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Ellen Corby

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American actress (1911–1999)

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Ellen Corby
Corby as Esther "Grandma" Walton in the television movieThe Homecoming (1971), a precursor to the seriesThe Waltons
Born
Ellen Hansen

(1911-06-03)June 3, 1911
DiedApril 14, 1999(1999-04-14) (aged 87)
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park,Glendale, California, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1933–1999
Spouse
Francis Corby
​
​
(m. 1934; div. 1944)​
PartnerStella Luchetta

Ellen Hansen Corby (June 3, 1911 – April 14, 1999) was an American actress and screenwriter. She played the role ofEsther "Grandma" Walton on theCBS television seriesThe Waltons, for which she won threeEmmy Awards. She was also nominated for anAcademy Award and won aGolden Globe Award for her performance as Aunt Trina inI Remember Mama (1948).

Early life

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Ellen Hansen was born inRacine, Wisconsin, to immigrant parents fromDenmark. She grew up inPhiladelphia. An interest in amateur theater while in high school led her toAtlantic City in 1932, where she briefly worked as achorus girl. She moved to Hollywood that same year and got a job as a script girl[clarification needed] atRKO Studios andHal Roach Studios, where she often worked onOur Gang comedies, alongside her future husband, cinematographer Francis Corby. She held that position for the next 12 years and took acting lessons on the side.[1][2]

Career

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Although she had bit parts in more than 30 films in the 1930s and 1940s, includingBabes in Toyland (1934) andIt's a Wonderful Life (1946), her first credited acting role was in RKO'sCornered (1945) in which she played a maid, followed by an uncredited brief speaking role as a kitchen cook inThe Locket (1946). Corby began her career as a writer atParamount studios working on theWesternTwilight on the Trail (1941).

She received an Academy Award nomination and aGolden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as a lovelorn aunt inI Remember Mama (1948). Over the next four decades, she worked in film and television, typically portraying maids, secretaries, waitresses, or gossips, often in Westerns, and had a recurring role as Henrietta Porter, a newspaper publisher, inTrackdown.

Corby appeared as the elderly Mrs. Lesh, the crooked car peddler, on CBS'sThe Andy Griffith Show. She guest-starred, as well, onWagon Train,Cheyenne,The Guns of Will Sonnett,Dragnet (several episodes),Rescue 8,The Restless Gun (two episodes),The Rifleman,The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp,Fury,The Donna Reed Show,Frontier Circus,Hazel,I Love Lucy,Dennis the Menace,Tightrope,Bonanza,The Big Valley,Meet McGraw,The Virginian,Channing,Alfred Hitchcock Presents,Batman,Get Smart,Gomer Pyle,The Addams Family (as Lurch's Mother),The Beverly Hillbillies,The Invaders,Lassie, andNight Gallery. From 1965 to 1967, she had a recurring role in theNBC television seriesPlease Don't Eat the Daisies, based on an earlierDoris Day film.

Her best-known role came as Grandma Esther Walton on the made-for-TV filmThe Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971), which served as the pilot forThe Waltons. Her husband, Zebulon Walton, was portrayed by actorEdgar Bergen in the film. Corby went on to resume her role on the weekly television seriesThe Waltons. (She was the only adult actor from the originalHomecoming pilot to carry her role over to the series.) ActorWill Geer played her husband in the series from 1972 until his death in 1978, at which time the character of Zebulon Walton was also buried. The series ran from 1972 to 1981, and resulted in six sequel films. For her work inThe Waltons, she gained three Emmy Awards and three more nominations as Best Supporting Actress. She also won a Golden Globe award for best supporting actress in a TV series forThe Waltons, and was nominated another three times. She left the show November 10, 1976, owing to a massive stroke she had suffered at home,[3] which impaired her speech and severely limited her mobility and function.[4] She returned to the series during the final episode of the 1977–78 season, with her character depicted as also recovering from a stroke.[5]

She remained a regular onThe Waltons through the end of the 1978–79 season, with Esther Walton struggling with her stroke deficits as Corby was in real life.[6] Although Corby was able to communicate after her stroke, her character's lines were usually limited to one word or one-phrased dialogue. For example, upon receiving news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she exhorted the family to "pray, pray, pray."

Her role dropped to recurring duringThe Waltons' final two seasons, though she later resumed her role as Grandma Walton in five of the sixWaltons reunion movies between 1982 and 1997, not appearing in the second movie.

Personal life

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Ellen Hansen married Francis Corby, a film director/cinematographer who was two decades her senior, in 1934; they divorced in 1944. The marriage produced no children. In 1954, Corby met Stella Luchetta. Luchetta was Corby's partner throughout the rest of Corby's life.[7]

In 1969 Corby was trained byMaharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, to become a teacher ofTranscendental Meditation.[8] She had been practicing the technique for several years before.

She suffered a stroke in November 1976 from which she recovered and returned to her role onThe Waltons in March 1978.

Her final role was inA Walton Easter (1997). In 1999, following several years of declining health, Corby died at age 87 at theMotion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital inWoodland Hills, Los Angeles. Her memorial site is inForest Lawn Memorial Park,Glendale, California.

Filmography

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1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s

Writer

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Miscellaneous crew

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  • Swiss Miss (1938) (script supervisor) (uncredited)

Awards and recognition

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Emmy Awards - Supporting Actress

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Corby won 3 Emmy Awards out of 6 nominations.[9]

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (as Esther Walton inThe Waltons): 5 consecutive nominations; 3 wins:

  • 1973:won (Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Drama)
  • 1974: nominated (Best Supporting Actress in Drama)
  • 1975:won (Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Drama Series)
  • 1976:won (Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Drama Series)
  • 1977: nominated (Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Drama Series)
  • 1978: nominated (Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Drama Series)

Golden Globe Awards - Supporting Actress

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Corby won 2 Golden Globe Awards out of 5 nominations[10]

Other Awards

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References

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  1. ^Twomey, Alfred E.; McClure, Arthur F. (1969).The Versatiles: A Study of Supporting Character Actors and Actresses in the American Motion Picture, 1930-1955. A. S. Barnes. p. 74.ISBN 978-0-498-06792-1.
  2. ^"Ellen Corby," Racine Hall of Fame,Racine, Wisconsin, retrieved December 15, 2024
  3. ^"Walton's Granny' suffers stroke".The Miami News.Ancestry.com#Newspapers.com. November 11, 1976.
  4. ^"Ellen Corby return uncertain".The Orlando Sentinel.Ancestry.com#Newspapers.com. May 15, 1977.
  5. ^"Ellen Corby 'Walton's' returning".The Ithaca Journal.Ancestry.com#Newspapers.com. December 19, 1977.
  6. ^"Ellen Corby, 87, Grandmother In 'The Waltons' Series on TV".The New York Times.The Associated Press. April 18, 1999. RetrievedNovember 3, 2019.
  7. ^Thurber, Jon (April 17, 1999)."From the Archives: Ellen Corby; Actress Played Grandma on 'The Waltons'".Los Angeles Times. Archived fromthe original on November 16, 2021. RetrievedNovember 16, 2021.
  8. ^"Ellen Corby".Los Angeles Times. April 28, 1999. RetrievedSeptember 15, 2014.In late 1969, Ellen Corby and I, along with 120 others, spent some months in the jungles of the Himalayan foothills near Rishikesh, India, becoming teachers of Transcendental Meditation.
  9. ^"Ellen Corby: Awards & Nominations,"Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, retrieved December 15, 2024
  10. ^"Ellen Corby,"Golden Globe Awards, retrieved December 15, 2024

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