# Emma Dunn

Emma Dunn (26 February 1875 – 14 December 1966) was an English actress. After starting her acting career on stage in London, she became known for her works in numerous films and Broadway productions.

## Career

Emma Dunn appeared onstage in her early teens, graduating to the London stage for several years and later became a noted Broadway actress. She appeared in the first American production of Ibsen's Peer Gynt (1906) with Richard Mansfield as Peer. She played Peer's mother, Ase, even though she was, in real life, 20 years younger than Mansfield. She appeared in three productions for theatre impresario David Belasco: The Warrens of Virginia (1907), The Easiest Way (1909) and The Governor's Lady (1912). In The Easiest Way, Dunn portrayed Annie, who was black, in blackface. In 1913 Dunn appeared in vaudeville.
Dunn made her first film in 1914, a silent film of her 1910 stage success, Mother, directed by Maurice Tourneur. This was Tourneur's first American film. Dunn's second film was 1920's Old Lady 31, reprising the role she played in the 1916 Broadway play of the same name. One more silent film followed in 1924, Pied Piper Malone, and then she made her sound debut in Side Street, co-starring the Moore brothers, Matt, Owen and Tom as her sons.
Dunn wrote two books on elocution and speech: Thought Quality in the Voice (1933) and You Can Do It (1947).

## Personal life

Emma Dunn was born 26 February 1875, in Birkenhead, England, although she sometimes gave her year of birth as 1883.
Dunn married Harry Beresford, an actor who was then known professionally as Harry J. Morgan, in Chicago on 4 October 1897. They divorced on 10 February 1909, in New York City. She was awarded sole custody of their young daughter, Dorothy. On 19 May 1909, Dunn married John W. Stokes (John W. S. Sullivan), an actor, playwright and theatrical manager. They subsequently adopted a second daughter, Helen. The couple divorced sometime between 1923 and Stokes' death in 1931.
After suffering a heart attack some months before, Dunn died 14 December 1966 in Los Angeles, California, aged 91.

## Theatre credits

| Date | Title | Role | Notes |
| 30 November – 6 December 1902 | The Wrong Mr. Wright | Tillie Bird | National tour beginning at Morosco's Burbank Theatre, Los Angeles |
| 8 January – January 1906 | The Redemption of David Corson | | Majestic Theatre, New York City |
| 28 October 1906 – January 1907 | Peer Gynt | Ase | Grand Opera House, Chicago |
| 25 February – 23 March 1907 | Peer Gynt | Ase | New Amsterdam Theatre, New York City |
| 3 December 1907 – October 1908 | The Warrens of Virginia | Mrs. Warren | Belasco Theatre, Stuyvesant Theatre, New York City |
| 19 January – June 1909 | The Easiest Way | Annie | Stuyvesant Theatre, New York City |
| 7 September – 31 December 1910 | Mother | Mrs. Katherine Wetherill | Hackett Theatre, Criterion Theatre, New York City |
| 10 September 1912 – January 1913 | The Governor's Lady | Mary Slade | Theatre Republic, New York City |
| 7 January – July 1915 | Sinners | Mrs. Horton | Playhouse Theatre, New York City |
| 30 October 1916 – March 1917 | Old Lady 31 | Angie | 38th Street Theatre, New York City |
| 16 August – 10 September 1921 | Sonny | Mrs. Crosby | Cort Theatre, New York City |
| 24 November 1924 – January 1925 | Dawn | Mary Slayton | Sam H. Harris Theatre, New York City |
| 24 November 1925 – 19?? | Rip Van Winkle | Gretchen | Boston Repertory Theatre, Boston |
| January 1927 | Junk | Old Sal | Garrick Theatre, New York City |

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1914 | Mother | Mrs. Wetherell | |
| 1920 | Old Lady 31 | Angie Rose | |
| 1924 | Pied Piper Malone | Mother Malone | |
| 1929 | Side Street | Mrs. O'Farrell | |
| 1930 | Manslaughter | Miss Bennett | |
| 1931 | Bad Sister | Mrs. Madison | |
| 1931 | Compromised | Mrs. Squires | |
| 1931 | The Guilty Generation | Nina | |
| 1931 | Morals for Women | Mrs. Hutson | |
| 1931 | The Prodigal | Mrs. Cynthia Farraday | |
| 1931 | The Texan | Señora Ibarra | |
| 1931 | This Modern Age | Mrs. Blake | |
| 1931 | Too Young to Marry | Jennie Bumpsted | |
| 1931 | Under Eighteen | Mrs. Evans | |
| 1932 | Blessed Event | Mrs. Roberts | |
| 1932 | Broken Lullaby | Mrs. Miller | |
| 1932 | The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood | Mrs. Sarah Cohen | |
| 1932 | Hell's House | Emma Clark | |
| 1932 | It's Tough to Be Famous | "Moms" McClenahan | |
| 1932 | Letty Lynton | Mrs. Darrow | |
| 1932 | The Wet Parade | Mrs. Sally Chilcote | |
| 1932 | When a Feller Needs a Friend | Kind lady | |
| 1933 | Elmer, the Great | Mrs. Kane | |
| 1933 | Grand Slam | Sob sister | |
| 1933 | Hard to Handle | Mrs. Hawks | |
| 1933 | It's Great to Be Alive | Mrs. Wilton | |
| 1933 | A Man of Sentiment | Mrs. Russell | |
| 1933 | Private Jones | Mrs. Jones | |
| 1934 | Dark Hazard | Mrs. Mayhew | |
| 1934 | Dr. Monica | Mrs. Monahan | |
| 1934 | Flirtation | Mrs. Poole | |
| 1934 | The Quitter | Cordelia Tilford | |
| 1935 | Another Face | Sheila's mother | |
| 1935 | The Crusades | Mother of Alan | |
| 1935 | George White's 1935 Scandals | Aunt Jane | |
| 1935 | The Glass Key | "Mom" | |
| 1935 | The Keeper of the Bees | Margaret Campbell | |
| 1935 | Ladies Crave Excitement | Mary Phelan | |
| 1935 | Little Big Shot | Matron | |
| 1935 | Seven Keys to Baldpate | Mrs. Quimby | |
| 1935 | This Is the Life | Mrs. Davis | |
| 1936 | The Harvester | Granny Moreland | |
| 1936 | Mr. Deeds Goes to Town | Mrs. Meredith, Deed's housekeeper | Uncredited |
| 1936 | Second Wife | Mrs. Brown | |
| 1937 | Circus Girl | Molly | |
| 1937 | The Emperor's Candlesticks | Housekeeper | |
| 1937 | Madame X | Rose | |
| 1937 | Varsity Show | Mrs. Smith | |
| 1937 | Waikiki Wedding | Old woman | |
| 1937 | When You're in Love | Mrs. Hamilton | |
| 1938 | The Cowboy and the Lady | Ma Hawkins | |
| 1938 | Cowboy from Brooklyn | Ma Hardy | |
| 1938 | The Crowd Roars | Laura McCoy | |
| 1938 | The Duke of West Point | Mrs. West | |
| 1938 | Lord Jeff | Mrs. Briggs | |
| 1938 | Thanks for the Memory | Mrs. Platt | |
| 1938 | Three Loves Has Nancy | Mrs. Briggs | |
| 1938 | Young Dr. Kildare | Martha Kildare | |
| 1939 | Calling Dr. Kildare | Martha Kildare | |
| 1939 | Each Dawn I Die | Mrs. Ross | |
| 1939 | Hero for a Day | "Mom" Higgins | |
| 1939 | The Llano Kid | Dona Teresa | |
| 1939 | The Secret of Dr. Kildare | Martha Kildare | |
| 1939 | Son of Frankenstein | Amelia | |
| 1940 | Dance, Girl, Dance | Mrs. Simpson | |
| 1940 | Dr. Kildare Goes Home | Martha Kildare | |
| 1940 | Dr. Kildare's Crisis | Martha Kildare | |
| 1940 | Dr. Kildare's Strange Case | Martha Kildare | |
| 1940 | The Great Dictator | Mrs. Jaeckel | |
| 1940 | Half a Sinner | Granny Gladden | |
| 1940 | High School | Mrs. O'Neill | |
| 1940 | Little Orvie | Mrs. Welty | |
| 1940 | One Crowded Night | Ma | |
| 1940 | Yesterday's Heroes | Aunt Winnie | |
| 1940 | You Can't Fool Your Wife | Mrs. Fields | |
| 1941 | Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day | Martha Kildare | |
| 1941 | Ladies in Retirement | Sister Theresa | |
| 1941 | Mr. & Mrs. Smith | Martha | |
| 1941 | The Monster and the Girl | Aunt Della | |
| 1941 | The Penalty | "Ma" McCormick | |
| 1941 | Rise and Shine | Mrs. Murray | |
| 1941 | Scattergood Baines | Mirandy Baines | |
| 1941 | Scattergood Meets Broadway | Mirandy Baines | |
| 1941 | Scattergood Pulls the Strings | Mirandy Baines | |
| 1942 | Babes on Broadway | Mrs. Williams | |
| 1942 | I Married a Witch | Wife of the justice of the peace | |
| 1942 | The Mad Martindales | Agnes | |
| 1942 | The Postman Didn't Ring | Martha Carter | |
| 1942 | The Talk of the Town | Mrs. Shelley | |
| 1942 | When Johnny Comes Marching Home | Nora Flanagan | |
| 1943 | The Cross of Lorraine | Mme. Marchand | |
| 1943 | Hoosier Holiday | Molly Baker | |
| 1943 | Minesweeper | Mom | |
| 1943 | The North Star | Old lady | |
| 1944 | Are These Our Parents? | Ma Henderson | |
| 1944 | The Bridge of San Luis Rey | Dona Mercedes | |
| 1944 | Irish Eyes Are Smiling | Mother Machree | |
| 1944 | It Happened Tomorrow | Mrs. Keever | |
| 1944 | My Buddy | Mary Ballinger | |
| 1945 | The Horn Blows at Midnight | Mrs. Smith | |
| 1945 | The Hoodlum Saint | Maggie | |
| 1946 | Night Train to Memphis | Mom Acuff | |
| 1947 | Life with Father | Margaret, the cook | |
| 1947 | Mourning Becomes Electra | Mrs. Borden | |
| 1948 | The Woman in White | Mrs. Vesey | |