--- name: "Fay Bainter" canonical: "https://film.one/person/fay-bainter" roles: ["Actor"] born: "7 December 1893" died: "16 April 1968" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 72 average_as: "actor" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-09-20T00:55:38.799288+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." --- # Fay Bainter Actor. Born 7 December 1893 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Died 16 April 1968. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 7 December 1893, Los Angeles, California, USA - **Died:** 16 April 1968 - **Active:** 1938–1945 - **Also known as:** Fay Okell Bainter - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar (1 won · 2 nominated) - **Average Fi1m score:** 72, as actor, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 78 (1), 1940s 69 (3) - **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 4 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 4 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 3, Romance 3, Comedy 1, Family 1 - **Screen time:** 7 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $4m across 1 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Bainter, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q152888, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0047810/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/20366 ## Streaming the US now - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Our Town*](https://film.one/film/our-town.md) (72) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Fay Bainter > Fay Bainter came to films at forty and spent her time there as the aunt, the mother, the wife at the edge of the frame, doing the listening. She plays disappointment as tenderness, and in *Jezebel* she is the one to watch when Davis is off screen. In *State Fair* (1945), Donald Meek takes a spoonful of Melissa Frake's brandied mincemeat, pauses, and comes back for another. Fay Bainter, as Melissa, does nothing a script could record. She watches him, and her face carries the scene: the pride, the alarm, the slow understanding of what the brandy in her mincemeat is doing to a judge. We laughed, and then felt slightly sorry for the man, and both reactions came from her rather than from him. Someone else has the line; she has the response, and the response is where the scene lives. She got to it late. Bainter was a child performer in Los Angeles from 1908 and on Broadway from 1912, with a run of stage successes from *East Is West* onwards, and she did not make a film until *This Side of Heaven* in 1934, at forty. That is not the age at which Hollywood builds a leading lady, and it did not try. It made her the put-upon daughter-in-law of *Make Way for Tomorrow* (1937), and a year later it gave her the two parts, in *White Banners* and *Jezebel*, on which the reputation rests. Supporting roles followed through the 1940s; in the 1950s she went back to the stage and into television; her last film was *The Children's Hour* in 1961. *Jezebel* (1938) is the one to see. Aunt Belle Massey is the conscience of a film that has Bette Davis at its centre in the wrong dress, and a lesser actress would have played the conscience as a scold. Bainter plays every disappointment as tenderness. She reproves Julie the way you would reprove a child you had already forgiven, so that Davis's cruelty registers on Belle's face before it registers anywhere else. We kept finding our eyes on her when Davis was off screen, and we do not think the film suffers for it. William Wyler directed her twice, and he plainly knew what she could do with a reaction shot. The reservation, and it is the only one anyone has raised, is that she was never asked to do anything else. After 1938 the parts were genteel and maternal, and *Quality Street* (1937) already shows the pattern setting. She had the voice for more, warm and a little smoky, stage-trained, at home in comedy and drama alike. But she seems to have understood the bargain. "There comes a day when the flush of youth disappears from every woman's face," she said of the move into character parts. "Most women dread it. I did. Like so many things, however, it is worse in anticipation than actual fact." Watch *Jezebel* for the ball, as we said, and then watch it once more with your eyes on the woman standing behind Davis. Bainter spent nearly thirty years on screen being the person who notices, and it turns out to be a part with no age limit. ## Biography Fay Okell Bainter was an American stage and film actress. Born in Los Angeles, California, on 7 December 1893, she died in the same city on 16 April 1968. She began her stage career in 1908 and made her Broadway debut in 1912. Her first film role came in 1934. Bainter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in the same year for performances in *White Banners* (1938) and *Jezebel* (1938), winning the latter. She played Melissa Frake in the 1945 musical film *State Fair*. Other film roles include *Make Way for Tomorrow* (1937), *Woman of the Year* (1942) and *The Children's Hour* (1961). She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, catalog.afi.com.* ## On Fi1m (4) - *State Fair* (1945), Fi1m 70, as Melissa Frake — [page](https://film.one/film/state-fair.md) - *The Human Comedy* (1943), Fi1m 66, as Mrs. Macauley — [page](https://film.one/film/the-human-comedy.md) - *Our Town* (1940), Fi1m 72, as Mrs Gibbs — [page](https://film.one/film/our-town.md) - *Jezebel* (1938), Fi1m 78, as Aunt Belle Massey — [page](https://film.one/film/jezebel.md) ## Complete filmography (52) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Alfred Hitchcock Hour* (1962), series, as Mary Caulfield - *The Children's Hour* (1961), as Amelia Tilford - *Dr. Kildare* (1961), series, as Sister Mike - *Thriller* (1960), series, as Geraldine Redfern - *Adventures in Paradise* (1959), series, as Sister Josephine - *The Donna Reed Show* (1958), series, Actor - *Matinee Theater* (1955), series, Actor - *The President's Lady* (1953), as Mrs. Donaldson - *Schlitz Playhouse of Stars* (1951), series, as Jenny - *Close to My Heart* (1951), as Mrs. Morrow - *Lux Video Theatre* (1950), series, as Innkeeper's Wife, Annie Keeney, Mrs. Grier, Mrs. Hughes - *Robert Montgomery Presents* (1950), series, as Bella Fleace - *Suspense* (1949), series, as Natalie MacLaird - *Studio One* (1948), series, as Aunt Valerie, Mrs. Morgan - *June Bride* (1948), as Paula Winthrop - *Give My Regards to Broadway* (1948), as Fay Norwick - *The Secret Life of Walter Mitty* (1947), as Mrs. Mitty - *Deep Valley* (1947), as Ellie Saul - *The Virginian* (1946), as Mrs. Taylor - *The Kid from Brooklyn* (1946), as Mrs. E. Winthrop LeMoyne - *State Fair* (1945), as Melissa Frake — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/state-fair.md) - *3 Is a Family* (1944), as Frances Whittaker - *Dark Waters* (1944), as Aunt Emily - *The Heavenly Body* (1944), as Margaret Sibyll - *Cry 'Havoc'* (1943), as Captain Marsh - *Salute to the Marines* (1943), as Jennie Bailey - *Presenting Lily Mars* (1943), as Mrs. Thornway - *The Human Comedy* (1943), as Mrs. Macauley — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/the-human-comedy.md) - *Journey for Margaret* (1942), as Trudy Strauss - *Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch* (1942), as Mrs. Elvira Wiggs - *The War Against Mrs. Hadley* (1942), as Stella Livingston Hadley - *Mr. Gardenia Jones* (1942), as Emmy Jones - *Woman of the Year* (1942), as Ellen Whitcomb - *Babes on Broadway* (1941), as Miss Jones - *Maryland* (1940), as Charlotte Danfield - *A Bill of Divorcement* (1940), as Margaret "Meg" Fairfield - *Our Town* (1940), as Mrs Gibbs — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/our-town.md) - *Young Tom Edison* (1940), as Mrs. Samuel 'Nancy' Edison - *Our Neighbors - The Carters* (1939), as Ellen Carter - *Daughters Courageous* (1939), as Nancy 'Nan' Masters - *The Lady and the Mob* (1939), as Hattie Leonard - *Yes, My Darling Daughter* (1939), as Ann Murray - *Breakdowns of 1938* (1938), as Hannah Parmalee (archive footage) (uncredited) - *The Shining Hour* (1938), as Hannah Linden - *The Arkansas Traveler* (1938), as Mrs. Martha Allen - *Mother Carey's Chickens* (1938), as Mrs. Margaret Carey - *White Banners* (1938), as Hannah - *Jezebel* (1938), as Aunt Belle Massey — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/jezebel.md) - *Make Way for Tomorrow* (1937), as Anita Cooper - *The Soldier and the Lady* (1937), as Strogoff's Mother - *Quality Street* (1937), as Susan Throssel - *This Side of Heaven* (1934), as Francene Turner ## Gallery - ![Fay Bainter](https://film.one/media/person/1226794/gallery-d038166c6fe9.jpg) Fay Bainter — Arnold Genthe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Bainter%2C_Fay%2C_Miss%2C_with_Buzzer_the_cat%2C_portrait_photograph.jpg/1280px-Bainter%2C_Fay%2C_Miss%2C_with_Buzzer_the_cat%2C_portrait_photograph.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Fay Bainter, stage actress Subjects: actresses (1911)](https://film.one/media/person/1226794/gallery-a3b318d5bddd.jpg) Fay Bainter, stage actress Subjects: actresses (1911) — Wills and Vreeland, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Fay_Bainter%2C_stage_actress_%28SAYRE_7512%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Fay Bainter, stock actress with the Baker Stock Company Subjects: actresses (1911)](https://film.one/media/person/1226794/gallery-21874c1beb9d.jpg) Fay Bainter, stock actress with the Baker Stock Company Subjects: actresses (1911) — Wills and Vreeland, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Fay_Bainter%2C_stock_actress_with_the_Baker_Stock_Company_%28SAYRE_7126%29.jpg/1280px-Fay_Bainter%2C_stock_actress_with_the_Baker_Stock_Company_%28SAYRE_7126%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Actress Fay Bainter (1918)](https://film.one/media/person/1226794/gallery-9932053cae79.jpg) Actress Fay Bainter (1918) — James Abbe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Fay_Bainter%2C_Vogue_1918-09.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Fay Bainter](https://film.one/media/person/1226794/gallery-63025674bcb6.jpg) Fay Bainter — Image via TMDB - ![Fay Bainter](https://film.one/media/person/1226794/gallery-aa7a81a456c4.jpg) Fay Bainter — Image via TMDB - ![Fay Bainter](https://film.one/media/person/1226794/gallery-ca6e2894ab65.jpg) Fay Bainter — Image via TMDB - ![Cyril Scott and Fay Bainter in Arms and the Girl (1916)](https://film.one/media/person/1226794/gallery-e2afc80e1efe.jpg) Cyril Scott and Fay Bainter in Arms and the Girl (1916) — White Studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Cyril_Scott_and_Fay_Bainter_in_%22Arms_and_the_Girl%22.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Actress Fay Bainter (1918)](https://film.one/media/person/1226794/gallery-43ace83d5641.jpg) Actress Fay Bainter (1918) — Strauss-Peyton Studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Fay_Bainter_1918.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 1 won, 2 nominated - 1962: Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *The Children's Hour* - 1939: Best Supporting Actress (won), for *Jezebel* - 1939: Best Actress (nominated), for *White Banners* *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/fay-bainter