Birthday: June 3, 1911 (Gemini)
Born In: Racine, Wisconsin, United States
Ellen Corby
(Actress and Screenwriter Known for Her Role in Film ‘I Remember Mama’ and the TV Series 'The Waltons')
Ellen Hansen Corby was an American actress who garnered fame for portraying the role of Esther "Grandma" Walton in the CBS television series ‘The Waltons’, for which she received three Emmy Awards. A native of Wisconsin, Corby developed an interest in amateur theatre while she was in high school and subsequently started her career as a chorus girl. She later moved to Los Angles to work as a script girl at RKO Studios and Hal Roach Studios. While she appeared in multiple films in the 1930s and 1940s, the first role she received credit for was of Cathy, the maid, in the 1947 featurette comedy film ‘The Hal Roach Comedy Carnival’. A year later, she appeared in her breakthrough role in ‘I Remember Mama’. Over the course of her 66-year-long career, she accumulated over 260 film and television credits. After her death in 1999, as she predominantly portrayed small roles in films, Corby was not mentioned during the yearly ‘In Memoriam’ segment of the 72nd Academy Awards (2000).
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