Phyllis Kennedy (Phyllis Kennedy)

Phyllis Kennedy

Actress. After graduating from high school in 1932, she obtained a job as a model in a local department store. On the recommendation of one of her friends, she decided to pursue an acting career and moved to New York City, New York where she got a small stage role in a 1935 production of “Jane Eyre.” She then decided to try motion picture roles and in 1937 she made her screen debut in an unaccredited part in the film “On Again-Off Again.” She followed this with a role was as the dimwitted maid ‘Hattie’ in “Stage Door” (1937) starring Katharine Hepburn, Adolphe Menjou, Ginger Rogers, Eve Arden, and Lucille Ball, followed by “Vivacious Lady” (1938), “Mother Carey’s Chickens” (1938), “Love Affair” (1939), “East Side of Heaven” (1939), and “Anne of Windy Poplars” (1940), in which she typically played dimwitted servants. Well into the 1940s she made over twenty film appearances although most of her film roles were unaccredited. In later years she made appearances on television shows like the “Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” (1957 to 1960) “The Missourians” (1950), and “The Lone Ranger” (1949 to 1957). After a long dry spell, her film career came to a close with a couple of small unaccredited parts in “My Fair Lady” (1964) and finally “Finian’s Rainbow” (1968). She retired from acting in 1968 and concentrated on her hobbies, painting and collecting commemorative spoons. She remained close friends with many reputable actors and entertainers, including Lucille Ball, Doris Day, Katharine Hepburn, William Powell, James Stewart, Sylvia Sidney, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, James Cagney, Rosalind Russell, and Loretta Young. She died at her home from natural causes. (bio by: William Bjornstad)

Born

  • June, 16, 1914
  • USA

Died

  • December, 12, 1998
  • USA

Cemetery

  • Westwood Memorial Park
  • California
  • USA

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