Occupation Actress Siblings Infant Emerson Role Actress | Name Hope Emerson Years active 1910s – 1960 | |
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Died April 25, 1960, Hollywood, California, United States Parents John Alvin Emerson, Josephine A Emerson Movies and TV shows Caged, Adam's Rib, The Guns of Fort Petticoat, Peter Gunn, House of Strangers Similar People Virginia Kellogg, John Cromwell, George Marshall, George Cukor, John Farrow | ||
Adam s rib 1949 george cukor hope emerson spencer tracy
Hope Emerson (October 30, 1897 – April 24, 1960) was an American actress, vaudeville and nightclub performer, and strongwoman. An imposing person physically, she weighed 190 pounds in her prime and stood six-feet-two-inches tall.
Contents
- Adam s rib 1949 george cukor hope emerson spencer tracy
- Hope emerson in caged
- Early life
- Career
- Death
- Filmography
- References
Hope emerson in caged
Early life
Emerson was born in Hawarden, Iowa, to John Alvin and Josie L. (née Washburn) Emerson, the middle and only surviving child of three (her two siblings died in infancy). She began her career at age three, touring Iowa with her mother, a character actress. Following her graduation from West High School in Des Moines in 1916, she moved to New York City, where she performed in vaudeville.
Career
Emerson made her Broadway debut in Lysistrata in 1930, when theatrical producer Norman Bel Geddes cast her for the role of Lamputo, an Amazon. She made her film début in Smiling Faces (1932) but then returned to the theater. In 1947, critic Brooks Atkinson called her performance in Street Scene "vastly entertaining as the garrulous old crone." In the 1940s, Emerson was also known as the voice of Elsie the Cow in radio commercials for Borden Milk.
Some of Emerson's more memorable roles were as a circus strongwoman in the film Adam's Rib (1949), lifting actor Spencer Tracy up in the air; as a masseuse-conspirator in the noirish Cry of the City (1948); and as a mail-order bride in Westward the Women (1952). Her most famous character, however, was the sadistic prison matron Evelyn Harper in Caged (1950), a role that garnered her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
On television, Emerson guest-starred in "Housekeeper", the final episode of the series It's a Great Life. In that episode she portrays a bossy housekeeper who temporarily takes charge while Amy Morgan, played by Frances Bavier, is away on vacation. She had a regular role as well, as "Mother", on the detective series Peter Gunn (1958), for which she received an Emmy nomination; and she appeared on the CBS sitcom The Dennis O'Keefe Show (1959), starring with Dennis O'Keefe and Ricky Kelman.
Death
Emerson died of liver disease in 1960 at age 62 in Hollywood on April 24, 1960. She is interred in Grace Hill Cemetery in her hometown of Hawarden, Iowa. She never married or had children.
