Lively, buxom character actress Mary Boland made a name for herself
playing vacuous or pixilated motherly types during the 1930s. One of
her most memorable performances was as the addle-brained Mrs. Rimplegar
of
Three Cornered Moon (1933),
who gives away her family fortune to a swindler because he seemed like
'such a nice young man'. She also made a series of popular homespun comedies under contract to Paramount, in which she co-starred opposite Charles Ruggles.
She was notable as a social snob in
Ein Butler in Amerika (1935), the
oversexed and alcoholic Countess DeLave in
Die Frauen (1939) and as Mrs. Bennet in
MGM's classic
Stolz und Vorurteil (1940).
For all her scatty or matronly character roles in the movies, Mary
Boland had once been a star comedienne on Broadway.
Born in Philadelphia, the daughter of traveling actor William A.
Boland (who happened to be on tour at her birth), she was educated at
Sacred Heart Convent in Detroit. At 25, Mary appeared in her first
play,
'Strongheart', and was on Broadway two years later in 'The Ranger', with Dustin Farnum.
She started in silent films in 1915, her debut being
Thomas H. Ince's 'The Edge of the Abyss'.
After a wartime interval, entertaining troops on the Western Front
during World War I, she made a return to the stage and had notable
successes with the comedies
'Clarence' (1919-20,with Alfred Lunt)
as Mrs.Wheeler,
'Meet the Wife' (1923-24,with a young Humphrey Bogart)
and 'Cradle Snatchers' (1925-26), starring as Susan Martin. These
performances established her as one of theaters foremost comediennes,
ideally cast as dithery wives and mothers, or social climbers.
Mary's film career ended in 1950 and she appeared in her last play,
'Lullaby', in 1954. She retired to live out the rest of her days in her
suite at the Essex House in New York.
