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Mary Gordon is a Actor and Dialogue Coach British born on 16 may 1882 at Glasgow (United-kingdom)

Mary Gordon

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Birth name Mary Gilmour
Nationality United-kingdom
Birth 16 may 1882 at Glasgow (United-kingdom)
Death 23 august 1963 (at 81 years) at Pasadena (USA)

Mary Gordon (born Mary Gilmour, 16 May 1882 in Glasgow, Scotland – 23 August 1963 in Pasadena, California) was a Scottish actress, long in the United States, who specialized in housekeepers and mothers, most notably the landlady Mrs. Hudson in the Sherlock Holmes series of movies of the 1930s and 1940s. She would appear in nearly 300 films between 1925 and 1950.

She was born Mary Gilmour, the fifth of seven children of Glasgow wire weaver Robert Gilmour and his wife Mary. She worked as a dressmaker before finding work on the stage. Joining a company bound for an American tour, she came to the U.S. in her twenties, apparently making a few appearances on Broadway in small roles, but primarily touring in stock companies.

With her mother and daughter (also named Mary), she arrived in Los Angeles in the mid-1920s and began playing variations on the roles she would spend her career on. She became friends with John Ford while making Hangman's House in 1928 and made seven more films for him. In 1939, she took on her best-remembered role as Sherlock Holmes' landlady and played the role in ten films and numerous radio plays. She was a charter member of the Hollywood Canteen, entertaining servicemen throughout the Second World War. On the radio show Those We Love, she played the regular role of Mrs. Emmett.

She entered retirement just as television reshaped the entertainment industry, making only a single appearance in that medium. Very active in the Daughters of Scotia auxiliary of the Order of Scottish Clans, she lived out her final years in Pasadena, California with her daughter and grandson. She died after a long illness on 23 August 1963.

Biography

Après des débuts sur les planches au Royaume-Uni, Mary Gordon s'installe dans les années 1900 aux États-Unis, où elle poursuit son activité au théâtre. Établie en Californie dans les années 1920, elle tourne ses premiers films américains, sortis en 1925 (donc muets). À la suite de sa rencontre avec le réalisateur John Ford, elle obtient un petit rôle dans son film La Maison du bourreau (1928), avant de le retrouver à plusieurs reprises, la dernière fois avec Le Massacre de Fort Apache (1948). En tout, elle participe à 287 films américains (d'après l'IMDB), le dernier sorti en 1950, année où elle se retire — après une unique prestation à la télévision, dans un épisode de la série Cisco Kid —. Parmi ses nombreux seconds rôles de caractère (ou ses petits rôles mineurs, souvent non crédités), mentionnons celui de Mrs Hudson, entre 1939 (avec Le Chien des Baskerville) et 1946, dans la série cinématographique consacrée à Sherlock Holmes, aux côtés de Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes) et Nigel Bruce (Docteur Watson).