--- name: "Mary Boland" canonical: "https://film.one/person/mary-boland" roles: ["Actor"] born: "26 January 1880" died: "23 June 1965" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-19T23:03:50.660811+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." --- # Mary Boland Actor. Born 26 January 1880 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Died 23 June 1965. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 26 January 1880, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA - **Died:** 23 June 1965 - **Also known as:** Marie Anne Boland - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Boland, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q391663, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0092683/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/88870 ## Fi1m on Mary Boland > Mary Boland spent most of thirty years on the stage before Paramount put her in feathers in 1931, and then a decade playing the wife or mother whose ambitions outrun her sense. She is funniest when she is in earnest, which is nearly always. Effie Floud cannot say Paris without adding a syllable. In *Ruggles of Red Gap* (1935) she has been abroad and means everyone in Red Gap to know it, and Mary Boland plays the line, and the dozen like it, as if nothing about it were a joke. That is the whole method. Boland's women want to be grander than they are and have not the faintest suspicion that anyone finds this amusing, and she never winks at us over their heads. Travis Banton buried her in feathers and fur for Leo McCarey and she wore them as if they were owed to her. She came to it late. Boland was a stage actress from 1901, in stock companies and then on Broadway from 1907, with a stretch in silent films between 1915 and 1920 before she went back to the theatre. Paramount signed her in 1931, and for the rest of the decade she was the studio's wife and mother of choice: Mrs. Peabody in *If I Had a Million* (1932), the matriarch who loses the family fortune in *Three-Cornered Moon* (1933), Effie in *Ruggles*. Fourteen of her films put her opposite Charles Ruggles, whose easy, trouser-hitching warmth was the right partner for her fluster; in *Ruggles of Red Gap* he is the film's warm centre and she is the reason he keeps sneaking off to get drunk. Later came the Countess De Lave in *The Women* (1939) and Mrs. Bennet in *Pride and Prejudice* (1940), the two parts people tend to remember her by, and she was still on Broadway in 1954. What works is the conviction. We laughed at Effie every time she opened her mouth and were surprised, by the end of the film, to find we were fond of her, and that is Boland's doing: she plays each small social panic as though it mattered exactly as much as it does to Effie, and the film's affection for the woman grows out of that. Boland never asks us to hate her, and we did not. What does not work is the sameness. Hollywood gave her one part and asked for it again, and the ditzy, socially ambitious matron is a supporting role by definition; she was rarely allowed to carry anything. Her admirers say she was the one you watched in a crowded scene, and we believe it, but a career of crowded scenes is a career in other people's films. In 1926 she told an interviewer, "I’m not a bit funny, off stage." We can believe that too. The comedy is in how seriously she took women nobody else did. Start with *Ruggles of Red Gap*, which gives her the most room, and then go and find the Countess. ## Biography Mary Boland, also credited as Marie Anne Boland, was an American stage and film actress. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of an actor and began performing on stage as a teenager. She made her Broadway debut in the mid-1900s and appeared in numerous productions before entering silent films in 1915. After a period focused on theatre, Boland returned to film in the early 1930s under contract with Paramount. She became known for supporting roles as flighty or socially ambitious matrons. Her credits include *If I Had a Million* (1932), *Ruggles of Red Gap* (1935) as Effie Floud, *The Women* (1939) as the Countess De Lave, and *Pride and Prejudice* (1940) as Mrs Bennet. She continued working in film, stage and television until the mid-1950s. Boland died in New York City on 23 June 1965. *Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, tcm.com, nytimes.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Ruggles of Red Gap* (1935), Fi1m 84, as Effie Floud — [page](https://film.one/film/ruggles-of-red-gap.md) ## Complete filmography (49) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Producers' Showcase* (1954), series, as The Countess DeLave - *Guilty Bystander* (1950), as Smitty - *Julia Misbehaves* (1948), as Mrs. Gheneccio - *Forever Yours* (1945), as Aunt Mary - *Nothing But Trouble* (1944), as Mrs. Hawkley - *In Our Time* (1944), as Mrs. Bromley - *One Night in the Tropics* (1940), as Aunt Kitty Marblehead - *Hit Parade of 1941* (1940), as Emily Potter - *Pride and Prejudice* (1940), as Mrs. Bennet - *New Moon* (1940), as Valerie de Rossac - *He Married His Wife* (1940), as Ethel - *The Women* (1939), as The Countess De Lave - *Night Work* (1939), as Sybil Fitch - *The Magnificent Fraud* (1939), as Mme. Geraldine Genet - *Boy Trouble* (1939), as Sybil Fitch - *Artists and Models Abroad* (1938), as Mrs. Isabel Channing - *Little Tough Guys in Society* (1938), as Mrs. Berry - *Mama Runs Wild* (1937), as Alice Summers - *There Goes the Groom* (1937), as Mrs. Genevieve Pearson Russell - *Danger – Love at Work* (1937), as Mrs. Alice Pemberton - *Marry the Girl* (1937), as Ollie Radway - *College Holiday* (1936), as Carola P. Gaye - *Wives Never Know* (1936), as Marcia Bigelow - *A Son Comes Home* (1936), as Mary Grady - *Early to Bed* (1936), as Tessie Weeks - *The Big Broadcast of 1936* (1935), as Mrs. Sealingsworth - *Two for Tonight* (1935), as Mrs. Smythe - *People Will Talk* (1935), as Clarice Wilton - *Ruggles of Red Gap* (1935), as Effie Floud — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/ruggles-of-red-gap.md) - *The Pursuit of Happiness* (1934), as Comfort Kirkland - *Down to Their Last Yacht* (1934), as Queen of Malakamokalu, 'Queenie' - *Here Comes the Groom* (1934), as Mrs. Widden - *Stingaree* (1934), as Mrs. Clarkson - *Melody in Spring* (1934), as Mary Blodgett - *Six of a Kind* (1934), as Flora Whinney - *Four Frightened People* (1934), as Mrs. Mardick - *The Solitaire Man* (1933), as Mrs. Zelma Hopkins - *Three Cornered Moon* (1933), as Mrs. Nellie Rimplegar - *Mama Loves Papa* (1933), as Jessie Todd - *If I Had a Million* (1932), as Mrs. Peabody - *Evenings for Sale* (1932), as Jenny Kent - *The Night of June 13* (1932), as Mazie Strawn - *Personal Maid* (1931), as Mrs. Otis Gary - *Secrets of a Secretary* (1931), as Mrs. Merritt - *His Temporary Wife* (1920), as Verna Devore - *The Perfect Lover* (1919), as Mrs. Whitney - *The Prodigal Wife* (1918), as Marion Farnham - *Mountain Dew* (1917), as Lily Bud Raines - *The Stepping Stone* (1916), as Mary Beresford ## Gallery - ![Mary Boland](https://film.one/media/person/1228544/gallery-8e7f0c6396b5.jpg) Mary Boland — Studio Publicity, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/MARYBoland_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Mary Boland, stage actress Subjects: actresses, plays (1920)](https://film.one/media/person/1228544/gallery-15694d5518fc.jpg) Mary Boland, stage actress Subjects: actresses, plays (1920) — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Mary_Boland%2C_stage_actress_%28SAYRE_14591%29.jpg/1280px-Mary_Boland%2C_stage_actress_%28SAYRE_14591%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Stage actress Mary Boland. Subjects: actresses (1911)](https://film.one/media/person/1228544/gallery-77c47fb95cb5.jpg) Stage actress Mary Boland. Subjects: actresses (1911) — Studio of George Moffett, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/Stage_actress_Mary_Boland_%28SAYRE_9477%29.jpg/1280px-Stage_actress_Mary_Boland_%28SAYRE_9477%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Stage actress Mary Boland. Subjects: actresses (1909)](https://film.one/media/person/1228544/gallery-f1c825ff77a6.jpg) Stage actress Mary Boland. Subjects: actresses (1909) — Studio of Napoleon Sarony, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Stage_actress_Mary_Boland_%28SAYRE_9621%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Mary Boland](https://film.one/media/person/1228544/gallery-171b898b72da.jpg) Mary Boland — Image via TMDB - ![Mary Boland, stage actress Subjects: actresses (1906)](https://film.one/media/person/1228544/gallery-355e44d59c9a.jpg) Mary Boland, stage actress Subjects: actresses (1906) — Schloss, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Mary_Boland%2C_stage_actress_%28SAYRE_14421%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. 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