Nancy Kelly
Publicity photograph
Born(1921-03-25)March 25, 1921
Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedJanuary 2, 1995(1995-01-02) (aged 73)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1926–1977
Notable work
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1941; div. 1942)​
    Fred Jackman, Jr.
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1946; div. 1950)​
      ​
      ​
      (m. 1955; div. 1968)​
      Children1
      Family Jack Kelly (brother)
      AwardsTony Award for Best Actress in a Play

      Nancy Kelly (March 25, 1921 – January 2, 1995) was an American actress in film, theater, and television. A child actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's The March of Time, and appeared in several films in the late 1920s. She became a leading lady upon returning to the screen in the late 1930s, while still in her teens, and made two dozen movies between 1938 and 1946, including portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James (1939), which also featured Henry Fonda, and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingstone, later that same year. After turning to the stage in the late 1940s, she had her greatest success in a character role, the distraught mother in The Bad Seed, receiving a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the 1955 stage production and an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for the 1956 film adaptation, her last film role. Kelly then worked regularly in television until 1963, then took over the role of Martha in the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for several months. She returned to television for a handful of appearances in the mid-1970s.

      Biography

      Studio publicity portrait circa 1940s
      On set with director William Berke during Betrayal from the East (1945)
      Onstage with Ken Kercheval in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1963)

      Of Irish descent,[1] Kelly was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, into a theatrical family. Her mother was silent film actress Nan Kelly, who coached her and managed her career. As a child actress, Kelly appeared in 52 films made on the East Coast by the age of 17.[2] Her younger brother was actor Jack Kelly,[3] most noted for playing the role of Bart Maverick, one of the leads (alongside James Garner, Roger Moore or Robert Colbert) in the ABC television series Maverick (1957-1962). The Kelly siblings, who resembled each other, are not currently known to have worked together in film or television.

      Kelly was educated at Bentley School for Girls, Immaculate Conception Academy, and Saint Lawrence Academy.[4]

      As a child model, her image had appeared in so many different advertisements by the time she was nine years old that Film Daily commented, "Nancy has been referred to as 'the most photographed child in America,' largely because of her commercial posing."[5]

      Kelly worked extensively in radio in her adolescent years. She played Dorothy Gale in a 1933–34 NBC Radio Network show, The Wizard of Oz, based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.[6][7] Kelly was the first ingenue on CBS Radio's The March of Time series, with a vocal versatility that made it possible for her to portray male parts as well as female.[2] She also portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt.[8]: 434  As an adult, Nancy Kelly was a leading lady in 27 movies in the 1930s and '40s, including director John Ford's Submarine Patrol (1938) with Preston Foster, Frontier Marshal (1939) with Randolph Scott as Wyatt Earp, Jesse James (1939) with Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda, Stanley and Livingstone (1939) with Spencer Tracy, the comedy He Married His Wife (1940) with Joel McCrea, Parachute Battalion (1941) with Robert Preston, Edmond O'Brien, Harry Carey, and Buddy Ebsen, and Tarzan's Desert Mystery (1943) with Johnny Weissmuller. She also starred in the 1949 Broadway play The Big Knife by Clifford Odets. Kelly was subsequently a two-time winner of the Sarah Siddons Award[9][10] for her work in Chicago theatrical productions as well as a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play winner for her performance in The Bad Seed,[11] which she followed up by starring in the 1956 film version, receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.[12] She also starred on television, including leading roles in "The Storm" (1961) episode of Thriller and "The Lonely Hours" (1963) episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. In 1957 she was nominated at the 9th Primetime Emmy Awards for an Emmy Award for Best Single Performance by an Actress for the episode "The Pilot" in Studio One.[13]

      Kelly was a Republican who supported Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.[14]

      Marriages

      Kelly was married to actor Edmond O'Brien briefly from 1941–1942, and then to Fred Jackman, Jr., son of silent Hollywood cameraman and director Fred Jackman, from 1946 to 1950. She was married to theater director Warren Caro from 1955 to 1968.[15] She and Caro had a daughter, Kelly Caro, in 1957.

      Death

      Kelly died at her Bel Air, California, home on January 2, 1995, from complications of diabetes at the age of 73. She was survived by a daughter and three granddaughters.[16] She was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

      Walk of Fame

      For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Blvd. She was inducted on February 8, 1960.[17]

      Filmography

      Radio appearances

      YearProgramEpisode/source
      1945Suspense"A Week Ago Wednesday"[18]
      1946Suspense"Dark Journey"
      1946Suspense[18]

      Suspense episode 169, titled "A Week Ago Wednesday". aired November 29, 1945.

      References

      1. ↑ "Nancy Kelly Grows Up". Life. July 18, 1938. p. 36. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
      2. 1 2 "Nancy Kelly, 73; Actress Lauded for 'Bad Seed'". Oliver, Myrna, Los Angeles Times, January 16, 1995. Retrieved 2014-06-20.
      3. ↑ "Nancy Kelly". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
      4. ↑ "Nancy Kelly to Head Crime Does Not Pay Drama". Sioux City Journal. Iowa. March 26, 1950. p. 33. Retrieved May 30, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
      5. ↑ Eddy, Arthur W. (June 5, 1929). "Short Shots from New York Studios". The Film Daily. p. 7. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
      6. ↑ Terrace, Vincent (2003). Radio Program Openings and Closings, 1931–1972. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 252. ISBN 978-0-7864-4925-5.
      7. ↑ "Commercial Premiers This Week Unload 11 on WEAF Chain Alone" (PDF). Billboard. September 30, 1933. p. 13. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
      8. ↑ Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Hardcover; revised edition of Tune In Yesterday (1976) ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 434. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved June 20, 2014.
      9. ↑ Page, Eleanor (January 30, 1965). "Nancy Gets Award; Kelly Steals Show". Chicago Tribune. p. 15. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
      10. ↑ "Nancy Kelly Wins Title of Chicago's Actress of Year". Chicago Tribune. August 21, 1956. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
      11. ↑ Lyons, Leonard (April 26, 1961). "Vast Audience Startles Writers". The Evening Standard. p. 8. Retrieved July 1, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
      12. ↑ "Nancy Kelly". oscars.org. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
      13. ↑ "Best Single Performance by an Actress – 1957". Television Academy. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
      14. ↑ Motion Picture and Television Magazine, November 1952, page 34, Ideal Publishers
      15. ↑ Vosburgh, Dick (January 20, 1995). "Obituary: Nancy Kelly". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-06-18. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
      16. ↑ Saxon, Wolfgang (January 14, 1995). "Nancy Kelly, 73, Actress Noted In Hollywood and on Broadway". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
      17. ↑ "Nancy Kelly". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
      18. 1 2 "Radio's Golden Age". Nostalgia Digest. 40 (1): 40–41. Winter 2014.
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