Hilda Vaughn
Hilda Vaughn (December 27, 1898 – December 28, 1957) was an American actress of the stage, film, radio, and television. Early years. Hilda Weiller Strouse, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eli Strouse, Vaughn attended Vassar College and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Career. Vaughn frequently played a "pleb", or a commoner, in the films she acted in (waitresses, maids, charwomen, governesses, and saleswomen). A fixture at MGM in the sound era of the early 1930s, she acted in more than 50 films. Her most notable films were 1933's "Dinner at Eight" where she was memorable as  Jean Harlow's blackmailing maid, as well as "Today We Live" (1933), "Chasing Yesterday" (1935), and "Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum" (1940). She appeared on Broadway, and in 1924 toured as the lead in "Rain" based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham. Her "smoldering quality" came back to Broadway two years later in "The Seed of the Brute" at the Little Theatre. She also appeared on Broadway in "Glory Hallelujah". After making several films, Vaughn was part of the Hollywood blacklist. She returned to the stage in 1942 to play the lead in "Only the Heart" at the  American Actors Company. In 1943 she appeared in William Saroyan's "Get Away Old Man", followed by several other appearances, including playing the nurse to Judith Anderson's "Medea" and the mother in "The Devil's Disciple" by George Bernard Shaw. She was also known for her concert readings of plays. Death. On December 28, 1957, Vaughn died in Baltimore.