Maudie Prickett


Maudie Prickett was an American character actress who performed in over 300 stage, film, and television productions during a career that spanned nearly four decades.

Career

Born in Portland, Oregon, Prickett often portrayed maids, aunts, secretaries, spinsters, busybodies, and nosy neighbors. She made 36 appearances on the television sitcom Hazel starring Shirley Booth as the title character's friend; Hazel and Rosie were maids in neighboring homes.
Prickett played a cook named Elvira in Harvey and a maid named Elsie in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest. She also appeared in the 1950s Western series The Adventures of Kit Carson and 26 Men. She played "Miss Tazey", Lois Lane's old nurse, in a 1952 episode of the Adventures of Superman.
She made nine appearances as Ms. Gordon on CBS's The Jack Benny Program. She played Miss Sanders, a secretary to Howard McNear's character Wilbur Wilgus, on a 1959 episode of the ABC sitcom The Donna Reed Show. She portrayed Alice MacAvity in a 1954 installment of the NBC sitcom It's a Great Life. She guest-starred in the 1957-1958 NBC sitcom Sally, in a 1958 episode of the NBC anthology series Colgate Theatre, and on CBS's Dennis the Menace. She appeared as a dentist's secretary in the episode "The Dentist" on another CBS sitcom, Angel. She played Mrs. Bennett in the 1958 episode "Beaver and Poncho" of Leave it to Beaver. Prickett was in the 1962 short-lived ABC/Warner Bros. sitcom Room for One More and played a regular character on another short-lived series of the 1960s, The Tammy Grimes Show.
Prickett also appeared in several episodes of The Andy Griffith Show as, variously, Mrs. Edna Larch and Aunt Nora, as well as in the role of Myrtle on Mayberry R.F.D. She appeared twice on Get Smart; once playing Maxwell Smart's Aunt Bertha. She played a DMV clerk on a 1969 episode of The Mod Squad. She played a landlady on a 1970 episode of the police drama Dragnet, and various characters in five episodes of the sitcom Bewitched. Her final television performances were 1974 roles as Mabel on the CBS series Dirty Sally and as Mrs. Chandler on McMillan & Wife.

Personal life

Maudie was married three times; all three of her husbands predeceased her. Her first marriage was in 1941 to Charles Fillmore Prickett II, the co-founder and general manager of the Pasadena Playhouse, with whom she had two children: Charles Fillmore Prickett III, who became an orthopedic surgeon, and a daughter, Mrs. Charie Laugharn.
In 1961, seven years after the death of her first husband, she married Dr. Eakle W. Cartwright, a physician, who died the following year. Her final marriage was to Cyril Bernard Cooper, who served as mayor of Pasadena from 1968 to 1970.

Death

In 1976, at age 61, Prickett died of uremic poisoning in Pasadena, California. She is interred at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, California.

Selected filmography

Gold Mine in the Sky - Customer Go West, Young Lady - Townswoman Two-Fisted Stranger - Widow Simpson The Fighting Frontiersman - Kate the Barber Boston Blackie and the Law - Miss Burton, Librarian The Lone Hand Texan - Hattie Hatfield Time Out of Mind - AnnieMessenger of Peace - Matty FrommelSong of Idaho - Millie Eight-Ball Andy - Ruth ClydeWhirlwind Raiders - Mrs. Wallace Whiplash - Mrs. Gruman One Sunday Afternoon - Woman Barber The Fighting O'Flynn - Wife Lust for Gold - Wife Colorado Territory - Mrs. Wallace Mr. Soft Touch - Ugly Old Maid Tenant The Cowboy and the Indians - Ms. Summers Abandoned - Nurse Ferris The Inspector General - Townwoman Montana - Rancher's Wife No Sad Songs for Me - Anna, Woman at Train Depot Beyond the Purple Hills - Agnes No Way Out - Woman Between Midnight and Dawn - Nagging Wife Harvey - Elvira—Cook Her First Romance - Miss Pond - SchoolteacherThe Model and the Marriage Broker - Delia Seaton Pecos River - Stage Passenger Belles on Their Toes - Lady with Fan Wait till the Sun Shines, Nellie - Mrs. Burdge Lost in Alaska - Woman in Window Monkey Business - Clerk Something for the Birds - Woman with Vacuum Cleaner Everything I Have Is Yours - Ella Million Dollar Mermaid - Grace - Nurse / Receptionist Stars and Stripes Forever - Thelma - Sousa's Maid Man in the Dark - Nurse Receptionist Scandal at Scourie - Mrs. Holahan Hannah Lee: An American Primitive - Mrs. Miller No Escape - Bookstore ClerkCity of Bad Men - Indignant Townswoman Hot News - Screaming Woman Gun Fury - Mrs. Rogers Wyoming Renegades - Mrs. Argyle Woman's World - Mother Deep in My Heart - Lodge Manager A Man Called Peter - Mrs. Pike Man with the Gun - Mrs. Elderhorn Good Morning, Miss Dove - Miss Rice Navy Wife - Nurse The Phantom Stagecoach - Mrs. WigginsKiss Them for Me - Chief Nurse Thundering Jets - Mrs. BlocherThe Legend of Tom Dooley - 2nd Old Maid North by Northwest - Elsie, the maid The Big Fisherman - Perturbed Mother The Absent Minded Professor - Woman in Street Interviewee Joy in the Morning - Saleslady I'll Take Sweden - SpinsterThe Gnome-Mobile - Katie BarrettWith Six You Get Eggroll - Party Guest Sweet Charity - Nurse on Bridge Rascal - Miss Pince-nez The Maltese Bippy - Mrs. Potter