# Jody Gilbert

Jody Gilbert (March 18, 1916 – February 3, 1979) was an American actress.

## Biography

Gilbert was born in Fort Worth, Texas. She studied voice and acting at Columbia University, and was a graduate of Pasadena Playhouse.
After numerous uncredited film roles, Gilbert delivered a brief but memorable performance in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941). She played a sarcastic diner waitress who engages in a verbal duel with her customer W.C. Fields. Over the next decade, she appeared dozens of times in movies, radio and television, often in humorous supporting roles as "sizeable" but confident women.
Gilbert's acting career was interrupted by the Hollywood blacklist. In November 1952, a little-known writer named Harvey Narcisenfield testified to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that Gilbert was a Communist. When she was summoned before the Committee in May 1953, she used the Fifth Amendment's shield against self-incrimination. Throughout her testimony, she made light of the proceedings and of HUAC counsel Frank Tavenner's questions, for example, joking about her weight, and saying she was invoking the Fifth Commandment as well as the Fifth Amendment. Her latter comment included a more serious challenge to HUAC's legitimacy, as one biographer noted:
   "Honor thy father and mother that thy days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord thy God has given thee," Jody quoted, before explaining: "I choose to interpret that to mean forefathers." She didn't want to dishonor her forefathers by doing anything other than protecting the rights that they had given her, which meant that she could do no other than decline to answer Tavenner's impertinent question.
She was barred from TV work until 1965. Her next film role was not until 1969 in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
On February 3, 1979, Jody Gilbert died from complications arising from an automobile accident that she had been involved in the previous autumn. She was 62.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1939 | Confession | Actress | uncredited |
| 1939 | Chasing Danger | Teena | |
| 1939 | New Frontier | Rusty's Dance Partner | uncredited |
| 1939 | No Place to Go | Mrs. Hazelhurst | uncredited |
| 1939 | Ninotchka | Streetcar Conductress - Moscow Roommate | uncredited |
| 1939 | Everything Happens at Night | Hilda | |
| 1940 | Little Old New York | Hilda | |
| 1940 | Seventeen | Ethel Boke | uncredited |
| 1940 | Star Dust | Swedish Maid | |
| 1940 | Ski Patrol | Fanni Nerkuu | |
| 1940 | Grand Ole Opry | Women's Club President | uncredited |
| 1940 | Brigham Young | Stout Woman Who Can't Swim | uncredited |
| 1940 | Flowing Gold | Tillie / Mrs. Harris | |
| 1940 | Hit Parade of 1941 | | uncredited |
| 1941 | Hudson's Bay | Germaine | |
| 1941 | Maisie Was a Lady | Curly the Bearded Lady | uncredited |
| 1941 | Pot o' Gold | Helga Svenson | uncredited |
| 1941 | Sergeant York | Fat Woman | uncredited |
| 1941 | Wild Geese Calling | Swede | uncredited |
| 1941 | Never Give a Sucker an Even Break | The Waitress | |
| 1941 | Shadow of the Thin Man | Lana - Spider Webb's Girl | uncredited |
| 1941 | Hellzapoppin' | Louie's Girlfriend | uncredited |
| 1941 | Remember the Day | Mrs. Martha Avery | |
| 1942 | Ride 'Em Cowboy | Moonbeam | uncredited |
| 1942 | The Tuttles of Tahiti | Effie | |
| 1942 | The Affairs of Martha | Hadwig | uncredited |
| 1942 | Iceland | Fat Girl | uncredited |
| 1942 | Wrecking Crew | Hefty Girl | uncredited |
| 1942 | The Black Swan | Flossy Woman with Tommy | uncredited |
| 1942 | Journey for Margaret | Madame Bornholm | uncredited |
| 1942 | Reunion in France | Brunhilde - Stout Customer | uncredited |
| 1943 | The Hard Way | Anderson - Masseuse | uncredited |
| 1943 | Hers to Hold | Babe | uncredited |
| 1943 | Wings Over the Pacific | Native Woman with Black Eye | |
| 1943 | Hi Diddle Diddle | Agitated Wife | uncredited |
| 1943 | Hi'ya, Sailor | Plump Hostess | uncredited |
| 1943 | The Unknown Guest | Mrs. Green | uncredited |
| 1943 | Princess O'Rourke | Woman Truck Driver | uncredited |
| 1944 | The Story of Dr. Wassell | Head Nurse | uncredited |
| 1944 | Ladies of Washington | Nurse's Aide | uncredited |
| 1944 | Marriage Is a Private Affair | Girl Taxi Driver | uncredited |
| 1944 | Lost in a Harem | Native Laundress | uncredited |
| 1944 | Music for Millions | Burly Woman Cab Driver | uncredited |
| 1944 | Together Again | Fat Woman Fleeing Nightclub Raid | uncredited |
| 1944 | Can't Help Singing | Bath House Attendant | uncredited |
| 1945 | Roughly Speaking | Woman in Store | uncredited |
| 1945 | Christmas in Connecticut | Mrs. Gerseg | uncredited |
| 1945 | That Night with You | Masseuse | uncredited |
| 1945 | Strange Confession | Mrs. Todd | uncredited |
| 1945 | Hold That Blonde | Matron | uncredited |
| 1945 | Life with Blondie | Buxom Woman | uncredited |
| 1945 | Texas Panhandle | Millie the Blacksmith | uncredited |
| 1946 | Partners in Time | The Bad Cook | uncredited |
| 1946 | Deadline for Murder | Tiny | |
| 1946 | Two Guys from Milwaukee | Big Woman | uncredited |
| 1946 | Singing on the Trail | Casey | uncredited |
| 1946 | Decoy | Mrs. Noonan | uncredited |
| 1946 | Cross My Heart | Miss Stewart | uncredited |
| 1946 | The Show-Off | Woman | scenes deleted |
| 1947 | Blondie's Holiday | Cynthia Thompson (Class of '32) | |
| 1947 | Fun on a Weekend | Customer in Clothing Shop | uncredited |
| 1947 | Second Chance | Policewoman | uncredited |
| 1947 | Roses Are Red | Jill's Landlady | uncredited |
| 1947 | Heading for Heaven | Mable Foster | uncredited |
| 1948 | Albuquerque | Pearl Eager | |
| 1948 | Are You with It? | Mrs. Minerva Henkle | |
| 1948 | Casbah | American Woman | uncredited |
| 1948 | Shaggy | Tessie | |
| 1948 | Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven | Lady | uncredited |
| 1948 | Million Dollar Weekend | Big Woman at Airline Counter | uncredited |
| 1948 | My Dear Secretary | Hilda Sneebacher | uncredited |
| 1948 | Bungalow 13 | Mrs. Martha Barton | |
| 1948 | The Paleface | Woman in Bathhouse | uncredited |
| 1949 | Knock on Any Door | Gussie | uncredited |
| 1949 | The Lost Tribe | Zulta, the Barmaid | uncredited |
| 1949 | The Lovable Cheat | Madame Violette | |
| 1949 | Hellfire | Full Moon | |
| 1949 | One Last Fling | Amy Dearing | |
| 1949 | Brimstone | Fat Lady on Stage | uncredited |
| 1949 | The Doctor and the Girl | Mrs. Vlacsek | uncredited |
| 1950 | The Blonde Bandit | Bertha Fannon | |
| 1950 | Blonde Dynamite | Sarah Dumbrowski | |
| 1950 | House by the River | Flora Bantam | |
| 1950 | The Yellow Cab Man | Cecil's Mother | uncredited |
| 1950 | My Friend Irma Goes West | Fat Woman | uncredited |
| 1951 | Gene Autry and The Mounties | Squaw | uncredited |
| 1951 | Slaughter Trail | Fat Woman at Dance | uncredited |
| 1952 | Something to Live For | Woman in Telephone Booth | uncredited |
| 1952 | Actor's and Sin | Mrs. Egelhofer | (segment "Woman of Sin") |
| 1952 | Jumping Jacks | Mr. White's Secretary | uncredited |
| 1953 | Houdini | Fat Girl | uncredited |
| 1969 | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | Large Woman | |
| 1971 | Willard | Charlotte Stassen | |
| 1976 | Lifeguard | Woman | |