Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jessie Ralph (born Jessie Ralph Chambers, November 5, 1864 – May 30, 1944) was an American stage and screen actress, best known for her matronly roles in many classic motion pictures. She was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1864. She made her acting debut in 1880, at the age of sixteen. She made it to Broadway, where George M. Cohan cast her in many of his musicals, but she also excelled at dramatic roles. Although she made her Hollywood debut in 191...
Known For
Complete Filmography
They Met in Bombay
1941
as Duchess of Beltravers
A jewel thief and a con artist are rivals in the theft of a valuable diamond and gem necklace in Bombay and as the Japanese Army invades China.
The Lady from Cheyenne
1941
as Mrs. McGuinness
Fictionalized story of the 1869 adoption of women's suffrage in Wyoming Territory. In the new-founded railroad town of Laraville, Boss Jim Cork hopes ...
The Bank Dick
1940
as Mrs. Hermisillo Brunch
Egbert Sousé becomes an unexpected hero when a bank robber falls over a bench he's occupying. Now considered brave, Egbert is given a job as a bank gu...
I Want a Divorce
1940
as Grandma Brokaw
Comedy about newlyweds wondering if their marriage was a mistake.
The Girl from Avenue A
1940
as Mrs. Van Dyne
A tough girl raised in the streets finds that her dialect and manners are helpful as source material for a playwright.
I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby
1940
as Mama McGann
In I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby, Broderick Crawford plays a sentimental gangster who abducts songwriter Johnny Downs and forces him to wri...
Star Dust
1940
as Aunt Martha Parker
When Hollywood film studios reject her because she's too young, an Arkansas woman sets out to build a career as an actress on her own.
The Blue Bird
1940
as Fairy Berylune
Peasant children Mytyl and Tyltyl are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the fairy Berylune. On their journey, they're ...
Drums Along the Mohawk
1939
as Mrs. Weaver
Albany, New York, 1776. After marrying, Gil and Lana travel north to settle on a small farm in the Mohawk River Valley, but soon their growing prosper...
Mickey the Kid
1939
as Veronica Hudson
A bank robber and his boy make a run for it during winter in a bus full of children.
The Kid From Texas
1939
as Aunt Minetta
A loud-mouthed Texas cowpuncher tries his hand at polo finding himself at odds with high society and trying to save a floundering Wild West show.
Cafe Society
1939
as Mrs. De Witt
A pampered heiress (Madeleine Carroll) elopes with a shipboard reporter (Fred MacMurray) just to get her name in a society column.
St. Louis Blues
1939
as Aunt Tibbie
A Broadway musical comedy star tires of the same old grind and flees the city. She runs into the skipper of a showboat who befriends her, and they mak...
Four Girls in White
1939
as Miss Tobias
Young Women go through Nursing School together, each with their own motivation for being there. They learn more than how to be a Nurse.
Port of Seven Seas
1938
as Honorine
In the French port of Marseille, a young woman named Madelon is in love with a young sailor, Marius. Discovering she is pregnant after Marius sets out...
Hold That Kiss
1938
as Aunt Lucy
Two young people meet at a wedding and begin dating, each thinking the other is extremely wealthy. Comedy.
Love Is a Headache
1938
as Sheriff Janet Winfield
A press agent for a Broadway actress whose career is going downhill attempts to get her some publicity by having her adopt two orphans, without her kn...
Double Wedding
1937
as Mrs. Kensington-Bly
A bohemian free spirit helps meek Waldo win back his fiancée and falls in love with her over-controlling sister in the process.
The Romance of Celluloid
1937
as Self
Several behind the scenes aspects of the movie-making business, which results in the enjoyment the movie going public has in going to the theater, are...
The Good Earth
1937
as Cuckoo
China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the man...
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
1937
as The Duchess of Ebley
A chic American jewel thief falls in love with one of her marks, an English lord.
Camille
1936
as Nanine
Life in 1847 Paris is as spirited as champagne and as unforgiving as the gray morning after. In gambling dens and lavish soirees, men of means exert t...
After the Thin Man
1936
as Aunt Katherine Forrest
Nick and Nora Charles investigate when Nora's cousin reports her disreputable husband is missing, and find themselves in a mystery involving the shady...
Walking on Air
1936
as Evelyn Bennett
A strong-willed young woman hires a student to impersonate a boorish French count and brings him home to meet her parents.
Bunker Bean
1936
as Grandmother
A shy office worker becomes a hero when a fortune teller calls him another Napoleon.
San Francisco
1936
as Mrs. Maisie Burley
A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the great earthquake and subsequent fires in 19...
The Unguarded Hour
1936
as Lady Agatha Hathaway
A blackmailer tries to stop a woman from revealing evidence that could save a condemned man.
Yellow Dust
1936
as Mrs. Brian
After he's accused of a series of stagecoach robberies, an innocent man has to find the real crooks.
Little Lord Fauntleroy
1936
as Applewoman
An American boy turns out to be the heir of a wealthy British earl. He is sent to live with the irritable and unsentimental aristocrat, his grandfathe...
The Garden Murder Case
1936
as Mrs. Hammle
Two people with ties to rich murdered socialite Lowe Hammle die from unusual suicides—but Vance suspects foul play.
Captain Blood
1935
as Mrs. Barlow
Dr. Peter Blood, unjustly convicted of treason and exiled from England, becomes a notorious pirate.
I Found Stella Parish
1935
as Nana
A blackmailer preys on an actress who is trying to protect her daughter from her past.
Metropolitan
1935
as Charwoman
Opera prima donna leaves the Metropolitan to form her own company with Tibbett as leading man. She leaves this company too which means Tibbett and com...
I Live My Life
1935
as Mrs. O.H.B. Gage, Kay's Grandmother
A society girl tries to make a go of her marriage to an archaeologist.
Jalna
1935
as Gran Whiteoaks
A young poet, accompanied by his new bride, returns home to his large family at their Canadian farm.
Paris in Spring
1935
as Countess de Charelle
Afraid of marriage, Simone (Mary Ellis) breaks off her long term engagement with her fiancé Paul de Lille (Tullio Carminati). Paul heads to the top of...
Mark of the Vampire
1935
as Midwife
Sir Borotyn, a prominent Prague resident, is discovered murdered in his home, with all indications pointing to a vampire assault. The victim's friend,...
Les Misérables
1935
as Madame Magloire
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both me...
Vanessa: Her Love Story
1935
as Lady Mullion
The Victorian wife of a mad baron waits years for a British soldier sent to Egypt.
Enchanted April
1935
as Mrs. Phoebe Fisher
Mrs. Lotty Wilkins is an unhappily wife whom's life husband and romance have departed. In order to possibly salvage some of the missing elements in he...
David Copperfield
1935
as Clara Peggotty
A young man journeys from a difficult childhood to maturity, exploring social injustice, personal development, and the complexities of human relations...
Evelyn Prentice
1934
as Mrs. Blake
A criminal lawyer's wife is blackmailed when she is falsely accused of infidelity.
We Live Again
1934
as Matrona Pavlovna
Nekhludoff, a Russian nobleman serving on a jury, discovers that the young girl on trial, Katusha, is someone he once seduced and abandoned and that h...
The Affairs of Cellini
1934
as Beatrice
The 16th-century sculptor woos the Duchess of Florence despite the duke.
One Night of Love
1934
as Angelina
Mary Barrett is an aspiring opera singer who is taken under the wings of a famous operatic maestro, Guilio Monterverdi. After spending endless working...
Murder at the Vanities
1934
as Mrs. Helene Smith
Shortly before the curtain goes up the first time at the latest performance of Earl Carroll's Vanities, someone is attempting to injure the leading la...
Coming Out Party
1934
as Nora
In this romance, a lovely young debutante falls in love with a jazz violinist. Her mother wants her to marry a wealthy young man, but the strong-wille...
Nana
1934
as Zoe
Young Parisian Nana wards off of a boozed-up military officer at a local restaurant, and fellow diner Gaston Greiner is so impressed with her pluck th...
Cocktail Hour
1933
as Princess
Cynthia Warren, independently wealthy through her ability as an illustrator and poster artist, rebels against the premise that every woman is destined...
Ann Carver's Profession
1933
as Terry
Newlyweds experience marital problems when the wife's highly successful job as an attorney overshadows her husband's stagnant career.
Elmer, the Great
1933
as Sarah Crosby (uncredited)
Elmer does not want to leave Gentryville, because Nellie is the one that he loves. Even when Mr. Wade of the Chicago Cubs comes to get him, it is only...
Child of Manhattan
1933
as Aunt Minnie
Paul Vanderkill is extraordinarily wealthy because his grandfather happened to buy farmland in what was to become Midtown Manhattan. The Loveland Danc...
Such a Little Queen
1921
as Mary
Queen Anne of Gzbfernigambia, who is betrothed to King Stephen of Hetland, flees to the United States with Baron Cosaco when a revolution breaks out i...
The Madonna of the Slums
1919
A rich artist has never completed a master painting because he could not find a model for the face, sees the wife of a man in hard luck begging on the...