--- name: "Jessie Ralph" canonical: "https://film.one/person/jessie-ralph" roles: ["Actor"] born: "4 November 1864" died: "30 May 1944" reviewed_on_fi1m: 6 average_fi1m_score: 74 average_as: "actor" average_over: 6 updated: "2026-09-19T23:27:09.873486+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." --- # Jessie Ralph Actor. Born 4 November 1864 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA. Died 30 May 1944. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 4 November 1864, Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA - **Died:** 30 May 1944 - **Active:** 1934–1937 - **Also known as:** Jessie Ralph Chambers, Jessie Rolph, Jessie Ralph Patton - **Average Fi1m score:** 74, as actor, over 6 titles - **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 4 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 6 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Romance 5, Drama 4, Adventure 2, History 2, Music 2 - **Screen time:** 12 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $14m across 4 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Ralph, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q441745, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0707771/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13965 ## Fi1m on Jessie Ralph > Jessie Ralph reached Hollywood at nearly seventy and spent eight years playing the nurses, aunts and mothers-in-law that films needed and rarely thought about. She did the thinking for them; her Peggotty in *David Copperfield* is the reason to know her name. Watch the Murdstones take over the parlour in George Cukor's *David Copperfield* (1935) and then watch where the boy looks. He looks at Peggotty. Jessie Ralph plays her as all bosom and apron and outrage, and once Basil Rathbone has lowered his voice and Elizabeth Allan's Clara has given up arguing, she is the only warmth left in the house. It is a small part with a good deal of standing about in it, and Ralph makes the standing about count: her disapproval is the one thing in that parlour the Murdstones cannot manage. She had been doing this for a long time. Ralph went into stock companies at sixteen, in 1880, reached Broadway in *The Kreutzer Sonata* in 1906 and stayed there until 1932, playing nurses, maids and aunts, some Shakespeare, and working with George M. Cohan. When she arrived in Hollywood in 1933 she was nearly seventy and the studios knew what to do with her, which was the same thing. Between 1933 and 1941 she was Nanine, the maid to Greta Garbo's *Camille* (1936); Aunt Katherine Forrest in *After the Thin Man* (1936); Mrs Barlow in *Captain Blood* (1935); Cuckoo in *The Good Earth* (1937), a part she had also played on the stage; and W.C. Fields's mother-in-law in *The Bank Dick* (1940). The work is in the scale. In *One Night of Love* (1934) her Angelina and Luis Alberni's Giovanni supply the comedy from stock, and both of them know how to make stock look fresh for the length of a scene, which is the whole job when the scene is all you are given. Ralph does not fuss. She lets the younger, prettier people do the moving and plants herself, so that when she does turn her head the frame has to turn with her. Grace Moore gets the light and the gowns; Ralph gets the reaction, and times it. The limit is plain and it was not hers. The studios saw an old woman with a large chest and a stern face and cast accordingly, and eight years of grandmothers and maids does not tell us what else she might have done. We felt it in *David Copperfield*: when Frank Lawton takes over from Freddie Bartholomew and the film becomes a procession of chapters, Peggotty recedes, and we missed her more than we missed most of the principals. Edna May Oliver's Betsey Trotwood gets the big scenes. Ralph gets the boy's face turned towards her, and makes that enough. If you know her from one film, make it *David Copperfield*, and watch the first hour with an eye on the edges of the frame. That is where she worked, and she worked there better than most people work in the middle. ## Biography Jessie Ralph was an American stage and screen actress. Born Jessie Ralph Chambers in Gloucester, Massachusetts, she made her stage debut in 1880 at the age of sixteen and appeared on Broadway from 1906, including in productions by George M. Cohan. She began film work in the 1910s but became a regular Hollywood performer from 1933, when she was nearly seventy, and appeared in around fifty-five films over the next eight years. Ralph was known for matronly supporting roles. Her credits include Angelina in *One Night of Love* (1934), Clara Peggotty in *David Copperfield* (1935), Nanine in *Camille* (1936), Katherine Forrest in *After the Thin Man* (1936) and Mrs Hermisillo Brunch in *The Bank Dick* (1940). She also appeared in *Captain Blood* (1935), *San Francisco* (1936), *The Good Earth* (1937) and *Drums Along the Mohawk* (1939). She retired in 1941 after the amputation of a leg and died in Gloucester in 1944. She was married to actor William Patton. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, nytimes.com.* ## On Fi1m (6) - *The Good Earth* (1937), Fi1m 64, as Cuckoo — [page](https://film.one/film/the-good-earth.md) - *San Francisco* (1936), Fi1m 71, as Mrs. Maisie Burley — [page](https://film.one/film/san-francisco.md) - *Captain Blood* (1935), Fi1m 80, as Mrs. Barlow — [page](https://film.one/film/captain-blood.md) - *David Copperfield* (1935), Fi1m 81, as Clara Peggotty — [page](https://film.one/film/david-copperfield.md) - *Les Misérables* (1935), Fi1m 74, as Madame Magloire — [page](https://film.one/film/les-miserables-1935.md) - *One Night of Love* (1934), Fi1m 73, as Angelina — [page](https://film.one/film/one-night-of-love.md) ## Complete filmography (53) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *They Met in Bombay* (1941), as Duchess of Beltravers - *The Lady from Cheyenne* (1941), as Mrs. McGuinness - *The Bank Dick* (1940), as Mrs. Hermisillo Brunch - *I Want a Divorce* (1940), as Grandma Brokaw - *The Girl from Avenue A* (1940), as Mrs. Van Dyne - *I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby* (1940), as Mama McGann - *Star Dust* (1940), as Aunt Martha Parker - *The Blue Bird* (1940), as Fairy Berylune - *Drums Along the Mohawk* (1939), as Mrs. Weaver - *Mickey the Kid* (1939), as Veronica Hudson - *The Kid From Texas* (1939), as Aunt Minetta - *Cafe Society* (1939), as Mrs. De Witt - *St. Louis Blues* (1939), as Aunt Tibbie - *Four Girls in White* (1939), as Miss Tobias - *Port of Seven Seas* (1938), as Honorine - *Hold That Kiss* (1938), as Aunt Lucy - *Love Is a Headache* (1938), as Sheriff Janet Winfield - *Double Wedding* (1937), as Mrs. Kensington-Bly - *The Good Earth* (1937), as Cuckoo — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/the-good-earth.md) - *The Last of Mrs. Cheyney* (1937), as The Duchess of Ebley - *Camille* (1936), as Nanine - *After the Thin Man* (1936), as Katherine Forrest - *Walking on Air* (1936), as Evelyn Bennett - *San Francisco* (1936), as Mrs. Maisie Burley — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/film/san-francisco.md) - *Bunker Bean* (1936), as Grandmother - *The Unguarded Hour* (1936), as Lady Agatha Hathaway - *Yellow Dust* (1936), as Mrs. Brian - *Little Lord Fauntleroy* (1936), as Applewoman - *The Garden Murder Case* (1936), as Mrs. Hammle - *Captain Blood* (1935), as Mrs. Barlow — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/captain-blood.md) - *I Found Stella Parish* (1935), as Nana - *Metropolitan* (1935), as Charwoman - *I Live My Life* (1935), as Mrs. O.H.B. Gage, Kay's Grandmother - *Jalna* (1935), as Gran Whiteoaks - *Paris in Spring* (1935), as Countess de Charelle - *Mark of the Vampire* (1935), as Midwife - *Les Misérables* (1935), as Madame Magloire — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/les-miserables-1935.md) - *Vanessa: Her Love Story* (1935), as Lady Mullion - *Enchanted April* (1935), as Mrs. Phoebe Fisher - *David Copperfield* (1935), as Clara Peggotty — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/david-copperfield.md) - *Evelyn Prentice* (1934), as Mrs. Blake - *We Live Again* (1934), as Matrona Pavlovna - *The Affairs of Cellini* (1934), as Beatrice - *One Night of Love* (1934), as Angelina — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/one-night-of-love.md) - *Murder at the Vanities* (1934), as Mrs. Helene Smith - *Coming Out Party* (1934), as Nora - *Nana* (1934), as Zoe - *Cocktail Hour* (1933), as Princess - *Ann Carver's Profession* (1933), as Terry - *Elmer, the Great* (1933), as Sarah Crosby (uncredited) - *Child of Manhattan* (1933), as Aunt Minnie - *Such a Little Queen* (1921), as Mary - *The Madonna of the Slums* (1919), Actor ## Gallery - ![Jessie Ralph](https://film.one/media/person/1227431/gallery-91e00246a73a.jpg) Jessie Ralph — Trailer screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Jessie_Ralph_in_The_Last_of_Mrs_Cheyney_trailer.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Jessie Ralph](https://film.one/media/person/1227431/gallery-9f5938587f48.jpg) Jessie Ralph — Image via TMDB - ![Jessie Ralph](https://film.one/media/person/1227431/gallery-06a3e25d6d97.jpg) Jessie Ralph — Image via TMDB --- © 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/jessie-ralph