Thelma Ritter was born on February 14, 1905 in Brooklyn,
New York. Thelma Ritter passed away on February 4, 1969 in
New York from a heart attack. She is known as a talented, supporting character actor who was nominated 6 times for an Academy Award.
In the 1940s Thelma Ritter worked in radio. Thelma's movie career began with a small part in the 1946
Miracle On 34th Street.
In the 1950 film, ALL ABOUT EVE, Ritter played the disgruntled maid of soon to be displaced actress Betty Davis, who is ultimately ousted from her role as New York queen of the stage by her upstart, secretly ambitious assistant. Ritter was nominated for an Oscar, in the critically acclaimed picture which ultimately garnered 14 nominations, with wins in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, plus another 3 categories.
In REAR WINDOW, the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic, she played Stella, a psychotherapist who was a foil to James Stewart's character, a globe trotting reporter, laid up with a broken leg, suffering from a Peter Pan complex, in spite of having a gorgeous, socialite girlfriend played by Grace Kelly. Stewart's increasingly hysterical reporter discusses with Stella the circumstantial evidence he witnessed, that leads him to conclude a murder has been committed by a man across the courtyard in his apartment building. The film was nominated for four academy awards.
Thelma Ritter played Doris Day's drunken housekeeper in the fluff comedy, PILLOW TALK [1959], in which Day's disgusted character shares a party phone line with a line-hogging womanizer, played by Rock Hudson, who sets about romancing her in disguise. Ritter was nominated for an Oscar for her performance.
In 1962, Thelma Ritter played the mother of the BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ , a convicted murderer who rehabs in prison through learning the care of birds. Ritter's character made an impassioned plea for her son's life, saved her son [played by Burt Lancaster] from execution, and instead he was given a life sentence.
Thelma Ritter's other notable credits include...
Thelma Ritter - MovieActors.com
