Edna May Oliver

Acting

Edna May Oliver

Born — Died

1883-11-08 — 1942-11-09

Place of birth

Malden, Massachusetts, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

50 titles

Edna May Oliver (November 9, 1883 – November 9, 1942) was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the best-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters. ​She was born Edna May Nutter in Malden, Massachusetts. The daughter of Ida May and Charles Edward Nutter, Edna was a descendant of the 6th American president John Quincy Adams. Miss Oliver took an early interest in the stage, and she would quit school at the age of 14 to pursue her ambitions in the theater. Despite abandoning traditional schooling, Edna continued to study the performing arts, including speech and piano. One of her first jobs was as pianist with an all femal…

Known for

Little Women poster
6.8

Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Little Women

1933

Pride and Prejudice poster
6.9

In early 19th century England, Mr and Mrs Bennet's five unmarried daughters vie for the affections of rich and eligible Mr Bingley and his status-conscious friend, Mr Darcy, who have moved into their neighbourhood. While Bingley takes an immediate liking to eldest daughter Jane, Darcy has difficulty adapting to local society and repeatedly clashes with second-eldest Elizabeth.

Pride and Prejudice

1940

A Tale of Two Cities poster
6.9

Set against the conditions leading up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, French doctor Alexandre Manette serves an 18-year imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, followed by his release to live in London with the daughter he has never met.

A Tale of Two Cities

1935

Alice in Wonderland poster
6.1

In Victorian England, a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland, populated by even more fantastic characters.

Alice in Wonderland

1933

Drums Along the Mohawk poster
6.5

Albany, New York, 1776. After marrying, Gil and Lana travel north to settle on a small farm in the Mohawk River Valley, but soon their growing prosperity and happiness are threatened by the sinister sound of drums that announce dark times of revolution and war.

Drums Along the Mohawk

1939

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle poster
7.0

In 1911, minor stage comic, Vernon Castle meets the stage-struck Irene Foote. A few misadventures later, they marry and then abandon comedy to attempt a dancing career together. While they're performing in Paris, an agent sees them rehearse and starts them on their brilliant career as the world's foremost ballroom dancers. However, at the height of their fame, World War I begins.

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle

1939

Film credits

1930s · 35 titles

Little Women poster
6.8

Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Little Women

1933

A Tale of Two Cities poster
6.9

Set against the conditions leading up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, French doctor Alexandre Manette serves an 18-year imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, followed by his release to live in London with the daughter he has never met.

A Tale of Two Cities

1935

Alice in Wonderland poster
6.1

In Victorian England, a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland, populated by even more fantastic characters.

Alice in Wonderland

1933

Drums Along the Mohawk poster
6.5

Albany, New York, 1776. After marrying, Gil and Lana travel north to settle on a small farm in the Mohawk River Valley, but soon their growing prosperity and happiness are threatened by the sinister sound of drums that announce dark times of revolution and war.

Drums Along the Mohawk

1939

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle poster
7.0

In 1911, minor stage comic, Vernon Castle meets the stage-struck Irene Foote. A few misadventures later, they marry and then abandon comedy to attempt a dancing career together. While they're performing in Paris, an agent sees them rehearse and starts them on their brilliant career as the world's foremost ballroom dancers. However, at the height of their fame, World War I begins.

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle

1939

Romeo and Juliet poster
6.3

Young love is poisoned by a generations long feud between two noble families.

Romeo and Juliet

1936

Murder on a Honeymoon poster
6.5

An amateur sleuth suspects foul play when a fellow passenger on a seaplane suddenly dies. The third and final film with Edna May Oliver and James Gleason as the astute schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers and the New York Police Inspector Oscar Piper busy solving crimes.

Murder on a Honeymoon

1935

David Copperfield poster
6.7

A young man journeys from a difficult childhood to maturity, exploring social injustice, personal development, and the complexities of human relationships.

David Copperfield

1935

Cimarron poster
5.5

When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat claims a plot of the free land for himself and moves his family there from Wichita. A newspaperman, lawyer, and just about everything else, Cravat soon becomes a leading citizen of the boom town of Osage. Once the town is established, however, he begins to feel confined once again, and heads for the Cherokee Strip, leaving his family behind. During this and other absences, his wife Sabra must learn to take care of herself and soon becomes prominent in her own right.

Cimarron

1931

Little Miss Broadway poster
6.5

An orphan is provisionally adopted by the manager of a hotel populated by show business people. The hotel's owner doesn't like the entertainers and wants the girl returned to the orphanage.

Little Miss Broadway

1938

Murder on the Blackboard poster
6.4

There are plenty of guilty secrets at the school where Hildegarde Withers teaches. When she finds the body of the pretty music teacher, she calls in her old friend Inspector Piper, who promptly arrests the obvious suspect. Clues multiply and everyone looks suspicious as Piper and Miss Withers continue their battle of the sexes.

Murder on the Blackboard

1934

Cracked Nuts poster
8.0

To impress his fiancee's aunt, a young man tries to become king in a small kingdom, but the people there have already crowned one, who has won this honor by gambling. So he plans a coup d'etat. He tries to achieve this with a bomb, but then something goes wrong...

Cracked Nuts

1931

The Penguin Pool Murder poster
5.9

New York schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers assists a detective when a body of unscrupulous stockbroker Gerald Parker suddenly appears in the penguin tank at the aquarium.

The Penguin Pool Murder

1932

Ann Vickers poster
5.8

After a love affair ending in an abortion, a young prison reformer submerges herself in her work. She then falls for a controversial and married judge and scandal looms again.

Ann Vickers

1933

Only Yesterday poster
7.1

On the back of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, a young businessman is about to commit suicide. With a note to his wife scribbled down and a gun in his hand, he notices an envelope addressed to him on his desk. As he begins to read, we're taken back to World War One and his meeting with a young woman named Mary Lane.

Only Yesterday

1933

Parnell poster
4.6

Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell struggles to free his country from English rule, but his relationship with married Katie O'Shea threatens to ruin all his dreams of freedom.

Parnell

1937

Second Fiddle poster
5.1

Studio publicist discovers Minnesota skating teacher and takes her to Hollywood. She goes back to Minnesota but he follows her.

Second Fiddle

1939

Hold 'Em Jail poster
6.8

Two yokels are framed and sent to prison, but wind up playing football on the warden's championship team.

Hold 'Em Jail

1932

We're Rich Again poster
6.2

A polo-playing grandmother and her broke brood get back in the money with a Wall Street bet.

We're Rich Again

1934

Half Shot at Sunrise poster
6.0

Two soldiers go absent without leave in Paris during World War I.

Half Shot at Sunrise

1930

Nurse Edith Cavell poster
6.6

British nurse Edith Cavell is stationed at a hospital in Brussels during World War I. When the son of a former patient escapes from a German prisoner-of-war camp, she helps him flee to Holland. Outraged at the number of soldiers detained in the camps, Edith, along with a group of sympathizers, devises a plan to help the prisoners escape. As the group works to free the soldiers, Edith must keep her activities secret from the Germans

Nurse Edith Cavell

1939

The Poor Rich poster
8.0

Albert Stuyvesant Spottiswood and his cousin Harriet Winthrop Spottiswood arrive separately at their long abandoned and very much run down family manor, each unaware that the other is going to be there, and since both have become penniless, they are forced to move into the dilapidated house. When Albert receives a letter from old acquaintances Lord and Lady Fetherstone advising the Spottiswoods of their impending visit to the manor, the cousins are at wit's end as to how to exercise non-existent skills required to make the old house acceptable for guest reception.

The Poor Rich

1934

Rosalie poster
6.0

West Point cadet Dick Thorpe falls in love with a girl, who turns out to be a princess from an European kingdom.

Rosalie

1937

Ladies of the Jury poster
6.8

Society matron Mrs. Livingston Baldwin Crane is selected as a juror in the trial of former chorus girl Yvette Gordon, who's accused of murdering her rich older husband. In court and during deliberations, Mrs. Crane proves to be a disruptive and unorthodox juror.

Ladies of the Jury

1932

It's Great to Be Alive poster
6.5

An aviator who crash landed on an island in the South Pacific returns home to find that he is the last fertile man left on Earth after an epidemic of masculitus.

It's Great to Be Alive

1933

Meet the Baron poster
5.3

A charlatan posing as Baron Munchhausen is invited to be guest speaker at a girls' school.

Meet the Baron

1933

The Last Gentleman poster
5.0

In New England circa 1933, a niece is reported missing and presumed dead and Cabot Barr (George Arliss) summons his relatives to the family estate for a memorial service. Once there, Barr taunts each one, claiming their only interest in him is his money, and sends them away when the report about the niece proves to be false. Only niece Marjorie, who has ridiculed one of his pet eccentricities, seems to be the object of any sentimental affection.

The Last Gentleman

1934

The Conquerors poster
5.6

A newlywed couple journeys west to make their fortune, and begins a banking empire.

The Conquerors

1932

No More Ladies poster
5.0

A society girl tries to reform her playboy husband by making him jealous.

No More Ladies

1935

My Dear Miss Aldrich poster
6.2

A young woman inherits a newspaper whose editor refuses to hire lady reporters.

My Dear Miss Aldrich

1937

Newly Rich poster
4.3

Two small town widows bring their children to Hollywood, where their children become competing film stars. The girl is sweet, the boy is a killjoy sissy. For publicity, the rival families go to London to meet a middle European boy King. The three kids decide they need to escape their stifling lives and run away to the docks and join a gang.

Newly Rich

1931

Paradise for Three poster
7.4

A businessman mingles with German laborers to learn more about their lives.

Paradise for Three

1938

Laugh and Get Rich poster
6.0

An inept inventor and his stoic wife believe an oil well investment has paid off and that they've become wealthy overnight.

Laugh and Get Rich

1931

Fanny Foley Herself poster
7.0

A vaudeville performer has trouble dividing her time equally between her career and her two daughters.

Fanny Foley Herself

1931

The Great Jasper poster
8.0

Generational saga about a failed streetcar conductor, who finds success as an Atlantic City fortune teller, and his son.

The Great Jasper

1933

1920s · 11 titles

Let's Get Married poster
8.0

College football star Billy Dexter is prone to getting into public fights. His father demands he reform and sends him to mend his ways with a devout old woman who deals in hymnals. She turns out to be devoutly drunk and a saloon brawler, leading to Billy's imprisonment. He tells his fiancée he's doing missionary work on a pacific island. He escapes and persuades her to marry him, all the while dodging the police who pursue him.

Let's Get Married

1926

The Lady Who Lied poster
9.0

During a carnival in Venice, Horace Pierpont, a wealthy American (Lewis Stone), falls in love with Fay Kennion (Virginia Valli). Their romance is derailed when she goes over to his apartment and finds the vampy Fifi (Nita Naldi) there. Fay goes down to Algiers, where she marries a former sweetheart, Dr. Alan Mortimer (Edward Earle).

The Lady Who Lied

1925

The Saturday Night Kid poster
4.8

Mayme and sister Janie are salesgirls in Ginsberg's Department Store. Mayme is in love with store clerk Bill, but Janie tries to steal him from her. Hazel, another salesgirl, is Jean Harlow's first credited role.

The Saturday Night Kid

1929

Three O'Clock in the Morning poster
7.0

Impulsive flapper Elizabeth Winthrop, rebels against her parents and moves to New York after breaking with her fiance, Clayton Webster. Hugo Von Strohm, a wealthy playboy, procures Elizabeth a job as a chorus dancer and secretly pays her salary. After he tries to seduce her, Elizabeth sees through his kindnesses and returns to her parents and Clayton.

Three O'Clock in the Morning

1923

Wife in Name Only poster
8.0

Wealthy orphan Philippa L'Estrange loves handsome Norman Arleigh and is confident of marrying him until he discloses that he has only brotherly affection for her. Determined to have revenge, Philippa introduces Arleigh to Madeline Dornham and reveals on their wedding day that Madeline, his bride, is the daughter of the man who killed his mother. In the end it is learned that Madeline is Mrs. Dornham's daughter from a previous marriage, not the daughter of a criminal.

Wife in Name Only

1923

The American Venus poster
8.0

A lost film - Mary Gray, whose father manufactures cold cream, is engaged to sappy Horace Niles, the son of Hugo Niles, the elder Gray's most competitive rival in the cosmetics business. Chip Armstrong, a hot-shot public relations man, quits the employ of Hugo Niles and goes to work for Gray, persuading Mary to enter the Miss America contest at Atlantic City, with the intention of using her to endorse her father's cold cream should she win. Mary breaks her engagement with Horace. When it appears that she will win the contest, Hugo lures her home on the pretext that her father is ill, and she misses the contest. Chip and Mary return to Atlantic City, discovering that the new Miss America has told the world that she owes all her success to Gray's cold cream. On this note, Chip and Mary decide to get married.

The American Venus

1926

The Lucky Devil poster
7.2

Richard Dix, a displayer in a department store, enters a raffle and wins the so-called 'hoodoo' bad-luck automobile formerly owned by the store owner's son, a soul seemingly always in trouble with cops and women. Well, suddenly Dix begins to have the same problem, only he also gets mixed up in the life of Esther Ralston and her Aunt Edna May Oliver. Hilarious misunderstandings and undertakings become the fodder for the day!

The Lucky Devil

1925

No artwork available
9.0

1924 picture directed by Gregory La Cava.

Restless Wives

1924

Icebound poster
9.0

Ben Jordan runs away after accidentally setting fire to a barn in his small New England community. He returns when his mother dies to find that she has left everything to her ward, Jane Crosby.

Icebound

1924

Manhattan poster
6.5

A wealthy New Yorker falls in love with a burglar's sister.

Manhattan

1924

Lovers in Quarantine poster
8.0

Lovers in Quarantine is an extant 1925 silent film comedy starring Bebe Daniels and directed by Frank Tuttle. It was produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. the film is based on a 1924 Broadway play Quarantine by F. Tennyson Jesse. It is preserved at the Library of Congress.

Lovers in Quarantine

1925