Profile of Ellen Corby on Famous Like Me

Ellen Corby (June 3, 1911 - April 14, 1999) was an American character actress. She is most widely remembered for the role of "Grandma Walton" on the television series The Waltons.

She was born Ellen Hansen to Danish parents in Racine, Wisconsin but grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An interest in amateur theater while in high school led her to Atlantic City in 1932 where she briefly worked as a chorus girl. She moved to Hollywood that same year and got a job as a script girl at RKO Studios. She held that position for the next twelve years and took acting lessons on the side.

Her career as an actress began in 1946 when she appeared as a maid in the film Cornered. Two years later, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress playing a lovelorn aunt in I Remember Mama (1948). Over the next four decades, she worked steadily in both film and television, often playing maids, secretaries, waitresses or gossips. She was a favorite in western films and had a recurring role as "Henrietta Porter" in the western television series Trackdown (1957-1959). Other television appearances included Wagon Train, The Rifleman, I Love Lucy, The Virginian, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Andy Griffith Show. Her most famous role came in 1972 when she was cast as "Grandma Esther Walton" on The Waltons. The role would win her three Emmy Awards as Best Supporting Actress.

She suffered a serious stroke in 1977 but recovered and went on to appear in several television films based on The Waltons. Her last appearance was in A Walton Easter (1997).

She died at the age of 87 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills CA. She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

She was married to Francis Corby from 1934 to 1944.

Filmography

Actress

1930s

• Rafter Romance (1933)
• Sons of the Desert (1933)
• Twisted Rails (1934)
• Speed Limited (1935)
• The Broken Coin (1936)

1940s

• Cornered (1945)
• The Scarlet Horseman (1946)
• The Spiral Staircase (1946)
• From This Day Forward (1946)
• The Dark Corner (1946)
• The Truth About Murder (1946)
• Bedlam (1946)
• In Old Sacramento (1946)
• Lover Come Back (1946)
• Till The End of Time (1946)
• Cuban Pete (1946)
• Crack-Up (1946)
• Sister Kenny (1946)
• The Locket (1946)
• It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
• Beat the Band (1947)
• Born to Kill (1947)
• The Long Night (1947)
• Living in a Big Way (1947)
• They Wont Believe Me (1947)
• The Batchelor and the Bobby Soxer (1947)
• The Hal Roach Comedy Carnival (1947)
• The Fabulous Joe (1947)
• Driftwood (1947)
• Railroaded! (1947)
• Forever Amber (1947)
• If You Knew Susie (1948)
• I Remember Mama (1948)
• The Noose Hangs High (1948)
• Fighting Father Dunne (1948)
• The Dark Past (1948)
• Strike It Rich (1949)
• Rusty Saves a Life (1949)
• A Woman's Secret (1949)
• Little Women (1949)
• The Judge Steps Out (1949)
• Mighty Joe Young (1949)
• Madame Bovary (1949)

1950s

• Captain China (1950)
• Caged (1950)
• The Gunfighter (1950)
• Peggy (1950)
• Edge of Doom (1950)
• Harriet Craig (1950)
• Stars over Hollywood (1950)
• Angels in the Outfield (1951)
• The Barefoot Mailman (1951)
• Goodbye, My Fancy (1951)
• Here Comes the Groom (1951)
• The Mating Season (1951)
• On Moonlight Bay (1951)
• The Sea Hornet (1951)
• Stars over Hollywood (1951)
• Fearless Fagan (1952)
• Monsoon (1952)
• Your Jeweler's Showcase (1952)
• A Lion Is in the Streets (1953)
• Dragnet (1953)
• Letter to Loretta (1953)
• Shane (1953)
• The Story of Three Loves (1953)
• Woman They Almost Lynched (1953)
• The Vanquished (1953)
• You Are There (1953)
• Sabrina (1954)
• About Mrs. Leslie (1954)
• The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters (1954)
• Dragnet (1954)
• The Ford Television Theatre (1954)
• Four Star Playhouse (1954)
• Lux Video Theatre (1954)
• Susan Slept Here (1954)
• Untamed Heiress (1954)
• General Electric Theater (1954)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)
• Illegal (1955)
• The Millionaire (1955)
• Stage 7 (1955)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956)
• The Go-Getter (1956)
• I Love Lucy (1956)
• Lux Video Theatre (1956)
• Matinee Theater (1956)
• The Millionaire (1956)
• The Roy Rogers Show (1956)
• Stagecoach to Fury (1956)
• Slightly Scarlet (1956)
• The Adventures of Jim Bowie (1957)
• The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1957)
• All Mine to Give (1957)
• God Is My Partner (1957)
• The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1957)
• Mr. Adams and Eve (1957)
• Night Passage (1957)
• On Trial (1957)
• Rockabilly Baby (1957)
• The Seventh Sin (1957)
• The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1957)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1958)
• As Young as We Are (1958)
• Decision (1958)
• Macabre (1958)
• The Restless Gun (1958)
• Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1958)
• The Texan (1958)
• Trackdown (1958)
• Vertigo (1958)
• Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1959)
• The DuPont Show with June Allyson (1959)
• Lock Up (1959)
• Wagon Train (1959)
• The Restless Gun (1959)
• Perry Mason (1959)
• Trackdown (1959)
• Peter Gunn (1959)
• 77 Sunset Strip (1959)

1960s

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960)
• Bonanza (1960)
• The Chevy Mystery Show (1960)
• General Electric Theater (1960)
• Hot off the Wire (1960)
• The Rebel (1960)
• Lock Up (1960)
• The Rifleman (1960)
• Tales of Wells Fargo (1960)
• Thriller (1960)
• Tightrope (1960)
• Visit to a Small Planet (1960)
• Wagon Train (1960)
• Follow the Sun (1961)
• Frontier Circus (1961)
• General Electric Theater (1961)
• Lassie (1961)
• Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
• The Rifleman (1961)
• Surfside 6 (1961)
• The Tab Hunter Show (1961)
• The Tall Man (1961)
• Cheyenne (1962)
• The Dick Powell Show (1962)
• Dr. Kildare (1962)
• Saintly Sinners (1962)
• 87th Precinct (1962)
• The Andy Griffith Show (1963)
• Bonanza (1963)
• The Caretakers (1963)
• The Lucy Show (1963)
• McKeever & the Colonel (1963)
• 4 for Texas (1963)
• The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1964)
• The Beverly Hillbillies (1964)
• Destry (1964)
• Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964)
• Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
• The Strangler (1964)
• The Virginian (1964)
• The Addams Family (1965)
• Ben Casey (1965)
• Daniel Boone (1965)
• The Donna Reed Show (1965)
• The Family Jewels (1965)
• The Farmer's Daughter (1965)
• Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965)
• Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1966)
• The F.B.I. (1966)
• The Fugitive (1966)
• Get Smart (1966)
• The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)
• The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
• Honey West (1966)
• Laredo (1966)
• Lassie (1966)
• The Night of the Grizzly (1966)
• The Big Valley (1967)
• The F.B.I. (1967)
• The Gnome-Mobile (1967)
• The Invaders (1967)
• Ironside (1967)
• Mr. Terrific (1967)
• Rango (1967)
• Batman (1968)
• The F.B.I. (1968)
• The Guns of Will Sonnett (1968)
• Hawaii Five-O (1968)
• The High Chaparral (1968)
• Lassie (1968)
• The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)
• The Mystery of Edward Sims (1968)
• Adam-12 (1969)
• Angel in My Pocket (1969)
• Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1969)
• Lancer (1969)
• The Outsider (1969)
• Ruba al prossimo tuo (1969)

1970s

• The F.B.I. (1970)
• Bracken's World (1970)
• Nanny and the Professor (1970)
• Adam-12 (1971)
• Cannon (1971)
• The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971)
• Love, American Style (1971)
• The Odd Couple (1971)
• Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971)
• A Tattered Web (1971)
• Love, American Style (1972)
• Napoleon and Samantha (1972)
• Night Gallery (1972)
• The Waltons (1972-1980)
• Tenafly (1973)
• The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd (1974)

1980s

• All the Way Home (1981)
• Wedding on Walton's Mountain (1982)
• A Day for Thanks on Walton's Mountain (1982)

1990s

• A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion (1993)
• A Walton Wedding (1995)
• A Walton Easter (1997)

Posthumous

• The 51st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1999)
• The 72nd Annual Academy Awards (2000)

Writer

• The Broken Coin (1936) (as Ellen Hansen)
• Twilight on the Trail (1941) (screenplay)
• Hoppy's Holiday (1947) (story)

Miscellaneous Crew

• Swiss Miss (1938) (script supervisor) (uncredited)
• A Lion Is in the Streets (1953) (singer: "The Battle Hymn of the Republic")

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Ellen Corby