--- name: "Minna Gombell" canonical: "https://film.one/person/minna-gombell" roles: ["Actor"] born: "27 May 1892" died: "14 April 1973" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 79 average_as: "actor" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-09-20T01:23:02.945190+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." --- # Minna Gombell Actor. Born 27 May 1892 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Died 14 April 1973. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 27 May 1892, Baltimore, Maryland, USA - **Died:** 14 April 1973 - **Active:** 1931–1946 - **Also known as:** Minna Gombel, Mina Gombell, Minna Marie Gombell, Minna Marie Gombel - **Average Fi1m score:** 79, as actor, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 74 (2), 1940s 90 (1) - **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 3 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 2, Romance 2, Comedy 1, Crime 1, Mystery 1, War 1 - **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $26m across 3 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minna_Gombell, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q529489, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0326809/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/32431 ## Streaming the US now - **Pluto TV:** [*The Best Years of Our Lives*](https://film.one/film/the-best-years-of-our-lives.md) (90) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Minna Gombell > A dry, tired voice and the look of a woman who has heard it all before. Minna Gombell spent two decades in Hollywood supporting parts as the friend, the wife or the nurse who knew better, and in *Bad Girl* she is the one to watch. Edna Driggs walks into a scene in *Bad Girl* (1931) and the scene gets better. Gombell plays her with a flat, worn-down delivery, every line coming out as if she has said it before to somebody who did not listen either. Sally Eilers, as the heroine, is asked to be hurt by other people for most of the film. Gombell is asked to be unimpressed by them, and unimpressed is far more fun to watch. We caught ourselves waiting for her to come back, which is not what a best-friend part is supposed to make you do. She came to films late and knowing her trade. She had been on stage since 1912, in stock companies and then on Broadway through the 1920s under the name Winifred Lee, and she arrived at Fox in 1931, briefly credited as Nancy Gardner, at an age when most contract players were being let go. Roughly fifty pictures followed through the 1940s, with a last screen appearance in 1951. The parts tell you the type: Mimi Wynant in *The Thin Man* (1934), Nellie Chase in *Make Way for Tomorrow* (1937), Mrs Hardy in *Block-Heads* (1938), a hard-faced nurse in *The Snake Pit* (1948). Street-wise, tough-talking, usually blonde, usually third or fourth on the card. What she did well is the thing that gets an actor employed and forgotten in the same breath. She was quick, she knew where the laugh was in an ensemble, and she could let a little warmth show under the wisecrack without slowing the scene down to do it. Frank Borzage, who directed *Bad Girl*, used her three times, and Ray Enright four, which suggests directors knew what they were getting. The limit is the one that goes with the job: the studios used her as seasoning and never handed her the plate. Her reputation, such as it is, amounts to a general agreement that she was underrated, and nobody seems to have written a bad word about her, which is what happens when you are good in parts that do not get reviewed. We have published on only one of her films, so we will not pretend to a verdict on the other forty-nine. But watch *Bad Girl* for the courtship, as we suggested, and then notice where your eyes go when Eilers starts to cry. They go to the friend at the edge of the frame, waiting for the crying to stop so she can say something useful. ## Biography Minna Gombell was an American stage and film actress. Born Minna Marie Gombel in Baltimore, Maryland, she began her career in stock theatre and on Broadway in the 1910s and 1920s, appearing under the name Winifred Lee and in productions including Madam President (1913) and Mr Pitt (1923). She made her film debut in Doctors' Wives (1931) and went on to appear in around fifty Hollywood films, often in supporting roles. Notable credits include Bad Girl (1931), The Thin Man (1934), Block-Heads (1938), High Sierra (1941) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Gombell died in Santa Monica, California, on 14 April 1973. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) - *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946), Fi1m 90, as Mrs. Parrish — [page](https://film.one/film/the-best-years-of-our-lives.md) - *The Thin Man* (1934), Fi1m 84, as Mimi Wynant — [page](https://film.one/film/the-thin-man.md) - *Bad Girl* (1931), Fi1m 64, as Edna Driggs — [page](https://film.one/film/bad-girl.md) ## Complete filmography (75) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *I'll See You in My Dreams* (1951), as Mrs. LeBoy - *Here Comes the Groom* (1951), as Mrs. Godfrey - *Pagan Love Song* (1950), as Kate Bennett - *The Last Bandit* (1949), as Winnie McPhail - *The Snake Pit* (1948), as Miss Hart - *Return of the Bad Men* (1948), as Emily - *Mr. Reckless* (1948), as Ma Hawkins - *Wyoming* (1947), as Queenie Lassiter - *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946), as Mrs. Parrish — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/film/the-best-years-of-our-lives.md) - *Perilous Holiday* (1946), as Mrs. Latham - *Man Alive* (1945), as Aunt Sophie - *Sunbonnet Sue* (1945), as Mrs. Fitzgerald - *Swingin' on a Rainbow* (1945), as Minnie Regan - *Penthouse Rhythm* (1945), as Taffy - *Night Club Girl* (1945), as Rita - *Destiny* (1944), as Marie - *The Town Went Wild* (1944), as Marian Harrison - *Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore* (1944), as Mrs. Collins - *Chip Off the Old Block* (1944), as Milly - *Salute for Three* (1943), Actor - *Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost* (1942), as Edith Fitzbadden - *Cadets on Parade* (1942), as Della - *Thieves Fall Out* (1941), as Ella Barnes - *High Sierra* (1941), as Mrs. Baughmam - *Doomed Caravan* (1941), as Jane Travers - *Boom Town* (1940), as Spanish Eva - *Stop, Look and Love* (1939), as Emma Haller - *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* (1939), as Queen of Beggars - *Second Fiddle* (1939), as Jenny - *Going Places* (1938), as Cora Withering - *Comet Over Broadway* (1938), as Tim Adams - *The Great Waltz* (1938), as Mrs. Hofbauer - *Block-Heads* (1938), as Mrs. Hardy - *Wife, Doctor and Nurse* (1937), as Constance - *Slave Ship* (1937), as Mabel - *Make Way for Tomorrow* (1937), as Nellie Chase - *Banjo on My Knee* (1936), as Ruby - *Champagne Charlie* (1936), as Lillian Wayne - *Miss Pacific Fleet* (1935), as Sadie Freytag - *Two Sinners* (1935), as Mrs. Pym - *Women Must Dress* (1935), as Linda Howard - *The White Cockatoo* (1935), as Grete Lovscheim - *Babbitt* (1934), as Zilla Reisling - *Cheating Cheaters* (1934), as Nell Brockton - *The Merry Widow* (1934), as Marcelle - *The Lemon Drop Kid* (1934), as Maizie - *The Hell Cat* (1934), as Pauline McCoy - *The Thin Man* (1934), as Mimi Wynant — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/the-thin-man.md) - *Marrying Widows* (1934), as The Press Agent - *Strictly Dynamite* (1934), as Miss LaSeur - *Registered Nurse* (1934), as Beulah Schloss - *No More Women* (1934), as Annie Fay - *Keep 'Em Rolling* (1934), as Julie - *Cross Country Cruise* (1934), as Nita Borden - *Hoopla* (1933), as Carrie - *The Way to Love* (1933), as Suzanne - *Wild Boys of the Road* (1933), as Aunt Carrie - *The Big Brain* (1933), as Margy - *What Price Innocence?* (1933), as Amy Harper - *Hello, Sister!* (1933), as Mona La Rue - *Pleasure Cruise* (1933), as Judy Mills - *Wild Girl* (1932), as Millie - *The First Year* (1932), as Mrs. Barstow - *Bachelor's Affairs* (1932), as Sheila Peck - *Careless Lady* (1932), as Yvette Logan - *After Tomorrow* (1932), as Else Taylor - *Dance Team* (1932), as Cora Stuart - *Stepping Sisters* (1932), as Rosie La Marr - *The Rainbow Trail* (1932), as Ruth - *Good Sport* (1931), as Virginia Casey - *Sob Sister* (1931), as Vonnie - *Skyline* (1931), as Undetermined Role (uncredited) - *Bad Girl* (1931), as Edna Driggs — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/bad-girl.md) - *Doctors' Wives* (1931), as Julia Wyndram - *The Great Power* (1929), as Joan Wray ## Gallery - ![Minna Gombell](https://film.one/media/person/1225394/gallery-6b77005a8dde.jpg) Minna Gombell — Image via TMDB - ![Minna Gombell](https://film.one/media/person/1225394/gallery-246d36bfb50d.jpg) Minna Gombell — 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/minna-gombell