--- name: "Alice Brady" canonical: "https://film.one/person/alice-brady" roles: ["Actor"] born: "1 November 1892" died: "28 October 1939" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 72 average_as: "actor" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-09-19T23:32:42.653292+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Alice Brady Actor. Born 1 November 1892 in New York City, New York, USA. Died 28 October 1939. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 1 November 1892, New York City, New York, USA - **Died:** 28 October 1939 - **Active:** 1934–1938 - **Frequently works with:** [Deanna Durbin](https://film.one/person/deanna-durbin.md), [Henry Koster](https://film.one/person/henry-koster.md), [Joe Pasternak](https://film.one/person/joe-pasternak.md) - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar (1 won · 1 nominated) - **Average Fi1m score:** 72, as actor, over 3 titles - **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 3 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Comedy 2, Romance 2, Drama 1, History 1, Music 1 - **Screen time:** 5 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $4m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Brady, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q233856, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0103567/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/125841 ## Fi1m on Alice Brady > Alice Brady's society matrons in the comedies of the 1930s never finish a sentence and never notice. She made dithering exact, and when a director asked her to play it straight, in *In Old Chicago* and *Young Mr. Lincoln*, she could. Watch her for a minute in *The Gay Divorcee* (1934). Hortense starts every sentence three times and finishes none of them, and Brady plays her as a woman who has no idea this is happening. Everyone else in the room is waiting for the end of a thought that never arrives, and their waiting is the scene. We laughed at her more than at the plot, and the reason is that she never once asks for the laugh; she is simply trying to get a sentence out. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers have the dance, Edward Everett Horton and Erik Rhodes have the farce, and Brady has the pauses. She had been doing something else for twenty years first. Brady made her Broadway debut in 1911 and had her first success the next year as Meg March in *Little Women*. From 1914 she was in silent films, more than fifty of them, made through her father William A. Brady's production company, while keeping up the stage work; the plays included Eugene O'Neill's. Then from 1923 to 1933 she left the screen for Broadway altogether. When she came back in 1933 films could talk, she was in her forties, and the parts had changed: not the heroine but the heroine's mother or aunt, in more than twenty-five films before her death in 1939. The type she settled into was the flighty rich woman who talks, and she was good enough at it to be asked for it again and again. Angelica Bullock in *My Man Godfrey* (1936) is the one people remember, and it is the same instrument as Hortense turned up a notch. The fairest reservation about the second career is that the studios rarely let her do anything else. When they did, she could. Molly O'Leary in *In Old Chicago* (1938) is a straight dramatic part in a period picture, and her last film, John Ford's *Young Mr. Lincoln* (1939), gave her Abigail Clay, with nothing to dither about. Nobody who has watched Hortense closely should be surprised that the actress who had played O'Neill on stage was still in there. Start with *The Gay Divorcee*, and watch the edges of the frame rather than the middle. The dancing is the reason the film survives; Brady is one of the reasons it is bearable between dances. That is a modest kind of importance, but comedies of that decade ran on people like her, and few of them could get a laugh out of a sentence that never ends. ## Biography Alice Brady was an American actress of stage and film. She began her career in the theatre in 1911 and made her Broadway debut the following year. She appeared in numerous silent films from 1914 before returning to the stage and later resuming screen work with the advent of sound pictures. Brady is known for her roles in *The Gay Divorcee* (1934), *My Man Godfrey* (1936), *Gold Diggers of 1935* (1935), *In Old Chicago* (1938) and *Young Mr. Lincoln* (1939). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in *In Old Chicago*. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) - *In Old Chicago* (1938), Fi1m 64, as Molly O'Leary — [page](https://film.one/film/in-old-chicago.md) - *Three Smart Girls* (1936), Fi1m 72, as Mrs. Lyons — [page](https://film.one/film/three-smart-girls.md) - *The Gay Divorcee* (1934), Fi1m 79, as Hortense — [page](https://film.one/film/the-gay-divorcee.md) ## Complete filmography (70) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Young Mr. Lincoln* (1939), as Abigail Clay - *Zenobia* (1939), as Mrs. Carter - *Joy of Living* (1938), as Minerva Garrett - *In Old Chicago* (1938), as Molly O'Leary — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/in-old-chicago.md) - *Goodbye Broadway* (1938), as Molly Malloy - *Merry Go Round of 1938* (1937), as Aunt Hortense - *One Hundred Men and a Girl* (1937), as Mrs. Frost - *Mr. Dodd Takes the Air* (1937), as Mme. Sonia Moro - *Call It a Day* (1937), as Muriel West - *Mama Steps Out* (1937), as Ada Cuppy - *Three Smart Girls* (1936), as Mrs. Lyons — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/three-smart-girls.md) - *Mind Your Own Business* (1936), as Melba Shanks - *Go West Young Man* (1936), as Mrs. Addie Struthers - *My Man Godfrey* (1936), as Angelica Bullock - *The Harvester* (1936), as Mrs. Biddle - *Metropolitan* (1935), as Ghita Galin - *Lady Tubbs* (1935), as Henrietta Tubbs - *Let 'em Have It* (1935), as Aunt Ethel - *Gold Diggers of 1935* (1935), as Matilda Prentiss - *The Gay Divorcee* (1934), as Hortense — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/the-gay-divorcee.md) - *Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen* (1934), as Molly Prentiss - *Should Ladies Behave* (1933), as Laura Merrick - *Stage Mother* (1933), as Kitty Lorraine - *Broadway to Hollywood* (1933), as Lulu Hackett - *Beauty for Sale* (1933), as Henrietta Sherwood - *When Ladies Meet* (1933), as Bridget 'Bridgie' Drake - *The Snow Bride* (1923), as Annette Leroux - *The Leopardess* (1923), as Tiare - *Anna Ascends* (1922), as Anna Ayyob - *Missing Millions* (1922), as Mary Dawson - *Hush Money* (1921), as Evelyn Murray - *Dawn of the East* (1921), as Countess Natalya - *The Land of Hope* (1921), as Marya Nisko - *Little Italy* (1921), as Rosa Mascani - *Out of the Chorus* (1921), as Florence Maddis - *The New York Idea* (1920), as Cynthia Karslake - *A Dark Lantern* (1920), as Katherine Dereham - *Sinners* (1920), as Mary Horton - *The Fear Market* (1920), as Sylvia Stone - *Redhead* (1919), as Dazil Mellows - *Marie, Ltd.* (1919), as Drina Hilliard - *The End of the Road* (1919), Actor - *The World to Live In* (1919), as Rita Charles - *The Indestructible Wife* (1919), as Charlotte Ordway - *In the Hollow of Her Hand* (1918), as Hetty Castleton - *Her Great Chance* (1918), as Lola Gray - *The Death Dance* (1918), as Flora Farnsworth - *The Ordeal of Rosetta* (1918), as Rosetta / Lola Gelardi - *At the Mercy of Men* (1918), as Vera Souroff - *The Trap* (1918), as Doris Shaw - *The Spurs of Sybil* (1918), as Sybil Drew - *The Knife* (1918), as Kate Tarleton - *Her Silent Sacrifice* (1917), as Arlette - *Betsy Ross* (1917), as Betsy Griscom - *A Self-Made Widow* (1917), as Sylvia - *The Divorce Game* (1917), as Florence, Viscountess de Sallure - *Maternity* (1917), as Ellen Franklin - *Darkest Russia* (1917), as Ilda Barosky - *The Dancer's Peril* (1917), as Mother / Daughter - *A Hungry Heart* (1917), as Frou Frou - *A Woman Alone* (1917), as Nellie Waldron - *Bought and Paid For* (1916), as Vivian Blaine - *The Gilded Cage* (1916), as Princess Honore - *Miss Petticoats* (1916), as Miss Petticoats - *La Vie de Bohème* (1916), as Mimi - *Then I'll Come Back to You* (1916), as Barbara Allison - *The Ballet Girl* (1916), as Jenny Pearl - *The Rack* (1915), as Mrs. Gordon - *The Lure of Woman* (1915), as Katie O'Day - *The Boss* (1915), as Emily Griswold ## Gallery - ![Title: Alice Brady's Skating Cap Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. (1910)](https://film.one/media/person/1227087/gallery-385638ae58e6.jpg) Title: Alice Brady's Skating Cap Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. (1910) — Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Alice_Brady%27s_Skating_Cap_LCCN2014700756.jpg/1280px-Alice_Brady%27s_Skating_Cap_LCCN2014700756.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Alice Brady](https://film.one/media/person/1227087/gallery-e9e558a35ce3.jpg) Alice Brady — El Gráfico, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Alice_Brady_-_El_Gr%C3%A1fico_99.jpg/1280px-Alice_Brady_-_El_Gr%C3%A1fico_99.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Title: Alice Brady Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. (1900)](https://film.one/media/person/1227087/gallery-ef27e88f5d16.jpg) Title: Alice Brady Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. (1900) — Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Alice_Brady_LCCN2014711849.jpg/1280px-Alice_Brady_LCCN2014711849.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Alice Brady, stage and film actress Subjects (LCTGM): actresses (1930)](https://film.one/media/person/1227087/gallery-65143b93b7ad.jpg) Alice Brady, stage and film actress Subjects (LCTGM): actresses (1930) — Unknown photographerUnknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Alice_Brady%2C_stage_and_film_actress_%28SAYRE_15419%29.jpg/1280px-Alice_Brady%2C_stage_and_film_actress_%28SAYRE_15419%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Alice Brady](https://film.one/media/person/1227087/gallery-b055cfd3c1a9.jpg) Alice Brady — Image via TMDB - ![Alice Brady](https://film.one/media/person/1227087/gallery-ee46fcb8bc89.jpg) Alice Brady — Image via TMDB - ![Alice Brady](https://film.one/media/person/1227087/gallery-288e513a608d.jpg) Alice Brady — Image via TMDB - ![Title: Alice Brady Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. (1900)](https://film.one/media/person/1227087/gallery-ee44e0c598df.jpg) Title: Alice Brady Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. (1900) — Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Alice_Brady_LCCN2014712198.jpg/1280px-Alice_Brady_LCCN2014712198.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Title: Alice Brady Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller (1923)](https://film.one/media/person/1227087/gallery-3d792be485f5.jpg) Title: Alice Brady Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller (1923) — National Photo Company Collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Alice_Brady_LCCN2016847423.jpg/1280px-Alice_Brady_LCCN2016847423.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Alice Brady](https://film.one/media/person/1227087/gallery-70a0e07845c6.jpg) Alice Brady — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 1 won, 1 nominated - 1938: Best Supporting Actress (won), for *In Old Chicago* - 1937: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *My Man Godfrey* ### Other awards — 1 won - star on Hollywood Walk of Fame 1960: star on Hollywood Walk of Fame (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/alice-brady