Today’s post pays tribute to character actress Jane Darwell (1879-1967). She was born Patti Woodard in Palmyra, Missouri. Edited from the Find a Grave website:
Her father was a railroad executive who disapproved of her interest in theatre. Despite the disapproval, she continued working in theatre and made her film debut in 1912. It would be the first of over 200 film performances. Her first notable performances in talking pictures came in 1930 and 1931 when she played the part of the Widow Douglas in the films “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn.”
She was a frequent Shirley Temple costar, beginning with the film “Change of Heart” (1934) starring Janet Gaynor, Ginger Rogers, James Dunn, and Charles Farrell. Both Darwell and Temple have bit parts in the film, but no scenes together. Darwell played the mother of Dunn’s character (screenshot below) in a short scene at the beginning of the film:
…and Shirley had a cameo with Charles Farrell (seen above) as he makes her a paper airplane aboard a real airplane. In “Bright Eyes” (1934), Shirley and Jane had a number of scenes together. Darwell played the feisty cook, Mrs. Higgins, who adores Shirley but hates the bratty little child (portrayed by Jane Withers) of her snooty employer.
In the film, Shirley’s character (also named Shirley!) borrows one of the large stockings from the plus-sized Mrs. Higgins so that Santa will have more room to give her all the gifts she’d like to have!
Next up was “Curly Top” (1935) with Darwell as Mrs. Denham, the kindly matron of the orphanage where Shirley’s character lives with her sister. Mrs. Denham is key in getting the wealthy Edward Morgan (John Boles, seen below with Darwell) to adopt the two girls.
The publicity still below shows Mrs. Denham and Mrs. Higgins (Rafaela Ottiano) crying as the two sisters leave the orphanage.
In “Captain January” (1936) Darwell portrayed the widow Eliza Croft, who has the hots for Shirley’s guardian, played by Guy Kibbee.
A few brief scenes between the two in “Poor Little Rich Girl (1936), with Darwell playing yet another housekeeper.
Darwell’s final silver screen pairing with Temple was “Little Miss Broadway” (1938). This time, she actually runs the orphanage that Shirley is adopted from. Finally, a career move up!
Darwell was a busy gal, playing bit parts in several other movies over the years. In “Gone with the Wind” (1939), she memorably portrayed the neighborhood gossip, Mrs. Merriwether.
More from Find a Grave:
Her career took a new path when she landed the role of the James Brothers' mother in the 1939 Tyrone Power/Henry Fonda film "Jesse James." It would be the first of several times she would play the mother of Henry Fonda on film. One of those times came in 1940 when she won an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of Ma Joad in the classic film "The Grapes Of Wrath."
Below, you can see a clip showing multiple takes of Darwell accepting the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “Grapes.” The 13th Academy Awards was held at the Biltmore Bowl of the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on February 27, 1941. She had stiff competition, beating out Judith Anderson (“Rebecca”), Ruth Hussey (“The Philadelphia Story”), Barbara O’Neil (“All This and Heaven Too”), and Marjorie Rambeau (“Primrose Path”).
In late 1948, Shirley returned to her home studio of 20th Century-Fox. Zanuck through a welcome back party and many of her former costars showed up. Below is Darwell and director Henry Hathaway:
Shirley hired Darwell for her television anthology series, “The Shirley Temple Show,” specifically the episode titled “The Fawn,” which first aired on February 5, 1961. Shirley was the narrator and Darwell played Grandma in the story that also featured Robert Crawford, Jr. (seen below).
Her final role in “Mary Poppins” (1964) was brief but extremely touching. From the Walt Disney Family Museum website:
Walt [Disney] took special care to ensure that the “Feed the Birds” sequence in Mary Poppins would be memorable. As Robert Sherman would explain, “One of the more beautiful moments in the history of movie making occurred as we were casting and filming the ‘Feed the Birds’ sequence. It’s one of those rare instances where life and art became one in the same thing.” During production of the Disney film in the summer of 1963, actor Jane Darwell was 83 years old. With a film career that stretched back to as early as 1913, she was among the most respected actors in the industry, with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance of Ma Joad in 1940’s The Grapes of Wrath. She was living at the Motion Picture Country Home, a noted residence for retired film actors and artists. “Walt offered her the part of the Bird Woman, but in doing so, he also treated her as the star she had once been,” Robert Sherman recalled. “He sent her a script and a letter via special messenger (as opposed to US Mail) and had a limousine and driver pick her up once for a meeting and then again on the day of the shoot. Miss Darwell was tremendously excited to be a part of Mary Poppins and must have felt gratified to have been remembered after so many years away from the limelight. I think it was a particularly poetic thing of Walt to have done this. After all, as Walt said referring to ‘Feed the Birds,’ ‘That’s what it’s all about,’ doing just a little extra and going just a little bit out of your way to make someone feel special. Sometimes it can make all the difference in the world to a person.”
From the DVD commentary track one learns that Robert Sherman provided the speaking voice of Jane because Darwell’s voice was too soft to be heard on the soundtrack. He is heard saying her only line: “Feed the birds, tuppence a bag.”
It’s one of those magical moments where Andrews’ singing and Darwell’s performance together help bring on the waterworks. Watch the scene in the clip below:
Darwell died on August 13, 1967, after suffering a heart attack at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. Her obituary stated that she “had been residing at the hospital for the past two months, according to Maudie Hiser, her companion for 24 years.…The actress leaves a nephew, Winston Ogden, North Hollywood.” Reflecting on her career, Darwell stated, “I played either a grandmother or a housekeeper in every Shirley Temple film ever made.…I’ve played Henry Fonda’s mother so often that he calls me ma, and I call him son.” Darwell was married once in the 1920s, but was divorced within a year, according to her friends.
In other Shirley news, last month Deadline Hollywood broke this story:
EXCLUSIVE: Marty Tudor has been working with the family estate of Shirley Temple and will have access to the rights of the child actress-turned Ghana and Czechoslovakia ambassador across streaming, film, stage and more. There are also two unpublished autobiographies by Temple which Tudor is helping the estate get published. The life of Temple, who was discovered dancing in a theater lobby by Fox Film songwriter Jay Gorney, is largely an untapped IP; one prolific adaptation of her life was the 2001 Disney Channel movie, “Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story.” That was based on Temple’s autobiography of the same name and it starred Connie Britton. Tudor is an industry vet, who managed the careers of Paula Abdul and Jon Cryer, and of late has been behind a series of Hologram concert shows starting in 2018 with performances by the late Maria Callas, Roy Orbison, and Whitney Houston.…Temple began her film career in 1931. The 1934 movie Bright Eyes put her on the map as a singing child star with her signature ditty “On the Good Ship Lollipop”. In 1935, she received a miniature Juvenile Oscar. She did segue to roles as a teenager, notably starring opposite Cary Grant in 1947’s The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer which won an Oscar for Sidney Sheldon’s adapted screenplay.…Temple’s last movie was the 1949 comedy “A Kiss for Corliss” opposite David Niven. She hosted “Shirley Temple’s Storybook” from 1958-1961 before beginning her diplomatic career in 1969. Her friends included former FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover who gifted her a tear gas pen at the age of 20 to help protect her against any death threats. She also befriended Amelia Earhart; the duo reportedly known for their discussions about feminism, Hamlet and chewing gum. Temple as a child learned geography by tracing Earhart’s flights.“There’s so much more to American icon Shirley Temple’s life that people aren’t aware of. She was the U.S. delegate in the United Nations, a female Ambassador to Ghana and Czechslovakia, she was a breast cancer survivor, she fought sexism as the first female U.S. Chief of Protocol. What appeals to me, as a father of a daughter, is that Shirley continues to be an amazing inspiration and role model for young girls. We see a lot of kid actors who go the wrong way, she did not. There’s an amazing human being here with a big story who gave back as opposed to a pop star in it for the glory,” Tudor tells Deadline. The Temple Black family tells Deadline in a statement: “As the 100th anniversary of our Mom’s birthday approaches, we are so pleased at the idea of sharing with the world the lesser-known second half of her incredible life story. She often observed that ‘the Little Girl opened the door’, but then our Mom stepped through it, confident, courageous, authentic – all grown up.”
It would be amazing to have the rest of Shirley’s autobiography released!
See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.
