Ellen Corby facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ellen Corby
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Corby as Esther "Grandma" Walton in the television movie The Homecoming (1971), a precursor to the series The Waltons
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Ellen Hansen
June 3, 1911 Racine, Wisconsin, U.S.
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| Died | April 14, 1999 (aged 87) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1933–1999 |
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Francis Corby
(m. 1934; div. 1944) |
Ellen Hansen Corby (born June 3, 1911 – died April 14, 1999) was an American actress and writer. She is best known for playing Esther "Grandma" Walton on the TV show The Waltons. For this role, she won three Emmy Awards.
She was also nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award. These awards were for her role as Aunt Trina in the movie I Remember Mama (1948).
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Early life and beginnings
Ellen Hansen was born in Racine, Wisconsin, in the United States. Her parents had moved there from Denmark. She grew up in a city called Philadelphia.
When she was in high school, she became very interested in acting. In 1932, she went to Atlantic City and worked as a chorus girl for a short time. Later that year, she moved to Hollywood.
She got a job as a script girl at RKO Studios and Hal Roach Studios. A script girl helps keep track of details during filming. She often worked on Our Gang comedies. She stayed in this job for 12 years and took acting classes to improve her skills.
Acting career highlights
Ellen Corby had small roles in over 30 movies in the 1930s and 1940s. Some of these included Babes in Toyland (1934) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Her first role where she was named in the credits was in Cornered (1945).
She also started her career as a writer at Paramount studios. She helped write the western movie Twilight on the Trail (1941).
Awards and famous roles
Ellen Corby earned an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. This was for her role as a loving aunt in the movie I Remember Mama (1948). For the next 40 years, she worked in many films and TV shows. She often played characters like maids, secretaries, or waitresses.
She appeared in many popular TV shows. These included The Andy Griffith Show, I Love Lucy, Bonanza, Batman, and The Addams Family.
Her most famous role was as Grandma Esther Walton. She first played this character in the TV movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971). This movie was the start of the TV series The Waltons.
The Waltons years
Ellen Corby continued her role as Grandma Walton in the weekly TV series The Waltons. The show ran from 1972 to 1981. For her work on The Waltons, she won three Emmy Awards. She was also nominated for three more.
She also won a Golden Globe award for best supporting actress in a TV series for The Waltons. She was nominated three other times for this award.
In November 1976, Ellen Corby had a serious stroke. This affected her speech and made it hard for her to move. She left the show for a while to recover. She returned to the series in 1978. Her character, Grandma Walton, was also shown recovering from a stroke on the show.
She remained a regular on The Waltons through the 1978–79 season. Her character's lines were often short, like "pray, pray, pray" when she heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor.
She continued to appear in five of the six Waltons reunion movies. These movies were made between 1982 and 1997.
Personal life
Ellen Hansen married Francis Corby in 1934. He was a film director and cameraman. They divorced in 1944 and did not have any children.
In 1969, Ellen Corby learned to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation in India. She had been practicing this technique for several years before that.
After her stroke in 1976, she recovered well enough to return to acting. Her co-star, Will Geer, who played her husband on The Waltons, may have saved her life. When she didn't show up for work, he knew something was wrong. He went with the show's producers to her home, where they found she had suffered a stroke.
Her last acting role was in A Walton Easter (1997). Ellen Corby passed away in 1999 at the age of 87. She is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Filmography
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Writer
- The Broken Coin (1936) (Original Story as Ellen Hansen)
- Twilight on the Trail (1941) (screenplay)
- Hoppy's Holiday (1947) (story)
- The Waltons (story, 2 episodes): The Separation (1973), The Search (1976)
Images for kids
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Corby as Esther "Grandma" Walton in the television movie The Homecoming (1971), a precursor to the series The Waltons
See also
In Spanish: Ellen Corby para niños
