Friday Spotlight: Thelma Ritter

What a character!

Thelma Ritter was one of the most accomplished character actresses in American film. For over 20 years, she brought a wholesome compassion and an undeniable sense of realism to all of her roles as a working-class woman. Ritter had a natural style whose numerous variations on maids and mothers were equally convincing, never mundane and always entertaining.

Despite the fact that she constantly played a middle class dame, Ritter brought a unique complexity to her roles. Her characters’ keen awareness of their place in society made them secure enough to voice their opinions without fear, which made each character unforgettable in their own way.

With an indelible presence, a heavy New-York accent and a whiplash wit, she stole scenes from the best lead stars to whom she played sidekick. Nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress six times, she never won. Which is hard to believe, as she’s inarguably the best character actress from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Born in Brooklyn in 1902, Ritter was a natural performer from the time she was a young child. After high school she studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and took a variety of jobs on stage and in radio. Her career was not a fast rise to fame or fortune. She didn’t get her big break until the age of 44 when an old family friend, Director George Seaton, offered her a bit part in the smash success, Miracle of 34th Street.

In an uncredited role that’s only minutes long, Ritter left a big impression as an amusingly blunt mother shopping in Macy’s. She happened to catch the eye of Darryl Zanuck, the boss at Twentieth Century Fox at the time. From there she began her wonderful movie career, bringing us some of the most memorable characters from the silver screen.

There’s Alma, the eternally intoxicated housekeeper who brought a voice of reason to Doris Day in Pillow Talk.

Then there's Stella, the wisecracking caretaker who gave life advice to James Stewart in Rear Window.

And Birdie, Bette Davis’s frank maid with a salty sense of humor in All About Eve, a role written especially for Ritter by Joseph Mankiewicz.

The list goes on and on.

Sadly, Ritter suffered a heart attack when she was only 66 years old on February 5, 1968. I’m sure she had a lot more to give audiences, but what she left behind will live on forever in cinema history.

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