Esther Dale


Esther Dale was an American actress of the stage and screen.

Early life and education

Dale was born in Beaufort, South Carolina. She attended Leland and Gray Seminary in Townshend, Vermont. In Berlin, Germany, she studied music and enjoyed a successful career as a singer of lieder on the concert stage.

Career

At one point, Dale was head of Smith College's vocal department.
Her singing career included appearances with the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In the U.S., Dale transferred to the acting stage and cultivated a career as an actress in Summer stock. She starred in Carrie Nation on Broadway in 1933. Her other Broadway credits include Harvest of Years, And Be My Love, and Another Language.
Dale's first film was Crime Without Passion in an uncredited role. She played Birdie Hicks in the Ma and Pa Kettle films The Egg and I, Ma and Pa Kettle, Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair, and Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki.
Dale played many roles in television over the years. In 1957, she appeared in the 1957 Maverick episode "According to Hoyle" opposite James Garner. That same year, she guest-starred in the TV Western series Wagon Train, playing Grandma Birch, in the episode "The Julie Gage Story". In the 1958-1959 season of The Donna Reed Show, Dale played a job-seeking housekeeper who is frightened from the Stone home by Jeff Stone's pet mouse. Dale played a ladylady, Mrs. Finch, in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis episode "Live Alone and Like It".

Personal life

Esther Dale died in the summer of 1961 following surgery in Queen of Angels Hospital in Hollywood. Her husband, writer-director Arthur J. Beckhard, had died four months earlier.

Partial filmography

  • Crime Without Passion as Miss Keeley
  • The Wedding Night as Mrs. Kaise Novak
  • Private Worlds as Matron
  • Curly Top as Aunt Genevieve Graham
  • I Live My Life as Brumbaugh, Mrs. Gage's Housekeeper
  • Mary Burns, Fugitive as Kate
  • In Old Kentucky as Dolly Breckenridge
  • I Dream Too Much as Mrs. Dilley
  • The Great Impersonation as Mrs. Unthank
  • Timothy's Quest as Hitty Tarbox
  • Lady of Secrets as Miss Eccles
  • The Farmer in the Dell as Louella 'Ma' Boyer
  • The Case Against Mrs. Ames as Matilda
  • Fury as Mrs. Whipple
  • Hollywood Boulevard as Martha
  • The Magnificent Brute as Mrs. Randolph
  • Outcast as Hattie Simmerson
  • Damaged Goods as Mrs. Dupont
  • Easy Living as Lillian
  • Wild Money as Jenny Hawkins
  • Dead End as Mrs. Fenner
  • On Such a Night as Miss Belinda Fentridge
  • The Awful Truth as Mrs. Leeson
  • Of Human Hearts as Mrs. Cantwell
  • Condemned Women as Mrs. Clara Glover, Head Matron
  • Stolen Heaven as Lieschen
  • Prison Farm as Cora Waxley
  • Girls on Probation as Nrs, Engstrom
  • Dramatic School as Forewoman in Factory
  • The Great Man Votes as Ms. Markham
  • Made for Each Other as Annie, Cook #1
  • Sergeant Madden as Mrs. McGillivray
  • Broadway Serenade as Mrs. Olsen
  • Big Town Czar as Ma Daley
  • Tell No Tales as Mrs. Haskins
  • 6,000 Enemies as Matron
  • The Women as Ingrid
  • Blackmail as Sarah
  • Bad Little Angel as Miss Brown, Orphanage Secretary
  • A Child Is Born as Prison Matron
  • Swanee River as Temperance Woman
  • Laddie as Sarah, the Housekeeper
  • Abe Lincoln in Illinois as Lincoln's Cook
  • Village Barn Dance as Minerva Withers
  • Convicted Woman as Chief Matron Brackett
  • Women Without Names as Head Matron Ingles
  • And One Was Beautiful as Margaret
  • Forty Little Mothers as Mrs. Mason, Landlady
  • Opened by Mistake as Mrs. Anthony DeBorest
  • The Mortal Storm as Marta
  • Untamed as Mrs. Smith
  • Cross-Country Romance as Mrs. McGillicuddy
  • Blondie Has Servant Trouble as Anna Vaughn
  • Arise, My Love as Susie
  • Mr. & Mrs. Smith as Mrs. Krausheimer
  • Back Street as Mrs. Smith
  • The Hard-Boiled Canary as Miss Clark
  • Unfinished Business as Aunt Mathilda
  • Aloma of the South Seas as Tarusa
  • All-American Co-Ed as Aunt Matilda Collinge
  • Dangerously They Live as Dawson
  • Blondie Goes to College as Mrs. Carrie Dill, the Landlady
  • What's Cookin'? as Mrs. Murphy
  • You're Asking Me as Aunt Fannie Handley
  • Ten Gentlemen from West Point as Mrs. Thompson
  • Maisie Gets Her Man as Mrs. Myra McIntyre, Elsie's Mother
  • I Married an Angel as Mrs. Gherkin
  • Wrecking Crew as Mike O'Glendy
  • The Amazing Mrs. Holliday as Lucy
  • Hello, Frisco, Hello as Aunt Harriet
  • Murder in Times Square as Longacre Lil
  • Swing Your Partner as Caroline Bird, aka Anna Robbins
  • The North Star as Anna Kurin
  • Old Acquaintance as Harriet
  • Out of This World as Abbie Pringle
  • Bedside Manner as Martha Gravitt
  • On Stage Everybody as Ma Cassidy
  • Behind City Lights as Sarah Lowell
  • My Reputation as Anna
  • A Stolen Life as Mrs. Johnson
  • Smoky as Mrs. 'Gram' Richards
  • Margie as Grandma McSweeney
  • The Egg and I as Birdie Hicks
  • The Unfinished Dance as Olga
  • A Song Is Born as Miss Bragg
  • Ma and Pa Kettle as Mrs. Birdie Hicks
  • Anna Lucasta as Mrs. Polaski
  • Holiday Affair as Mrs. Ennis
  • No Man of Her Own as Josie
  • Surrender as Aunt May
  • Walk Softly, Stranger as Miss Thompson
  • On Moonlight Bay as Aunt Martha Robertson
  • Too Young to Kiss as Mrs. Boykin
  • Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair as Birdie Hicks
  • Monkey Business as Mrs. Rhinelander
  • Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki as Birdie Hicks
  • Betrayed Women as Head Matron Ballard
  • The Oklahoman as Mrs. Fitzgerald
  • The Sound and the Fury as Mrs. Maud Mansfield
  • North to Alaska as Woman at Picnic