Patsy Kelly was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 stage and film comedic actress.

Early life and career

Kelly was born Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly in Brooklyn, New York to Irish immigrants, John and Delia Kelly, and made her Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 debut in 1928. In 1930 and 1931, she performed for producer Earl Carroll

Earl Carroll

Earl Carroll was an American theatrical producer, director, songwriter and composer born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.-Career:...

 in his popular Sketches and Vanities musicals. She also appeared with popular stage comic Frank Fay

Frank Fay (American actor)

Frank Fay was an American film and stage actor, emcee, comedian, best known as an actor for having played "Elwood P. Dowd" in the play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase on Broadway...

. During one performance she arrived at the theater late, and Fay was already on stage. Kelly explained to Fay and the audience that she had been at the beauty parlor. Fay ad-libbed, "You weren't waited on, were you?"

Kelly, like other New York actors, made her screen debut in a Vitaphone

Vitaphone

Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...

 short subject filmed there. In 1933 producer Hal Roach

Hal Roach

Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...

 hired Kelly to co-star with Thelma Todd

Thelma Todd

Thelma Alice Todd was an American actress. Appearing in about 120 pictures between 1926 and 1935, she is best remembered for her comedic roles in films like Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, a number of Charley Chase's short comedies, and co-starring with Buster Keaton and Jimmy...

 in a series of short-subject comedies. (Kelly replaced ZaSu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning to comedy sound films.-Early life:ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas to Rulandus and Nellie Pitts; she was the third of four children...

, who left Roach after a salary dispute.) The Todd-Kelly shorts cemented Patsy Kelly's image: a brash, wisecracking woman who frequently punctured the pomposity of other characters. Later entries in the series showcased Kelly's dancing skills. Thelma Todd died in 1935, and Kelly finished out the series, first with Pert Kelton

Pert Kelton

Pert Kelton was an American vaudeville, movie, radio and television actress. She was the first actress who played Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason and was a prominent comedic supporting film actress in the 1930s...

, then with Lyda Roberti

Lyda Roberti

-Life and career:Born in Warsaw, Poland, Roberti was the daughter of a clown and as a child performed in the circus as a trapeze artist, and as a vaudeville singer. As the family toured Europe and Asia, Roberti's mother left her husband, settling in Shanghai, China where the younger Roberti earned...

.

Patsy Kelly then moved into the more ambitious world of feature films, often playing working-class character roles in comedies and musicals. One of her memorable roles was as Etta, the cook, in the five Academy Awards-nominated 1938 comedy movie Merrily We Live

Merrily We Live

Merrily We Live is a 1938 comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod. It stars Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne and features Ann Dvorak, Bonita Granville, Billie Burke, Tom Brown, Alan Mowbray, Clarence Kolb and Patsy Kelly. The film was produced by Hal Roach for Hal Roach Studios, and was...

.

Later years and death

Offscreen, Kelly's unabashed lifestyle resulted in loud ejections from cocktail lounges and restaurants. On occasion she would frankly disclose, in public and with typical candor, to being a "dyke

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

". By 1943 movie producers had distanced themselves from loose-cannon Kelly, and she could find work only at Producers Releasing Corporation

Producers Releasing Corporation

Producers Releasing Corporation was one of the more lower-end Hollywood film studios on Poverty Row from the late '30s to the mid-'40s. PRC, as it was commonly known, made low-budget B-movies for the lower-half of a double bill. A few of its films have gained a respectable reputation over the...

, the smallest and cheapest of the movie studios. Her last starring roles were in two PRC comedies, My Son, the Hero and Danger! Women at Work.

She eventually became a housekeeper and sporadic lover to Tallulah Bankhead

Tallulah Bankhead

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an award-winning American actress of the stage and screen, talk-show host, and bonne vivante...

, claiming that any man attracted to her must really be a "lesbo."

On television she appeared on top-rated shows like The Man from U.N.C.L.E, The Dick Van Dyke Show

The Dick Van Dyke Show

The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....

, The Wild Wild West

The Wild Wild West

The Wild Wild West is an American television series that ran on CBS for four seasons from September 17, 1965 to April 4, 1969....

, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...

, as well as many unsold pilots. She also made a memorable appearance as Laura-Louise in the film thriller Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby (film)

Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the bestselling 1967 novel Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin...

(1968), directed by Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...

, alongside veteran actors Sidney Blackmer

Sidney Blackmer

Sidney Alderman Blackmer was an American actor.Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina. He started off in an insurance and financial business but gave up on it. While working as a builder's laborer on a new building, he saw a Pearl White serial being filmed and immediately...

, Ruth Gordon

Ruth Gordon

Ruth Gordon Jones , better known as Ruth Gordon, was an American actress and writer. She was perhaps best known for her film roles such as Minnie Castevet, Rosemary's overly solicitous neighbor in Rosemary's Baby, as the eccentric Maude in Harold and Maude and as the mother of Orville Boggs in the...

, and Maurice Evans

Maurice Evans (actor)

Maurice Herbert Evans was an English actor noted for his interpretations of Shakespearean characters. In terms of his screen roles, he is probably best known as Dr...

.

She returned to Broadway in 1971 in the revival of No, No, Nanette

No, No, Nanette

No, No, Nanette is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel's 1919 Broadway play My Lady Friends...

with fellow hoofers Ruby Keeler

Ruby Keeler

Ruby Keeler, born Ethel Hilda Keeler, was an actress, singer, and dancer most famous for her on-screen coupling with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Brothers, particularly 42nd Street . From 1928 to 1940, she was married to singer Al Jolson...

 and Helen Gallagher

Helen Gallagher

Helen Gallagher is an American actress, dancer, singer and makeup artist.-Early years:Born in Brooklyn, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York for several years until the Wall Street crash which heralded the Great Depression, and her family moved to the Bronx. Her parents separated and she was...

. Kelly scored a huge success as the wisecracking, tap-dancing maid, and won Broadway's 1971 Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 as Best Supporting or Featured Actress for her performance in the show. She matched that success the following year when she starred in Irene

Irene (musical)

Irene is a musical with a book by James Montgomery, lyrics by Joseph McCarthy, and music by Harry Tierney.Based on Montgomery's play Irene O'Dare, it is set in New York City's Upper West Side and focuses on immigrant shop assistant Irene O'Dare, who is introduced to Long Island's high society when...

with Debbie Reynolds, and was again nominated for a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Kelly appeared as the housekeeper Mrs. Schmauss in the 1976 film Freaky Friday

Freaky Friday (1976 film)

Freaky Friday is a 1976 American comedy film starring Jodie Foster as Annabel Andrews and Barbara Harris as her mother.The film is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Rodgers, in which mother and daughter switch bodies and get a taste of each others' lives. The cause of the switch is left...

which starred Jodie Foster

Jodie Foster

Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....

 and Barbara Harris

Barbara Harris (actress)

Barbara Harris is an American actress who was a Broadway stage star and later became a film actress. She appeared in such films as A Thousand Clowns, Plaza Suite, Nashville, Family Plot, Freaky Friday, Peggy Sue Got Married, and Grosse Pointe Blank...

. Her final movie appearance came in the 1979 Disney comedy The North Avenue Irregulars

The North Avenue Irregulars

The North Avenue Irregulars is a 1979 Disney film distributed by Buena Vista Distribution Company starring Edward Hermann, Barbara Harris and Susan Clark. It was based on original work by Albert Fay Hill, as adapted by Don Tait...

, also co-starring Harris, along with Cloris Leachman

Cloris Leachman

Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...

, Edward Herrmann

Edward Herrmann

Edward Kirk Herrmann is a U.S. television and film actor. He is best known for his Emmy-nominated portrayals of Franklin D...

 and Karen Valentine

Karen Valentine

Karen Valentine is an American actress best-known for her role as the idealistic schoolteacher "Alice Johnson" in the television series Room 222.-Early life:...

.

Kelly died in 1981 at the age of 71 in Woodland Hills, California of cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

 at 6669 Hollywood Boulevard

Hollywood Boulevard

-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...

. She is buried at Calvary Cemetery in New York.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1931	The Grand Dame	Peggy O'Rourke	Short
1933	Air Fright	Peggy	Short
1934	The Countess of Monte Cristo	Mimi
1934	One Horse Farmers		Short
1935	The Misses Stooge	Peggy	Short
1936	Kelly the Second	Molly Patricia Kelly	First starring feature film
1936	Pigskin Parade Pigskin Parade (film) Pigskin Parade is a 1936 musical comedy film which tells the story of husband and wife college football coaches who convince a backwoods player to play for their team so they can go to the big Bowl Game. It was written by William M...	Bessie Winters	Alternative title: Harmony Parade
1937	Nobody's Baby Nobody's Baby Nobody's Baby is a 2001 comedy film written and directed by David Seltzer and starring Gary Oldman and Skeet Ulrich.-Cast:* Skeet Ulrich as Billy Raedeen* Gary Oldman as Buford Bill* Radha Mitchell as Shauna Louise* Mary Steenburgen as Estelle...	Kitty
1937	Wake Up and Live Wake Up and Live Wake Up and Live is a 1937 Fox musical film directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The movie stars Walter Winchell, Ben Bernie and Alice Faye and was based upon the self-help bestseller by Dorothea Brande...	Patsy Kane
1937	"Ever Since Eve Ever Since Eve Ever Since Eve is a 1937 romantic comedy film starring Marion Davies and Robert Montgomery.-Plot:Marge Winton is fed up with having to quit job after job to avoid the advances of lecherous bosses. When she goes to the employment agency, she is surprised to discover that she is too beautiful for... "	Sadie Day, aka Susie Wilson
1938	Merrily We Live Merrily We Live Merrily We Live is a 1938 comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod. It stars Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne and features Ann Dvorak, Bonita Granville, Billie Burke, Tom Brown, Alan Mowbray, Clarence Kolb and Patsy Kelly. The film was produced by Hal Roach for Hal Roach Studios, and was...	Etta
1938	There Goes My Heart There Goes My Heart There Goes My Heart is a 1938 romantic comedy film starring Virginia Bruce as a wealthy heiress who goes to work under an alias at a department store owned by her grandfather. Fredric March plays the reporter who tracks her down. The film is based on a story by Ed Sullivan, better known for his...	Peggy O'Brien
1938	The Cowboy and the Lady The Cowboy and the Lady (1938 film) The Cowboy and the Lady is a 1938 American western romantic comedy film directed by H.C. Potter, and starring Gary Cooper and Merle Oberon. The film was written by S.N. Behrman and Sonya Levien, based on a story by Frank R. Adams and veteran film director Leo McCarey...	Katie Callahan
1939	The Gorilla	Kitty - the Maid
1940	Hit Parade of 1941	Judy Abbott	Alternative title: Romance and Rhythm
1941	Topper Returns Topper Returns Topper Returns is the third and final entry in the initial series of films inspired by the novels of Thorne Smith. It followed Topper and Topper Takes a Trip...	Emily - the maid
1942	In Old California In Old California (1942 film) In Old California is a 1942 film starring John Wayne as a Boston pharmacist who relocates to Sacramento during the Gold Rush. The movie was directed by William C. McGann.-Cast:* John Wayne ... Tom Craig* Binnie Barnes ... Lacey Miller...	Helga
1943	Danger! Women at Work	Terry Olsen
1955	Lux Video Theatre Lux Video Theatre Lux Video Theatre, is a weekly television anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays....		Episode: "One Foot in Heaven"
1957	Kraft Television Theatre Kraft Television Theatre Kraft Television Theatre is an American drama/anthology television series that began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J...		Episode: "The Big Break"
1960	Please Don't Eat the Daisies Please Don't Eat the Daisies (film) Please Don't Eat the Daisies is a comedy film starring Doris Day and David Niven, made by Euterpe Inc., and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...	Maggie
1960	The Untouchables The Untouchables (1959 TV series) The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...	Slapsie Sadie	Episode: "Head of Fire: Feet of Clay"
1962	Pete and Gladys Pete and Gladys Pete and Gladys is an American situation comedy broadcast by CBS on Monday night at 8:00pm Eastern and Pacific time for two seasons, beginning on September 19, 1960...	Katy	Episode: "The Case of the Gossipy Maid"
1963	Arrest and Trial Arrest and Trial Arrest and Trial is a 90-minute American Police procedural/legal drama that ran during the 1963-64 season on ABC, airing Sundays from 8:30-10 p.m. Eastern.The majority of episodes consisted of two segments...	Catalina	Episode: "Call It a Lifetime"
1964	The Naked Kiss The Naked Kiss The Naked Kiss is a 1964 neo-noir film written and directed by Samuel Fuller, starring Constance Towers as Kelly, Anthony Eisley as Captain Griff and Michael Dante as J.L. Grant.-Plot:...	Mac, the Head Nurse
1966	The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini is the seventh of the American International Pictures beach party films and was released in 1966. The entire film takes place in and around a haunted house with no beach in sight, with the teenage gang instead cavorting in and around it and the adjacent swimming...	Myrtle Forbush
1967	C'mon, Let's Live a Little	Mrs. Fitts
1967	Laredo Laredo (TV series) Laredo is an NBC Western television series starring Neville Brand, William Smith, Peter Brown, and Philip Carey as Texas Rangers. The program premiered on September 16, 1965, and the final new episode was broadcast on April 7, 1967. The series was produced by Universal Television.-Synopsis:Laredo...	Abbie Heffernan	Episode: "A Question of Guilt"
1968	Bonanza Bonanza Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...	Mrs. Neeley	Episode: "A Girl Named George"
1968	Rosemary's Baby Rosemary's Baby (film) Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the bestselling 1967 novel Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin...	Laura-Louise McBirney
1969	The Pigeon	Mrs. Macready, the Landlady	Television movie
1970	Barefoot in the Park	Old Lady	Episode: Pilot
1976	Freaky Friday Freaky Friday (1976 film) Freaky Friday is a 1976 American comedy film starring Jodie Foster as Annabel Andrews and Barbara Harris as her mother.The film is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Rodgers, in which mother and daughter switch bodies and get a taste of each others' lives. The cause of the switch is left...	Mrs. Schmauss
1979	The North Avenue Irregulars The North Avenue Irregulars The North Avenue Irregulars is a 1979 Disney film distributed by Buena Vista Distribution Company starring Edward Hermann, Barbara Harris and Susan Clark. It was based on original work by Albert Fay Hill, as adapted by Don Tait...	Mrs. Rose Rafferty/Blarney Stone, Irregular	Alternative title: Hill's Angels
1979	The Love Boat The Love Boat The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...	Mabel Hopkins	Episodes: "The Critical Success..." (Part 1) "The Critical Success..." (Part 2)

External links

• Patsy Kelly official website