# 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

Natwick was born 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.

## Career

Natwick began performing on the stage at age 21 with "The Vagabonds", a non-professional theatre group in Baltimore. She soon joined the University Players on Cape Cod. Natwick made her Broadway debut in 1932 playing Mrs. Noble in Frank McGrath's play Carry Nation, about the famous temperance crusader Carrie Nation. Throughout the 1930s she starred in a number of plays, frequently collaborating with friend and actor-director-playwright Joshua Logan. 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. One of Natwick's memorable roles was in The House Without a Christmas Tree (1972), which starred Jason Robards and Lisa Lucas. The program's success spawned three sequels: The Thanksgiving Treasure, The Easter Promise, and Addie and The King of Hearts.
In 1971, Natwick co-starred with Helen Hayes in the ABC Movie of the Week, Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate, in which their characters worked together as amateur sleuths. The success of that telefilm resulted in a similar team-up the next year, portraying two mystery-writing and solving sisters; this spawned the 1973-74 series The Snoop Sisters, which was part of The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie. For her performance, Natwick won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. In 1981, Natwick joined Hayes as the first members of the Board of Advisors to the Riverside Shakespeare Company. 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. A Republican, she supported Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.
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 | Notes |
| 1940 | The Long Voyage Home | Freda | |
| 1945 | The Enchanted Cottage | Mrs. Abigail Minnett | |
| 1945 | Yolanda and the Thief | Aunt Amarilla | |
| 1947 | The Late George Apley | Amelia Newcombe | |
| 1948 | A Woman's Vengeance | Nurse Caroline Braddock | |
| 1948 | The Kissing Bandit | Isabella | |
| 1948 | 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 | |
| 1952 | Against All Flags | Molvina MacGregor | |
| 1955 | The Trouble with Harry | Miss Ivy Gravely | |
| 1955 | 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 Actress |
| 1969 | If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium | Jenny Grant | |
| 1969 | The Maltese Bippy | Molly Fletcher | |
| 1969 | 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

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1949 | Starring Boris Karloff | | Episode: "Five Golden Guineas" |
| 1950 | Starlight Theatre | | 2 episodes |
| 1950 | Somerset Maugham TV Theatre | Mrs. Albert Forrester | Episode: "The Creative Impulse" |
| 1953 | Lux Video Theatre | Mrs. Boyd | Episode: "The Brooch" |
| 1954 | You Are There | Mary, Queen of Scots | Episode: "The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots" |
| 1956 | Ford Star Jubilee | Madame Arcati | Episode: "Blithe Spirit" |
| 1956 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Aunt Rosalie Tallendier | Season 1 Episode 24: "The Perfect Murder" |
| 1958 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Millicent Bracegirdle | Season 3 Episode 18: "Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty" |
| 1961 | Naked City | Irma Mahoney | Episode: "Take and Put" |
| 1962 | Arsenic & Old Lace | Martha Brewster | TV movie |
| 1969 | Bonanza | Mrs. Wharton | Episode: "Mrs. Wharton and the Lesser Breeds" |
| 1971 | Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate | Shelby Saunders | TV movie |
| 1972 | The House Without a Christmas Tree | Grandma Mills | TV movie |
| 1973 | Money to Burn | Emily Finnegan | TV movie |
| 1973 | The Thanksgiving Treasure | Grandma Mills | TV movie |
| 1973–1974 | The Snoop Sisters | Gwendolyn Snoop Nicholson | 4 episodes |
| 1975 | McMillan & Wife | Beatrice McMillan | 2 episodes |
| 1978–1979 | Hawaii Five-O | Millicent Shand | 2 episodes |
| 1978 | Little Women | Aunt Kathryn March | TV miniseries |
| 1980 | Alice | Aunt Agatha | Episode: "Vera's Aunt Agatha" |
| 1982 | Maid in America | Mrs. Angstrom | TV movie |
| 1983 | Magnum, P.I. | Madge LaSalle | Episode: "Limited Engagement" |
| 1986 | Murder, She Wrote | Carrie McKittrick | Episode: "Murder in the Electric Cathedral " |
| 1987 | Deadly Deception | Sarah Cleason | TV movie |