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Marjorie Main (24 February 1890 – 10 April
1975) was an United States|American Character
actor|character actress who was best known for her
role as Ma Kettle in a  series of ten Ma and Pa
Kettle movies.

Born in Acton, Indiana as Mary Tomlinson, she
attended Franklin College, in Franklin, Indiana.
She adopted a stage name to avoid embarrassing her
father, who was a minister. She worked in
vaudeville on the Chautauqua and Orpheum circuits,
and debuted on Broadway theatre|Broadway in 1916.
Her first film was A House Divided in 1931.

She began playing upper class dowagers, but was
ultimately typecast in abrasive, domineering,
salty roles: her distinct voice was like chalk
upon a blackboard.

She married Stanley LeFevre Krebs, who died in
1935. 

She repeated her stage role in Dead End in the
movie version of 1937, and was subsequently cast
repeatedly as the mother of gangsters.

She again transferred a strong stage performance,
as a dude ranch operator in The Women, to film in
1939.

She made six comedies with Wallace Beery in the
1940s.

She played Ma Kettle in The Egg and I in 1947
opposite Percy Kilbride as Pa Kettle. She was
nominated for an Academy Award for the role, and
repeated it in nine more films.

Her near-pathological fear of germs did not
interfere with her career.

She died in Los Angeles, California, of lung
cancer.

==Theatre==

*Salvation - 1928
*Scarlet Sister Mary - 1930
*Ebb Tide - 1931
*Music in the Air - 1932
*Jackson White - 1935
*Dead End - 1935
*The Women - 1936

==Films==
*A House Divided - 1931
*Hot Saturday - 1932
*Take a Chance - 1933
*Art Trouble - 1934
*Crime Without Passion - 1934
*Music in the Air - 1934
*Naughty Marietta - 1935
*Love in a Bungalow - 1937
*Stella Dallas - 1937
*Dead End - 1937
*The Man Who Cried Wolf - 1937
*The Wrong Road - 1937
*The Shadow - 1937
*City Girl - 1938
*Boy of the Streets - 1938
*Penitentiary - 1938
*King of the Newsboys - 1938
*Test Pilot - 1938
*Three Comrades - 1938
*Romance of the Limberlost - 1938
*Prison Farm - 1938
*Little Tough Guy - 1938
*Under the Big Top - 1938
*Too Hot to Handle - 1938
*There Goes My Heart - 1938
*Girls' School - 1938
*Lucky Night - 1939
*They Shall Have Music - 1939
*The Angels Wash Their Faces - 1939
*The Women - 1939
*Another Thin Man - 1939
*Two Thoroughbreds - 1939
*I Take This Woman - 1940
*Women Without Names - 1940
*Dark Command - 1940
*Turnabout - 1940
*Susan and God - 1940
*The Captain Is a Lady - 1940
*Wyoming - 1940
*The Wild Man of Borneo - 1941
*The Trial of Mary Dugan - 1941
*Barnacle Bill - 1941
*A Woman's Face - 1941
*The Shepherd of the Hills - 1941
*Honky Tonk - 1941
*The Bugle Sounds - 1941
*We Were Dancing - 1942
*The Affairs of Martha - 1942
*Jackass Mail - 1942
*Tish - 1942
*Tennessee Johnson - 1943
*Heaven Can Wait_(1943)|Heaven Can Wait - 1943
*Johnny Come Lately - 1943
*Rationing - 1944
*Meet Me in St. Louis - 1944
*Gentle Annie - 1944
*Murder, He Says - 1945
*The Harvey Girls - 1946
*Undercurrent - 1946
*Bad Bascomb - 1946
*The Show-Off - 1946
*The Egg and I - 1947 - Ma Kettle
*The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap - 1947
*Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin - 1948
*Ma and Pa Kettle - 1949 - Ma Kettle
*Big Jack - 1949
*Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town - 1950 - Ma Kettle
*Summer Stock - 1950
*Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone - 1951
*Mr. Imperium - 1951
*Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm - 1951 - Ma
Kettle
*The Law and the Lady - 1951
*It's a Big Country - 1951
*A Letter from a Soldier - 1951
*The Belle of New York - 1952
*Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair - 1952 -  Ma Kettle
*Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation - 1953 - Ma Kettle
*Fast Company - 1953
*The Long, Long Trailer - 1954
*Ma and Pa Kettle at Home - 1954 - Ma Kettle
*Rose Marie - 1954
*Ricochet Romance - 1954
*Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki - 1955 - Ma Kettle
*The Kettles in the Ozarks - 1956 - Ma Kettle
*Friendly Persuasion (movie)|Friendly Persuasion -
1956
*The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm - 1957-  Ma
Kettle