Esther Dale
Esther Dale was an American actress of the stage and screen.
Dale was born in Beaufort, South Carolina. She attended Leland and Gray Seminary in Townshend, Vermont. In Berlin, Germany, she studied music and enjoyed a successful career as a singer of lieder on the concert stage.
Career
At one point, Dale was head of Smith College's vocal department.
Her singing career included appearances with the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In the U.S., Dale transferred to the acting stage and cultivated a career as an actress in Summer stock. She starred in Carrie Nation on Broadway in 1933. Her other Broadway credits include Harvest of Years, And Be My Love, and Another Language.
Dale's first film was Crime Without Passion in an uncredited role. She played Birdie Hicks in the Ma and Pa Kettle films The Egg and I, Ma and Pa Kettle, Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair, and Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki.
Dale played many roles in television over the years. In 1957, she appeared in the 1957 Maverick episode "According to Hoyle" opposite James Garner. That same year, she guest-starred in the TV Western series Wagon Train, playing Grandma Birch, in the episode "The Julie Gage Story". In the 1958-1959 season of The Donna Reed Show, Dale played a job-seeking housekeeper who is frightened from the Stone home by Jeff Stone's pet mouse. Dale played a ladylady, Mrs. Finch, in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis episode "Live Alone and Like It".
Personal life
Esther Dale died in the summer of 1961 following surgery in Queen of Angels Hospital in Hollywood. Her husband, writer-director Arthur J. Beckhard, had died four months earlier.
Partial filmography
Crime Without Passion as Miss Keeley The Wedding Night as Mrs. Kaise NovakPrivate Worlds as MatronCurly Top as Aunt Genevieve GrahamI Live My Life as Brumbaugh, Mrs. Gage's HousekeeperMary Burns, Fugitive as KateIn Old Kentucky as Dolly BreckenridgeI Dream Too Much as Mrs. Dilley The Great Impersonation as Mrs. UnthankTimothy's Quest as Hitty TarboxLady of Secrets as Miss EcclesThe Farmer in the Dell as Louella 'Ma' BoyerThe Case Against Mrs. Ames as MatildaFury as Mrs. WhippleHollywood Boulevard as MarthaThe Magnificent Brute as Mrs. Randolph Outcast as Hattie SimmersonDamaged Goods as Mrs. DupontEasy Living as LillianWild Money as Jenny HawkinsDead End as Mrs. FennerOn Such a Night as Miss Belinda FentridgeThe Awful Truth as Mrs. LeesonOf Human Hearts as Mrs. Cantwell Condemned Women as Mrs. Clara Glover, Head MatronStolen Heaven as LieschenPrison Farm as Cora WaxleyGirls on Probation as Nrs, Engstrom Dramatic School as Forewoman in Factory The Great Man Votes as Ms. Markham Made for Each Other as Annie, Cook #1 Sergeant Madden as Mrs. McGillivray Broadway Serenade as Mrs. OlsenBig Town Czar as Ma DaleyTell No Tales as Mrs. Haskins6,000 Enemies as MatronThe Women as Ingrid Blackmail as SarahBad Little Angel as Miss Brown, Orphanage Secretary A Child Is Born as Prison Matron Swanee River as Temperance WomanLaddie as Sarah, the HousekeeperAbe Lincoln in Illinois as Lincoln's Cook Village Barn Dance as Minerva WithersConvicted Woman as Chief Matron BrackettWomen Without Names as Head Matron InglesAnd One Was Beautiful as MargaretForty Little Mothers as Mrs. Mason, Landlady Opened by Mistake as Mrs. Anthony DeBorestThe Mortal Storm as MartaUntamed as Mrs. SmithCross-Country Romance as Mrs. McGillicuddy Blondie Has Servant Trouble as Anna VaughnArise, My Love as SusieMr. & Mrs. Smith as Mrs. KrausheimerBack Street as Mrs. SmithThe Hard-Boiled Canary as Miss ClarkUnfinished Business as Aunt MathildaAloma of the South Seas as TarusaAll-American Co-Ed as Aunt Matilda CollingeDangerously They Live as DawsonBlondie Goes to College as Mrs. Carrie Dill, the Landlady What's Cookin'? as Mrs. Murphy You're Asking Me as Aunt Fannie HandleyTen Gentlemen from West Point as Mrs. ThompsonMaisie Gets Her Man as Mrs. Myra McIntyre, Elsie's Mother I Married an Angel as Mrs. Gherkin Wrecking Crew as Mike O'GlendyThe Amazing Mrs. Holliday as LucyHello, Frisco, Hello as Aunt Harriet Murder in Times Square as Longacre LilSwing Your Partner as Caroline Bird, aka Anna RobbinsThe North Star as Anna KurinOld Acquaintance as HarrietOut of This World as Abbie Pringle Bedside Manner as Martha GravittOn Stage Everybody as Ma CassidyBehind City Lights as Sarah LowellMy Reputation as AnnaA Stolen Life as Mrs. JohnsonSmoky as Mrs. 'Gram' RichardsMargie as Grandma McSweeneyThe Egg and I as Birdie HicksThe Unfinished Dance as OlgaA Song Is Born as Miss BraggMa and Pa Kettle as Mrs. Birdie HicksAnna Lucasta as Mrs. Polaski Holiday Affair as Mrs. EnnisNo Man of Her Own as JosieSurrender as Aunt MayWalk Softly, Stranger as Miss ThompsonOn Moonlight Bay as Aunt Martha Robertson Too Young to Kiss as Mrs. BoykinMa and Pa Kettle at the Fair as Birdie HicksMonkey Business as Mrs. RhinelanderMa and Pa Kettle at Waikiki as Birdie HicksBetrayed Women as Head Matron BallardThe Oklahoman as Mrs. FitzgeraldThe Sound and the Fury as Mrs. Maud Mansfield North to Alaska as Woman at Picnic