Lee Patrick (actress)
Lee Patrick was an American actress whose career began in 1922 on the New York stage with her role in The Bunch and Judy which headlined Adele Astaire and featured Adele's brother Fred Astaire. Patrick continued to perform in dozens of roles on the stage for the next decade, frequently in musicals and comedies, but also in dramatic parts like her 1931 performance as Meg in Little Women. She began to branch out into films in 1929. For half a century she created a credible body of cinematic work, her most memorable being as Sam Spade's assistant Effie in The Maltese Falcon, and her reprise of the role in the George Segal comedy sequel The Black Bird. Her talents were showcased in comedies such as the Jack Benny film George Washington Slept Here and as one of the foils of Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame. Dramatic parts such as an asylum inmate in The Snake Pit and as Pamela Tiffin's mother in the Summer and Smoke were another facet of her repertoire. She made numerous guest roles in American television, but became a staple for that medium during the two-year run of Topper. As Henrietta Topper, her comedic timing played well against Leo G. Carroll as her husband, and against that of the two ghosts played by Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys. Patrick lent her voice to various animated characters of The Alvin Show in the early 1960s.
Personal life
Not much is known about Patrick's early life. She was born on November 22, 1901, in New York City. By 1937, Patrick married newsman-writer Tom Wood of "The Lighter Side of Billy Wilder", and remained married 45 years, until Patrick's death. They had no children. During her career in Hollywood, she was not in good standing with gossip columnist Louella Parsons and it kept her career stuck in the "B" ranks. Lee's husband, magazine writer Tom Wood, wrote a frank piece on Parsons which did not go over well with the columnist.Patrick was a Republican and was supportive of Dwight Eisenhower's campaign during the 1952 presidential election. She was also an Episcopalian.
Acting career
Stage
Her debut on Broadway dates from November 1922 as part of the supporting ensemble cast for Adele and Fred Astaire in the Jerome Kern and Anne Caldwell musical The Bunch and Judy, which ran for eight weeks. It was not until September 1924 that Patrick was once again on the Broadway stage, in an 8-week run of The Green Beetle at the Klaw Theatre. The John Willard drama set in San Francisco's Chinatown featured her as the lead characters' daughter who escaped a murder attempt.Although playwright William H. McMaster's The Undercurrent closed the same month it opened in 1925 after 23 performances, that was only the first of 5 plays in which Patrick honed her talent that year. The Backslapper was a political drama that ran for 33 performances with Patrick in a supporting role as Mrs. Kennedy. A trend was developing as Patrick began to flex her comedic muscles for the remainder of 1925: Bachelors' Brides was a farce in which she played a guardian angel; It All Depends was another comedy, The farce A Kiss in a Taxi that ran for 103 performances and featured another up and coming talent, Claudette Colbert, rounded up Patrick's stage work of 1925.
The Shelf comedy in 1926 was brief at 32 performances, but otherwise notable for being the debut stage performance of Thelma Ritter who, like Patrick, would go on to become comedy support in films. Patrick only acted in three plays in 1927: the very brief 12-performance comedy Baby Mine which brought her together with Humphrey Bogart for the first time; the equally brief The Matrimonial Bed; and Nightstick, an 84-performance run through January 1928 that also featured Thomas Mitchell who would go on to win an Academy Award for his performance in Gone with the Wind. The 24-performance run of The Common Sin was the only other play she did in 1928.
The Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman June Moon gave Patrick her longest run of her stage career, 273 performances in 1929 and 1930, and an additional 48 performances in 1933. She rounded out 1930 with the 13-performance run of Room of Dreams. Privilege Car was her first play of 1931, but she soon was on stage with George M. Cohan in the musical Friendship and finished out that year with 17 performances as Meg in Little Women One of the briefest plays of her career was The Girl Outside in 1932, which only ran for 8 performances; however, that one came on the heels of the very successful Blessed Event that had run for 115 performances.
After the very brief run of Shooting Star in 1933, and the equally brief Slightly Delirious, her only play of 1934, Patrick began to look towards a film career. Knock on Wood and Abide With Me did not fare much better for her. She had a long run of 169 performances in Stage Door in 1936–1937, but only did one more Broadway play after that, the unsuccessful comedy Michael Drops In.
Feature films
Patrick had the starring role in her first film, Strange Cargo, an early American sound production for Pathé released on March 31, 1929. In this remake of producer Benjamin Glazer's Missing Man, British actor George Barraud played her leading man. It was another six years before she made another film: The Casino Murder Case for MGM. She had a bit part as a nurse in the film, which brought her together for the first time with Leo G. Carroll, with whom two decades later she worked on the television series Topper.She remained in Hollywood and appeared in Border Cafe. Over the next several years, she played numerous supporting roles, without attracting much critical attention. Patrick appeared in The Maltese Falcon as Effie Perine, the loyal and quick-thinking secretary of Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade. Perine was one of Patrick's more enduring film characterizations. The same year, she appeared in a leading role as an intelligent, crime-solving nurse in The Nurse's Secret.
Her other films include The Sisters, Footsteps in the Dark, Now, Voyager, Mrs. Parkington, Gambler's Choice, Mildred Pierce, Wake Up and Dream, Caged, There's No Business Like Show Business, Vertigo, Auntie Mame, Pillow Talk, Summer and Smoke, and 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.
In the mid-1960s, Lee retired to travel and paint in Orange County, California, but was coaxed back one more time to Hollywood. Her final film role was a reprise of the character Effie Perine in The Black Bird, a spoof of the Maltese Falcon, starring George Segal as Sam Spade, Jr., who in the storyline was forced to continue his father's work and to keep his increasingly sarcastic secretary; the film attempted to turn its revered predecessor into a comedy. The only actor joining her from the original cast was Elisha Cook Jr. The film premiered May 9, 1976.
Television
Patrick appeared on television in the CBS situation comedy Topper with Leo G. Carroll, Anne Jeffreys, and Robert Sterling.She made several appearances as the mother of Ida Lupino in the CBS sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve, also starring Howard Duff. In 1963, she appeared as Aunt Wilma Howard in the episode "Skeleton in the Closet" of Walter Brennan's CBS sitcom The Real McCoys.
In 1965, she appeared as Mrs. Ashton Durham in the episode "It's a Dog's World" of Hazel and as Cora Prichard in an episode entitled "Noblesse Oblige" during the show's final season. She also turned in a voice performance as "Mrs. Frumpington" in an episode of the CBS animated series The Alvin Show, which may also be heard on the soundtrack LP by David Seville and The Chipmunks. Patrick made three appearances on I Married Joan.
Death
Lee was plagued by health problems in later years, and died suddenly on November 21, 1982, from a heart seizure at Laguna Beach, California, a day before her 81st birthday. Her husband of 45 years, writer Thomas Wood, survived her.Acting credits
Stage
Film
;Key to studio abbreviations| Year | Title | Role | Director | Producer | Distributor | Other cast members | Notes | Refs. |
| 1929 | Strange Cargo | Diana Foster | Benjamin Glazer, Arthur Gregor | Benjamin Glazer | Path | George Barraud | ||
| 1935 | ' | Nurse | Edwin L. Marin | MGM | Paul Lukas | |||
| 1937 | Border Cafe | Ellie | Robert Sisk | RKO | Harry Carey, Marjorie Lord | |||
| 1937 | You Can't Beat Love | Minor Role | Robert Sisk | RKO | Preston Foster | |||
| 1937 | Music for Madame | Nora Burns | Jesse L. Lasky | RKO | Nino Martini | |||
| 1937 | Danger Patrol | Nancy Donovan | Maury M. Cohen | RKO | Harry Carey | |||
| 1938 | Crashing Hollywood | Goldie Tibbets | Cliff Reid | RKO | Lee Tracy | |||
| 1938 | Night Spot | Flo Bradley | Robert Sisk | RKO | Allan Lane | |||
| 1938 | Maid's Night Out | Kissing Milk Customer | Robert Sisk | RKO | Joan Fontaine, Allan Lane | Uncredited | ||
| 1938 | Condemned Women | Anna 'Big Annie' Barry | Robert Sisk | RKO | Louis Hayward | |||
| 1938 | Law of the Underworld | Dorothy Palmer | Robert Sisk | RKO | Chester Morris | |||
| 1938 | The Sisters | Flora Gibbon | Anatole Litvak | WB | Errol Flynn, Bette Davis | |||
| 1939 | Fisherman's Wharf | Stella | Sol Lesser | RKO | Bobby Breen, Leo Carrillo | |||
| 1939 | Invisible Stripes | Molly | Hal B. Wallis, Jack L. Warner | WB | George Raft, William Holden | |||
| 1940 | Saturday's Children | Florrie Sands | Hal B. Wallis | WB | John Garfield, Anne Shirley, Claude Rains | |||
| 1940 | Ladies Must Live | Mary Larrabee | William Jacobs, Bryan Foy | WB | George Reeves, Roscoe Karns | |||
| 1940 | Money and the Woman | Martha Church | William Jacobs, Bryan Foy | WB | Jeffrey Lynn, Brenda Marshall, John Litel | |||
| 1940 | City for Conquest | Gladys | William Cagney | WB | James Cagney | |||
| 1940 | South of Suez | Delia Snedeker | Bryan Foy | WB | George Brent, George Tobias | |||
| 1940 | Father is a Prince | Tess Haley | William Jacobs, Bryan Foy | WB | Grant Mitchell, Nana Bryant | |||
| 1941 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1941 | Honeymoon for Three | Mrs. Pettijohn | Hal B. Wallis | WB | Ann Sheridan | |||
| 1941 | Footsteps in the Dark | Blondie White | Hal B. Wallis | WB | Errol Flynn | |||
| 1941 | ' | Ruth Adams | Bryan Foy | WB | Regis Toomey | |||
| 1941 | Million Dollar Baby | Josie La Rue | Hal B. Wallis | WB | Ronald Reagan | |||
| 1941 | Kisses for Breakfast | Betty Trent | Harlan Thompson | WB | Jane Wyatt | |||
| 1941 | ' | Rose Fairchild | Kenneth Gamet | WB | Alexis Smith | |||
| 1941 | The Maltese Falcon | Effie Perine | Hal B. Wallis | WB | Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet | |||
| 1941 | Dangerously They Live | Nurse Johnson | Bryan Foy | WB | John Garfield | |||
| 1942 | In This Our Life | Betty Wilmoth | Hal B. Wallis | WB | Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland | |||
| 1942 | Somewhere I'll Find You | Eve "Evie" Manning | Pandro S. Berman | MGM | Clark Gable, Lana Turner | |||
| 1942 | Now, Voyager | 'Deb' McIntyre | Hal B. Wallis | WB | Bette Davis, Paul Henreid. Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper | |||
| 1942 | George Washington Slept Here | Rina Leslie | Jerry Wald | WB | Jack Benny, Ann Sheridan | |||
| 1942 | ' | Polly Franklin | Samuel Bischoff | CP | Loretta Young, Brian Aherne | |||
| 1943 | Jitterbugs | Dorcas | Sol M. Wurtzel | 20th | Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy | |||
| 1943 | Nobody's Darling | Miss Pennington | Harry Grey | RP | Louis Calhern | |||
| 1943 | Larceny with Music | Agatha Parkinson | Edward C. Lilley | Uni | Leo Carrillo, Kitty Carlisle, William Frawley | |||
| 1944 | Moon Over Las Vegas | Mrs. Blake | Jean Yarbrough | Uni | Anne Gwynne, David Bruce | |||
| 1944 | Gambler's Choice | Fay Lawrence | William H. Pine, William C. Thomas | Par | Chester Morris, Nancy Kelly | |||
| 1944 | Mrs. Parkington | Madeleine Parkington Swann | Leon Gordon | MGM | Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon | |||
| 1944 | Faces in the Fog | Cora Elliott | Armand Schaefer | RP | Jane Withers | |||
| 1945 | Keep Your Power Dry | Gladys Hopkins | George Haight | MGM | Lana Turner, Agnes Moorehead, Natalie Schafer | |||
| 1945 | See My Lawyer | Sally Evans | Edmund L. Hartmann | Uni | Ole Olsen | |||
| 1945 | Over 21 | Mrs. Foley | Sidney Buchman | CP | Irene Dunne | |||
| 1945 | Mildred Pierce | Maggie Binderhof | Jerry Wald | WB | Joan Crawford | |||
| 1946 | ' | Susan | Albert J. Cohen | CP | Edgar Buchanan | |||
| 1946 | Strange Journey | Mrs. Lathrop | Sol M. Wurtzel | 20th | Paul Kelly | |||
| 1946 | Wake Up and Dream | The Blonde | Walter Morosco | 20th | John Payne, June Haver | |||
| 1947 | Mother Wore Tights | Lil | Lamar Trotti | 20th | Betty Grable | |||
| 1948 | Singin' Spurs | Clarissa Bloomsbury | Colbert Clark | CP | Hoosier Hot Shots, Jay Silverheels | |||
| 1948 | Big Sister Blues | Karen Saunders | Harry Grey | Par | John Ridgely | Short | ||
| 1948 | Inner Sanctum | Ruth Bennett | Richard B. Morros, Samuel Rheiner, Walter Shenson | FC | Charles Russell | |||
| 1948 | ' | Asylum inmate | Robert Bassler, Anatole Litvak, Darryl F. Zanuck | 20th | Olivia de Havilland | |||
| 1949 | ' | Melissa Price | Harry Joe Brown | CP | Randolph Scott | |||
| 1950 | Caged | Elvira Powell | Jerry Wald | WB | Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Ellen Corby, Hope Emerson | |||
| 1950 | ' | Jan Dawson | William H. Pine, William C. Thomas | Par | Macdonald Carey | |||
| 1950 | ' | Claire Simpson | S. Sylvan Simon | CP | Lucille Ball | |||
| 1951 | Tomorrow Is Another Day | Janet Higgins | Henry Blanke | WB | Ruth Roman | |||
| 1953 | Take Me to Town | Rose | Leonard Goldstein, Ross Hunter | Uni | Ann Sheridan | |||
| 1954 | There's No Business Like Show Business | Marge | Sol C. Siegel | 20th | Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Marilyn Monroe | |||
| 1958 | Vertigo | Car Owner Mistaken for Madeleine | Alfred Hitchcock | Par | James Stewart, Kim Novak | |||
| 1958 | Auntie Mame | Doris Upson | Morton DaCosta | WB | Rosalind Russell | |||
| 1959 | Pillow Talk | Mrs. Walters | Ross Hunter, Martin Melcher | Uni | Rock Hudson, Doris Day | |||
| 1960 | Visit to a Small Planet | Rheba Spelding | Norman Taurog | Par | a Jerry Lewis comedy | |||
| 1961 | Goodbye Again | Mme Fleury | Anatole Litvak | UA | Ingrid Bergman, Anthony Perkins | Uncredited | ||
| 1961 | Summer and Smoke | Mrs. Ewell | Paul Nathan, Hal B. Wallis | Par | Laurence Harvey, Geraldine Page | |||
| 1962 | ' | Mary Hatten | Joseph H. Hazen, Hal B. Wallis | Par | Laurence Harvey, France Nuyen | |||
| 1963 | Wives and Lovers | Mrs. Swenson | Edward Anhalt | Par | Janet Leigh | |||
| 1964 | 7 Faces of Dr. Lao | Mrs. Howard T. Cassan | George Pal | MGM | Tony Randall | |||
| 1964 | ' | Housekeeper | Robert Cohn | CP | Michael Callan, Barbara Eden | |||
| 1975 | ' | Effie | George Segal, Ray Stark, Lou Lombardo, Michael Levee | CP | George Segal, Stéphane Audran |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Refs. |
| 1948 | Public Prosecutor | Mrs. Farrell | The Case of the Comic Strip Murder | |
| 1949 | Your Show Time | The Tenor | ||
| 1951 | Racket Squad | Virginia Langley | The Case of the Vain Woman | |
| 1952 | Mark Saber | Mrs. Gaunt | The Case of the Midnight Murder | |
| 1952 | Boss Lady | Aggie | Recurring role, all 12 episodes | |
| 1953 | ' | Ethel | TV film | |
| 1953 | I Married Joan | Miss Everett | Broken Toe | |
| 1953 | I Married Joan | Mrs. Murdock | Uncredited, Neighbors | |
| 1953 | ' | Grocery Store Customer | Hillary's Birthday | |
| 1953 | Mr. and Mrs. North | Maggie McGinness | The Man Who Came to Murder | |
| 1953 | General Electric Theater | Hired Mother | ||
| 1953–1955 | Topper | Henrietta Topper | Recurring role, run of the series | |
| 1955 | Kings Row | Mrs. Johnson | Mail Order Bride | |
| 1957 | Matinee Theatre | Aesop and Rhodope | ||
| 1957 | ' | Julia Wyatt | The Honolulu Treasure Case | |
| 1957 | Those Whiting Girls | Dolly | What Price Publicity? | |
| 1957 | ' | Emmie Wasey | The Marriage Broker | |
| 1957 | Mr. Adams and Eve | Connie Drake | That Magazine | |
| 1957 | Mr. Adams and Eve | Connie Drake | The Mothers | |
| 1957 | Mr. Adams and Eve | Connie Drake | This Is Your Life | |
| 1957 | Circus Boy | Minerva Murdock | Counterfeit Clown | |
| 1957 | ' | Mrs. Primrose | Hiram's Holiday | |
| 1958 | ' | Eva Clark | Jittery Juror | |
| 1959 | Hawaiian Eye | Pearl Blake | Second Day of Infamy | |
| 1959 | Wagon Train | Mrs. Elliot Swinbourne Steele | The Steele Family Story | |
| 1959 | Lawman | The Chef | Mary Young | |
| 1960 | Lawman | Bess Harper | The Old War Horse | |
| 1960 | ' | Lelah Dolan | Jack 'Legs' Diamond | |
| 1960 | ' | Mrs. Endicott | The Machine Calls It Murder | |
| 1960 | ' | Aunt Millie | Go Home Aunt Millie | |
| 1961 | Pete and Gladys | Phoebe | Lover Go Away | |
| 1961 | 77 Sunset Strip | Nona Rumson | Strange Bedfellows | |
| 1961 | Harrigan and Son | Alice Finley | Shall We Dance? | |
| 1961 | ' | Clarissa Webster | George's Housekeeper | |
| 1961–1962 | ' | Voice | ||
| 1962 | ' | Mrs. Leota Carreway | Guilty Conscience | |
| 1962 | Follow the Sun | Phyllis Curran | Run, Clown, Run | |
| 1962 | Follow the Sun | Lila | Chicago Style | |
| 1962 | Adventures in Paradise | Millicent | The Baby Sitters | |
| 1963 | ' | Aunt Wilma | Skeleton in the Closet | |
| 1964 | ' | Geraldine Addison | Scandal in Washington | |
| 1964 | Summer Playhouse | Miss Birch | August 29, 1964 episode | |
| 1965 | Maudie Baker | The Gladiators | ||
| 1965 | Hazel | Cora | Noblesse Oblige | |
| 1965 | Hazel | Mrs. Durham | It's a Dog's Life |