Cathleen Nesbitt

About Cathleen Nesbitt

Who is it?: Actress
Birth Day: November 24, 1888
Birth Place:  Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, United Kingdom
Died On: 2 August 1982(1982-08-02) (aged 93)\nLondon, England
Birth Sign: Sagittarius
Occupation: Actress
Years active: 1910–82
Spouse(s): Cecil Beresford Ramage (1921–1982; her death); 2 children

Cathleen Nesbitt Net Worth

Cathleen Nesbitt was born on November 24, 1888 in  Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, United Kingdom, is Actress. Diminutive, genteel Cathleen Nesbitt was a grand dame of the theatre on both sides of the Atlantic in a career spanning seven decades. Among almost 300 roles on stage, she excelled at comic portrayals of sophisticated socialites and elegant mothers. Hollywood used her, whenever a gentler, sweeter version of Gladys Cooper was needed, yet someone still possessed of a subtly sarcastic wit and turn of phrase. Cathleen attended Queen's University in Belfast and the Sorbonne in Paris. Encouraged by a friend of her father - none other than the legendary Sarah Bernhardt - to enter the acting profession, she was taken on by Victorian actress and drama teacher Rosina Filippi (1866-1930). Cathleen's first appearance on stage was in 1910 at the Royalty Theatre in London. This was followed in November 1911 by her Broadway debut with the touring Abbey Theatre Players in 'The Well of the Saints'. From here on, and for the rest of her long life, she was never out of a job, demonstrating her range and versatility by playing anything from villainesses to being a much acclaimed Kate in Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew', Perdita in 'The Winter's Tale', Audrey Hepburn's grandaunt in 'Gigi', the Dowager Empress in 'Anastasia' and the gossipy 'humorously animated' Julia Shuttlethwaite of T.S. Eliot's 'The Cocktail Party'. Her Mrs. Higgins in 'My Fair Lady', Brooks Atkinson described as played with 'grace and elegance', which also pretty much sums up Cathleen's career in films.Her first motion picture role was a lead in the drama The Faithful Heart (1922), adapted from an Irish play. She then absented herself from the screen for the next decade, resurfacing in supporting roles in British films, though rarely cast in worthy parts, possible exceptions being Fanny by Gaslight (1944) and Jassy (1947). Her strengths were rather better showcased during her sojourn in Hollywood, which began in 1952. In addition to prolific appearances in anthology television, she also appeared in several big budget films, most memorably as Cary Grant's perspicacous grandmother in An Affair to Remember (1957) and as gossipy Lady Matheson (alongside Gladys Cooper) in Separate Tables (1958). One of her last roles of note was as Julia Rainbird, who instigates the mystery in Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot (1976).On the instigation of her friend Anita Loos, author of 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', Cathleen wrote her memoirs, 'A Little Love and Good Company' in 1977. For her extraordinarily long career in the acting profession, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Honours List the following year. She retired just two years prior to her death in 1983 at the age of 93.
Cathleen Nesbitt is a member of Actress

💰 Net worth: Under Review

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Biography/Timeline

1888

Born in Cheshire, England to Thomas and Mary Catherine (née Parry) Nesbitt as Kathleen Mary Nesbitt in 1888 of Welsh and Irish descent, she was educated in Lisieux, France, and at the Queen's University of Belfast and the Sorbonne. Her younger brother, Thomas Nesbitt, Jr., acted in one film in 1925, before his death in South Africa in 1927 from an apparent heart attack.

1910

She made her debut in London in the stage revival of Arthur Wing Pinero's The Cabinet Minister (1910). She acted in countless plays after that. In 1911, she joined the Irish Players, went to the United States and debuted on Broadway in The Well of the Saints. She also was in the cast of John Millington Synge's The Playboy of the Western World with the Irish Players when the whole cast was pelted with fruits and vegetables by the offended Irish American Catholic audience. She became the love of English poet Rupert Brooke in 1912. Brooke wrote love sonnets to her, and they were engaged to be married when he died during World War I.

1912

Nesbitt became the love of English poet Rupert Brooke in 1912, who wrote love sonnets to her. They were engaged to be married, but he died in 1915 at age 27 of blood poisoning, the result of a bite from an infected mosquito while he served in the Royal Navy during World War I.

1915

Nesbitt returned to the US and appeared on Broadway in Quinneys (1915) and John Galsworthy's Justice (1916) as John Barrymore's leading lady in his first dramatic stage role. After five other plays there, she returned to England. For the rest of the decade she performed in London; her roles included the title role in a revival of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi. Her film debut was in the silent A Star Over Night (1919). She then performed in The Faithful Heart (1922). She did not appear in a film again until 1930, when she played the role of Anne Lymes in Canaries Sometimes Sing, which was an early talkie. In 1932, she appeared in The Frightened Lady. She appeared in the 1938 film version of Pygmalion as "a lady" who attends the Embassy ball. In the opening credits her first name was spelled as "Kathleen", but as "Cathleen" at the end of the film. She played the part of Mother in the 1949 BBC TV remake of the drama film Elizabeth of Ladymead.

1921

In 1921 Nesbitt married World War I Military Cross-winner and barrister turned actor Cecil Ramage. They had two children. She and Ramage were separated for many years but remained legally married until her death in 1982.

1951

Other Broadway appearances included Aunt Alicia in the original Anita Loos adaptation of Gigi (1951), Sabrina Fair (1953), and Anastasia (1954). In 1956, she played Mrs. Higgins in My Fair Lady starring Rex Harrison. Nesbitt reprised the role in 1981, in her 90s, in a Broadway revival, opposite Harrison, who was in his 70s.

1954

Nesbitt's first Hollywood film was Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), in which she played the character role of La Principessa. This was followed that same year by Black Widow, in which she played Lucia Colletti. She was Cary Grant's Grandmother Janou in 1957's An Affair to Remember (though she was, in fact, only 16 years older than Grant) and, the following year, was part of the ensemble cast of Separate Tables. She also appeared in The Parent Trap (1961), and Promise Her Anything (1965).

1963

She played Agatha Morley on the TV series The Farmer's Daughter from 1963 to 1966, playing the mother of a Congressman (played by william Windom). She guest starred on such shows as The United States Steel Hour; Wagon Train; Naked City, Dr. Kildare and Upstairs, Downstairs (as Rachel Gurney's mother, Mabel, Countess of Southwold).

1969

In 1969 she played Richard Burton's mother in the film Staircase and again in Villain two years later. She had a small but memorable role as an elderly drug addict in French Connection II (1975) alongside Gene Hackman. Her next film was Hitchcock's Family Plot (1976), in which she played Julia Rainbird. She then appeared as the grandmother in Julia (1977). Her final film was Never Never Land (1980) as Edith Forbes.

1980

She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1980 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.

1982

Nesbitt lived for many years in the United States, but returned to the United Kingdom where she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1978. Her autobiography, A Little Love and Good Company, was published in 1973. After a career spanning over 80 years, one of the longest in show Business history, Nesbitt died of natural causes at age 93 in London on 2 August 1982.