MAJORIE MAIN BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Marjorie Main was born on February 24th, 1890 in Acton, Indiana with the birth name Mary Romlinson. Her father worked as a minister.
When she completed school, she went on to study at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana. She also joined a local stock company and so as to not embarrass her father and ruin his name in any way, she took on her stage name. Along with studying college and working in a local traveling stock company, Main also worked in vaudeville on the Chautauqua and Orpheum circuits.
Her Broadway debut was in 1916 and many years later in 1931 she appeared on screen in the film, "A House Divided". The majority of characters she portrayed were of the upper class lady but could not avoid being type cast as a domineering and abrasive female character.
She had the chance to repeat the stage role she played in the film version of, "Dead End" (1937). She worked alongside Wallace Beery in a total of six films some of which included, "Barnacle Bill" (1940), "Jackass Mail" (1942) and "Bad Bascomb" (1946) amongst others.
Main was also very generous and was known to donate a significant amount of her salary to support local school education. Main is most well known for her role of, "Mae Kettle" in "The Egg and I" (1947) in which she received an Academy Award nomination. Main played this same character in a total of ten films known as the Ma and Pa Kettle Films. She also had the chance to co star in the series with Percy Kilbride in, "Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin" (1948).
Marjorie Main married once to Stanley Lefevre Krebs on December 2nd, 1921 and they remained married until he passed away on September 26th, 1935. She did not marry again, and never had any children.
Main passed away on April 10th, 1975 from lung cancer in Los Angeles, California at the age of eighty five. She was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills Cemetery.
Filmography
1958 Wagon Train
1957 The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm
1956 Friendly Persuasion
1956 The Kettles in the Ozarks
1955 Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
1954 Ricochet Romance
1954 Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
1954 Rose Marie
1953 The Long, Long Trailer
1953 Fast Company
1953 Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
1952 Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
1952 The Belle of New York
1951 It's a Big Country
1951 The Law and the Lady
1951 Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm
1951 Mr. Imperium
1951 A Letter from a Soldier
1950 Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
1950 Summer Stock
1950 Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
1949 Big Jack
1949 Ma and Pa Kettle
1948 Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'
1947 The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
1947 The Egg and I
1946 The Show-Off
1946 Undercurrent
1946 Bad Bascomb
1946 The Harvey Girls
1945 Murder, He Says
1944 Gentle Annie
1944 Meet Me in St. Louis
1944 Rationing
1943 Johnny Come Lately
1943 Heaven Can Wait
1942 Tennessee Johnson
1942 Tish
1942 Jackass Mail
1942 The Affairs of Martha
1942 We Were Dancing
1942 The Bugle Sounds
1941 Honky Tonk
1941 The Shepherd of the Hills
1941 A Woman's Face
1941 Barnacle Bill
1941 The Trial of Mary Dugan
1941 The Wild Man of Borneo
1940 Wyoming
1940 The Captain Is a Lady
1940 Susan and God
1940 Turnabout
1940 Dark Command
1940 Women Without Names
1940 I Take This Woman
1939 Two Thoroughbreds
1939 Another Thin Man
1939 The Women
1939 The Angels Wash Their Faces
1939 They Shall Have Music
1939 Lucky Night
1938 There Goes My Heart
1938 Girls' School
1938 Too Hot to Handle
1938 Under the Big Top
1938 Little Tough Guy
1938 Prison Farm
1938 Romance of the Limberlost
1938 Three Comrades
1938 Test Pilot
1938 King of the Newsboys
1938 Penitentiary
1938 City Girl
1937 The Shadow
1937 Boy of the Streets
1937 The Wrong Road
1937 The Man Who Cried Wolf
1937 Dead End
1937 Stella Dallas
1937 Love in a Bungalow
1934 Music in the Air
1934 Crime Without Passion
1934 Art Trouble
1933 New Deal Rhythm
1932 Hot Saturday
1932 Broken Lullaby
1931 A House Divided
