Ellen Corby

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ellen Corby

TV Guide August 21, 1976, featuring Ellen Corby with her Waltons costars, Richard Thomas and Will Geer
Birth name Ellen Hansen
Born June 3, 1911
Flag of United States Racine, Wisconsin, United States
Died April 14, 1999
Woodland Hills, California, United States
Spouse(s) Francis Corby (1934 - 1944)
Notable roles Grandma Walton in The Waltons
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Drama
1973, The Waltons
Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
1975, The Waltons
Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
1976, The Waltons

Ellen Corby (June 3, 1911 – April 14, 1999) was an Oscar-nominated American character actress. She is most widely remembered for the role of "Grandma Walton" on the television series The Waltons, for which she won three Emmy Awards.

Contents

Corby was born Ellen Hansen to Danish parents in Racine, Wisconsin; she grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An interest in amateur theater while in high school led her to Atlantic City in 1932 where she briefly worked as a chorus girl. She moved to Hollywood that same year and got a job as a script girl at RKO Studios and Hal Roach Studios, where she frequently worked on the Our Gang Comedies, next to her husband, cinematographer Francis Corby. She held that position for the next twelve years and took acting lessons on the side.

Corby began her career as a writer, working on the Paramount Western "Twilight on the Trail" and 1947's "Hoppy's Holiday". She landed her first acting job in 1945, playing a maid in RKO's "Cornered"

In 1948 she received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress playing a lovelorn aunt in I Remember Mama (1948). Over the next four decades, she worked steadily in both film and television, often playing maids, secretaries, waitresses or gossips. She was a favorite in western films (including Shane, 1953) and had a recurring role as "Henrietta Porter" in the western television series Trackdown (1957 – 1959). Other television appearances included Wagon Train, The Rifleman, I Love Lucy, The Virginian, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Andy Griffith Show.

Her most famous role came in 1971 when she was cast as "Grandma Esther Walton" on the made-for-TV film The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, which served as the pilot for The Waltons. Corby would go on to resume the role on The Waltons, which became a weekly series from 1972-1980 and resulted in several sequel films. For her work in "The Waltons", she won her three Emmy Awards and three more nominations as Best Supporting Actress.

Corby was married to Francis Corby from 1934 to 1944; they had no children.

She suffered a serious stroke in 1977 but recovered and went on to appear in several television films based on The Waltons. Her stroke was written into the show, with Grandma Walton also suffering a stroke, and struggling to regain her speech. Her last appearance was in A Walton Easter (1997).

She died at the age of 87 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

  • Rafter Romance (1933)
  • Sons of the Desert (1933)
  • Twisted Rails (1934)
  • Speed Limited (1935)
  • The Broken Coin (1936)

  • All the Way Home (1981)
  • Wedding on Walton's Mountain (1982)
  • A Day for Thanks on Walton's Mountain (1982)

  • A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion (1993)
  • A Walton Wedding (1995)
  • A Walton Easter (1997)

  • The 51st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1999)
  • The 72nd Annual Academy Awards (2000)

  • The Broken Coin (1936) (as Ellen Hansen)
  • Twilight on the Trail (1941) (screenplay)
  • Hoppy's Holiday (1947) (story)

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

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../e/l/l/Ellen_Corby_327d.html"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.