Ellen Corby

Ellen Hansen Corby (June 3, 1911 – April 14, 1999) was an American actress. She is most widely remembered for the role of "Grandma Esther Walton" on the CBS television series The Waltons, for which she won three Emmy Awards. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Aunt Trina in I Remember Mama.

Early life

Ellen Hansen was born in Racine, Wisconsin, to immigrant parents from Denmark. She grew up in Philadelphia. An interest in amateur theater while in high school led her to Atlantic City in 1932, where she briefly worked as a chorus girl. She moved to Hollywood that same year and got a job as a script girl at RKO Studios and Hal Roach Studios, where she often worked on Our Gang comedies, alongside her future husband, cinematographer Francis Corby. She held that position for the next twelve years and took acting lessons on the side.

Career

Corby began her career as a writer working on the Paramount Western Twilight on the Trail. Although she had bit parts in more than thirty films in the 1930s and 1940s, including Babes in Toyland and It's a Wonderful Life, her first credited acting role was in 1945, playing a maid in RKO's Cornered. The next year she had an uncredited brief speaking role as a kitchen cook in The Locket.