Nancy Kelly

Acting

Nancy Kelly

Born 1921-03-25 · Lowell, Massachusetts, USA

Nancy Kelly (March 25, 1921 – January 2, 1995) was an American actress. A child actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's The March of Time and appeared in several films in the late 1920s. She became a leading lady upon returning to the screen in the late 1930s, while still in her teens, and made two dozen movies between 1938 and 1946, including portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James (1939), and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingstone later that same year. After turning to the stage in the late 1940s, she had her greatest success in a character role, the distraught mother in The Bad Seed, receiving a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the 1955 stage production and an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for the 1956 film adaptation, her last film role. Kelly then worked regularly in television until 1963, then took over the role of Martha in the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for several months. She returned to television for a handful of appearances in the mid-1970s. Description above from the Wikipedia article Nancy Kelly, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Tarzan's Desert Mystery poster
6.1

A letter from Jane, who is nursing British troops, asks Tarzan's help in obtaining a malaria serum extractable from jungle plants. Tarzan and Boy set out across the desert looking for the plants. Along the way they befriend a stranded American lady magician.

Tarzan's Desert Mystery

1943

The Bad Seed poster
7.1

Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, adore their daughter Rhoda, despite her secret tendency for selfishness. Christine keeps her knowledge of her daughter's darker side to herself, but when a schoolmate of Rhoda's dies mysteriously, her self-deception unravels.

The Bad Seed

1956

Private Affairs poster
7.0

A girl decides to consult her natural father, whom she's never seen, for advice on her mixed-up love life.

Private Affairs

1940

Convention Girl poster
8.0

Wily hotel 'hostess' Babe LaVal navigates booming business, cabaret calls and shady deals in Atlantic City. She meets a soup magnate, and begins to feel it might be 'the real thing'.

Convention Girl

1935

Mismates poster
7.0

"Mismates" is the story of a wealthy youth who, against his mother's wishes, marries a poor girl and is disowned. At first determined to support himself and his wife, he soon craves the accustomed luxury and deserts his wife and child. On false information provided by the boy's mother and substantiated by himself the wife is sent to jail and the child kidnapped by the husband. This is where the drama kicks in.

Mismates

1926

Jesse James poster
6.5

After railroad agents forcibly evict the James family from their family farm, Jesse and Frank turn to banditry for revenge.

Jesse James

1939

Gambler's Choice poster
6.2

The professional gambler Ross Hadley is the owner of a posh gaming establishment in the heart of New York...

Gambler's Choice

1944

One Night in the Tropics poster
5.8

Jim "Lucky" Moore, an insurance salesman, comes up with a novel policy for his friend, Steve: a 'love insurance policy', that will pay out $1-million if Steve does not marry his fiancée, Cynthia. The upcoming marriage is jeopardized by Steve's ex-girlfriend, Mickey, and Cynthia's disapproving Aunt Kitty. The policy is underwritten by a nightclub owner, Roscoe, who sends two enforcers - Abbott and Costello - to ensure that the wedding occurs as planned.

One Night in the Tropics

1940

Murder in the Music Hall poster
5.3

An orchestra leader turns sleuth to clear his ice-skating girlfriend for murder.

Murder in the Music Hall

1946

Stanley and Livingstone poster
6.4

When American newspaperman and adventurer Henry M. Stanley comes back from the western Indian wars, his editor James Gordon Bennett sends him to Africa to find Dr. David Livingstone, the missing Scottish missionary. Stanley finds Livingstone ("Dr. Livingstone, I presume.") blissfully doling out medicine and religion to the happy natives. His story is at first disbelieved.

Stanley and Livingstone

1939

Circle of the Day poster
NR

On her tenth wedding anniversary (which is also her daughter's birthday), a wife begins to suspect her husband of unfaithfulness.

Circle of the Day

1957

Show Business poster
5.6

Musical about vaudeville performers, from 1944.

Show Business

1944

Frontier Marshal poster
6.3

Wyatt Earp agrees to become marshal and establish order in Tombstone in this very romanticized version of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Frontier Marshal

1939

Fly By Night poster
6.7

Young intern Jeff Burton, impulsively offers a lift to an odd-looking gentlemen. It soon turns out that Jeff's passenger is an inventor has just escaped from a shady sanitarium, where he has been held prisoner by Nazi spies.

Fly By Night

1942

Submarine Patrol poster
6.7

A naval officer is demoted for negligence and put in command of a run-down submarine chaser with a motley crew.

Submarine Patrol

1938

Women in Bondage poster
6.8

Women in Bondage is a 1943 World War II film about conditions for women under Hitler's regime. The plot involves two women imprisoned for speaking out against the government. It was directed by Steve Sekely and starred Gail Patrick and Nancy Kelly.

Women in Bondage

1943

Tail Spin poster
6.3

Trixie is a female pilot looking to win a big race to advance her career. During one race, however, her plane becomes damaged, and she needs help to repair it. She meets a Navy pilot named "Tex" Price and tries to gain his aid. Tex soon meets another pilot, Gerry, a novice who seeks to win an important upcoming race. Tex, concerned for Gerry's safety, tries to convince her not to race. But Gerry, now a rival of Trixie's, is determined to fly.

Tail Spin

1939

The Untamed Lady poster
9.0

A spoiled rich girl is brought down to earth by the man who loves her.

The Untamed Lady

1926

Parachute Battalion poster
6.3

Pre-Pearl Harbor propaganda film about young Americans, from various social backgrounds, who undergo parachute training at Fort Benning prior to becoming paratroopers.

Parachute Battalion

1941

Murder at the World Series poster
6.7

A disturbed young man threatens violence at the World Series after failing to make the Houston Astros.

Murder at the World Series

1977

To the Shores of Tripoli poster
5.5

Chronicle of a spoiled rich boy who joins the Marines with an off-handed attitude and finally becomes a battle-wise soldier.

To the Shores of Tripoli

1942

The Impostor poster
7.5

An ex-Army intelligence agent is hired to impersonate a rich builder who has been marked for assassination. While impersonating the builder, he discovers a conspiracy to embezzle a land-development company.

The Impostor

1975

He Married His Wife poster
5.6

Race horse owner pays so much attention to business he winds up divorced from his wife. His alimony payments are so steep he plots with his lawyer to get her married off.

He Married His Wife

1940

Song of the Sarong poster
7.0

An adventurer is promised $1 million if he can recover a fortune in pearls, but they are guarded by a tribe of fierce natives.

Song of the Sarong

1945