Marjorie Gateson

Marjorie Gateson
Marjorie Gateson
	Gateson in 1935
Born	Marjorie Augusta Gateson; January 17, 1891; Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	April 17, 1977 (aged 86); New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1912–1968

Marjorie Augusta Gateson (January 17, 1891 – April 17, 1977^[1]) was an American stage and film actress.

Biography

Gateson was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Augusta and Daniel Gateson. Her maternal grandfather and brother were clergymen;^[2] Some sources state her father was one too,^[2] but Axel Nissen in his book Mothers, Mammies and Old Maids: Twenty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood writes that he was a contractor.^[1] She attended the Packer Collegiate Institute and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, the latter being where her mother taught elocution.^[2] She believed her mother had "an inner longing for the stage",^[2] which she passed on to Marjorie, along with diction and poise.^[1]

Gateson's musical schooling helped her land a job in the chorus in a play called The Pink Lady.^[3] She made her Broadway debut at the age of 21 in the chorus of the musical The Dove of Peace on November 4, 1912; the show closed after 12 performances.^[1]^[4] During the much longer run of her next Broadway play, The Little Cafe (November 12, 1913 – March 14, 1914), she played several of the characters.^[3] In 1917's Broadway musical Have a Heart, she sang two songs.^[1] She performed in musical comedies for another decade, ending with Oh, Ernest! (1927), but also appeared in non-musical comedies and dramas. After the Broadway comedy As Good as New in 1930, she set out for Hollywood.^[1]

Gateson made her film debut in 1931, after more than two decades on the stage, playing secondary character roles as women of wealth and breeding, who were often haughty and aloof.^[1] She is perhaps best known as the society matron who attempts to thwart Mae West's character's plans for social climbing in the 1935 film Goin' to Town, and as a rather kinder socialite whom Harold Lloyd teaches to box in 1936's The Milky Way.

Other films in which she appeared include The King's Vacation (1933; her largest role, the female lead opposite George Arliss), Bureau of Missing Persons (1933), Private Number (1936), You'll Never Get Rich (1941), International Lady (1941), and Meet The Stewarts (1942). Her film work petered out in the late 1940s, and she jumped into television roles.

She made her small screen debut in 1949. She was featured in the 1949 television soap opera One Man's Family^[5] and found success in 1954 at age 63 playing matriarch Grace Harris Tyrell on the daytime soap The Secret Storm, a role she would play until 1968. Gateson also made numerous other television appearances in the 1950s, including episodes of Hallmark Hall of Fame, Robert Montgomery Presents, and United States Steel Hour.

Gateson never married and said: "I wanted nothing but to be an actress. I didn't even consider trying both."^[6]

Gateson suffered a stroke, which ended her acting career, and died several years later in 1977 of pneumonia, at the age of 86 in Manhattan.^[1]

Selected filmography

The Beloved Bachelor (1931) - Hortense Cole
The False Madonna (1931) - Rose
Working Girls (1931) - Modiste (uncredited)
Husband's Holiday (1931) - Loretta (scenes deleted)
Society Girl (1932) - Alice Converse
Street of Women (1932) - Lois Baldwin
Okay, America! (1932) - Mrs. Herbert Wright
Thirteen Women (1932) - Hazel's Travel Companion (uncredited)
Silver Dollar (1932) - Mrs. Adams (uncredited)
The King's Vacation (1933) - Helen Everhardt
Employees' Entrance (1933) - Mrs. Hickox
Lilly Turner (1933) - Mrs. Bessie 'Ma' McGill
Cocktail Hour (1933) - Mrs. Pat Lawton
Melody Cruise (1933) - Mrs. Wells
Blind Adventure (1933) - Grace Thorne
Bureau of Missing Persons (1933) - Mrs. Paul
Walls of Gold (1933) - Cassie Street
Fog (1933)
The World Changes (1933) - Mrs. Clinton
Lady Killer (1933) - Mrs. Wilbur Marley
Let's Fall in Love (1933) - Agatha
Hi, Nellie! (1934) - Mrs. Canfield
Coming Out Party (1934) - Mrs. Ada Stanhope
Operator 13 (1934) - Mrs. Shackleford
Side Streets (1934) - Mrs. Thatcher (scenes deleted)
Down to Their Last Yacht (1934) - Mrs. Geoffrey Colt-Stratton
Chained (1934) - Mrs. Louise Field
Million Dollar Ransom (1934) - Elita Casserly
Big Hearted Herbert (1934) - Amy Goodrich
Happiness Ahead (1934) - Mrs. Bradford
Gentlemen Are Born (1934) - Mrs. Harper
Goin' to Town (1935) - Mrs. Crane Brittony
His Family Tree (1935) - Margaret 'Maggie' Murfree - aka Murphy
Your Uncle Dudley (1935) - Mabel Dixon
The Milky Way (1936) - Mrs. E. Winthrop LeMoyne
Wife vs. Secretary (1936) - Eve Merritt
The First Baby (1936) - Mrs. Wells
Big Brown Eyes (1936) - Mrs. Cole
Private Number (1936) - Mrs. Winfield
Anthony Adverse (1936) - Minor Role (uncredited)
The Gentleman from Louisiana (1936) - Fay Costigan
Three Married Men (1936) - Clara
The Man I Marry (1936) - Eloise Hartley
Arizona Mahoney (1936) - Safroney Jones
We Have Our Moments (1937) - Mrs. Rutherford
Turn Off the Moon (1937) - Myrtle Tweep
Walter Wanger's Vogues of 1938 (1937) - Mrs. George Curtis-Lemke
First Lady (1937) - Sophy Prescott
No Time to Marry (1938) - Mrs. Pettensall
Making the Headlines (1938) - Muffin Wilder
Gateway (1938) - Mrs. Arabella McNutt
Stablemates (1938) - Mrs. Shepherd
Spring Madness (1938) - Miss Ritchie
The Duke of West Point (1938) - Mrs. Drew
The Spirit of Culver (1939) - Mrs. Macy, June Mother (uncredited)
My Wife's Relatives (1939) - Mrs. Ellis
Too Busy to Work (1939) - Mrs. Randolph Russell
Geronimo (1939) - Mrs. Steele
Parole Fixer (1940) - Mrs. Thorton Casserly
'Til We Meet Again (1940) - Mrs. Hester
In Old Missouri (1940) - Mrs. Pittman
Escape to Glory (1940) - Mrs. Winslow
Pop Always Pays (1940) - Mrs. Brewster
Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940) - Mrs. Desmond Fowler (uncredited)
Third Finger, Left Hand (1940) - Mrs. Russell (uncredited)
I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now (1940) - Mrs. Morgan
Back Street (1941) - Mrs. Adams
Here Comes Happiness (1941) - Emily Vance
You'll Never Get Rich (1941) - Aunt Louise
Passage from Hong Kong (1941) - Aunt Julia
Moonlight in Hawaii (1941) - Aunt Effie Floto
International Lady (1941) - Bertha Grenner
Honolulu Lu (1941)^[7] - Mrs. Van Derholt
Obliging Young Lady (1942) - Mira Potter
Rings on Her Fingers (1942) - Mrs. Fenwick
Juke Box Jenny (1942) - Mrs. Horton
Meet the Stewarts (1942) - Mrs. Goodwin
No Time for Love (1943) - Sophie
The Youngest Profession (1943) - Mrs. Drew
Rhythm of the Islands (1943) - Mrs. Holton
The Sky's the Limit (1943) - Canteen Hostess
I Dood It (1943) - Mrs. Spelvin
Casanova in Burlesque (1944) - Lucille Compton
Hi, Good Lookin'! (1944) - Mrs. Clara Hardacre
Seven Days Ashore (1944) - Mrs. Elizabeth Arland
Ever Since Venus (1944) - Maude Hackett
One More Tomorrow (1946) - Aunt Edna Collier
The Caddy (1953) - Mrs. Grace Taylor

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Nissen, Axel (February 21, 2012). Mothers, Mammies and Old Maids: Twenty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood. McFarland. pp. 88–94. ISBN 9780786490455. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Brooks, Joan (December 6, 1936). "Mental Lifter". Milwaukee Journal. Retrieved 17 November 2014.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ ^a ^b Dr. David S. Shields, McClintock Professor at the University of South Carolina. "Marjorie Gateson". Retrieved November 17, 2014.
^ "Marjorie Gateson". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
^ Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 791. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7.
^ McManus, Margaret (May 5, 1968). "Marjorie Gateson Lives in the Present And Regrets Nothing About The Past". The Kansas City Star. Missouri, Kansas City. p. 196. Retrieved September 9, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Get TV 3/10/2015