Elizabeth Patterson (actress)
| Elizabeth Patterson | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Mary Elizabeth Patterson November 22, 1874 Savannah, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | January 31, 1966 (aged 91) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1890–1961 |
Mary Elizabeth Patterson (November 22, 1874 – January 31, 1966) was an American theatre, film, and television character actress who gained popular recognition late in her career playing the elderly neighbor Matilda Trumbull in the television comedy series I Love Lucy.
Patterson was born in Savannah, Tennessee. Her father, who had been a Confederate soldier, was a judge in Hardin County. She was educated in the county's public schools and at colleges in Pulaski and Columbia, where her participation in college theatricals helped to form her interest in drama. Her parents sent her to Europe in the hope of discouraging her interest in the theater, but her determination to become an actress was only reinforced by her experiences attending productions at the Comédie Française.
After returning from Europe, Patterson used a small inheritance to move to Chicago, where she joined a theatrical troupe, and subsequently toured with repertory companies. In 1913, she made her Broadway debut in the play Everyman. She remained active in New York City theatre through 1954.
In 1926, at the age of 51, Patterson was cast in her first movie, The Boy Friend. Additional screen credits include: A Bill of Divorcement; Tarnished Lady; Dinner at Eight; High, Wide, and Handsome; Remember the Night; No Man of Her Own; The Shocking Miss Pilgrim; Little Women; My Sister Eileen; and Pal Joey. She also appeared as "Susan" in two adaptations of the play The Cat and the Canary: The Cat Creeps (1930) and The Cat and the Canary (1939). In 1949 she played the heroic Eunice Habersham in the groundbreaking racial crime drama, Intruder in the Dust, a film based on the William Faulkner novel of the same name, set in the Deep South.
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