1937 Candida Miss Proserpine Garnett September 29, 1937 – April 1938 The Star-Wagon Mrs. Rutledge September 19 – October 1938 Missouri Legend The Widow Weeks February 9 – May 27, 1939 Stars In Your Eyes Bess December 27–30, 1939 Christmas Eve Mother McGlory January 2–4, 1941 The Lady Who Came to Stay Milly November 5, 1941 – June 5, 1943 Blithe Spirit Madame Arcati April 27 – May 31, 1942 Candida Miss Proserpine Garnett Revival September 6 – October 2, 1943 Blithe Spirit Madame Arcati April 3 – May 2, 1946 Candida Miss Proserpine Garnett Revival October 26, 1946 – January 4, 1947 The Playboy of the Western World Widow Quin March 27 – April 26, 1952 The Grass Harp Dolly Talbo January 17 – May 11, 1957 The Waltz of the Toreadors Mme. St. Pé Nominated—Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play February 20–22, 1958 The Day the Money Stopped Kathie Morrow April 30 – May 31, 1958 The Firstborn Miriam March 2–19, 1960 The Good Soup Marie-Paule and Armand's Mother, Angele December 14, 1960 – May 27, 1961 Critic's Choice Charlotte Orr October 23, 1963 - June 25, 1967 Barefoot in the Park Mrs. Banks November 27 – December 27, 1969 Our Town Mrs. Gibbs April 15 – May 15, 1971 70, Girls, 70 Ida Dodd Nominated—Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical March 29 – November 24, 1979 Bedroom Farce Delia Replacement

Filmography Year Title Role Notes1940 The Long Voyage Home Freda 1945 The Enchanted Cottage Mrs. Abigail Minnett Yolanda and the Thief Aunt Amarilla 1947 The Late George Apley Amelia Newcombe 1948 A Woman's Vengeance Nurse Caroline Braddock The Kissing Bandit Isabella 3 Godfathers The Mother 1949 She Wore a Yellow Ribbon Abby Allshard 1950 Cheaper by the Dozen Mrs. Mebane 1952 The Quiet Man The Widow Sarah Tillane Against All Flags Molvina MacGregor 1955 The Trouble with Harry Miss Ivy Gravely The Court Jester Griselda 1956 Teenage Rebel Grace Hewitt 1957 Tammy and the Bachelor Aunt Renie 1967 Barefoot in the Park Ethel Banks Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress1969 If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium Jenny Grant The Maltese Bippy Molly Fletcher Trilogy Miss Miller Segment: "Miriam"1974 Daisy Miller Mrs. Costello 1975 At Long Last Love Mabel Pritchard 1982 Kiss Me Goodbye Mrs. Reilly 1988 Dangerous Liaisons Madame de Rosemonde Final film role

Partial television credits