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Marjorie Main
from the trailer for Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Born	Mary Tomlinson February 24, 1890(1890-02-24) Acton, Indiana, U.S.
Died	April 10, 1975 (aged 85) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1916–1958
Spouse(s)	Stanley LeFevre Krebs (1921–1935; his death)

Marjorie Main (February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975) was an Academy Award-nominated American character actress, mainly at MGM, perhaps best known for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.

Early life and career

Born Mary Tomlinson in Boggstown, Indiana, Main attended Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, and adopted a stage name to avoid embarrassing her father, Samuel J. Tomlinson (married to Jennie L. McGaughey), who was a minister. She worked in vaudeville on the Chautauqua and Orpheum circuits, and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her first film was A House Divided in 1931.^[1][2]

Main began playing upper class dowagers, but was ultimately typecast in abrasive, domineering, salty roles, for which her distinct voice was well suited. She repeated her stage role in Dead End in the 1937 film version, and was subsequently cast repeatedly as the mother of gangsters. She again transferred a strong stage performance, as a dude ranch operator in The Women, to film in 1939. She made six films with Wallace Beery in the 1940s including Barnacle Bill (1941), Jackass Mail (1942), and Bad Bascomb (1946).^[3]

Perhaps her most famous role is that of "Ma Kettle", which she first played in The Egg and I in 1947 opposite Percy Kilbride as "Pa Kettle". She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the part, and portrayed the character in nine more Ma and Pa Kettle films.^[3]

Personal life and death

Main married Stanley LeFevre Krebs, who died in 1935. Three authors, Boze Hadleigh, Axel Madsen, and Darwin Porter, have asserted that Main was a lesbian.^[4][5][6]

Main died of lung cancer on April 10, 1975 in Los Angeles at the age of 85. She is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills.^[7]

Theatre

• Salvation (1928)
• Scarlet Sister Mary (1930)
• Ebb Tide (1931)
• Music in the Air (1932)
• Jackson White (1935)
• Dead End (1935)
• The Women (1936)

Selected filmography

References

External links

• Marjorie Main at the Internet Broadway Database
• Marjorie Main at the Internet Movie Database
• Marjorie Main at the TCM Movie Database
• Marjorie Main at Find a Grave