Ellen Hansen Corby (June 3, 1911 – April 14, 1999) was an American actress and screenwriter. She performed in over 200 films and television series from the 1930s to the 1990s. She played the role of Esther "Grandma" Walton on the CBS television series The Waltons, for which she won three Emmy Awards. She was also nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Aunt Trina in I Remember Mama (1948). 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.
Career
Before The Waltons
Although she had bit parts in more than 30 films in the 1930s and 1940s, including Babes in Toyland (1934), The Dark Corner (1946) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946), which impaired her speech and severely limited her mobility and function. She returned to the series during the final episode of the 1977–78 season, with her character depicted as also recovering from a stroke.
She remained a regular on The Waltons through the end of the 1978–79 season, with Esther Walton struggling with her stroke deficits (as Corby was in real life). Although Corby was able to communicate after her stroke, her character's lines were usually limited to one word or one-phrased dialogue. For example, upon receiving news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she exhorted the family to "pray, pray, pray."
Her role dropped to recurring during The Waltons eighth season, and she did not appear in any of season nine (the final season of the series). She later resumed her role as Grandma Walton in five of the six Waltons reunion movies between 1982 and 1997, not appearing in the second movie "Mother's Day on Walton's Mountain".
In 1969 Corby was trained by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, to become a teacher of Transcendental Meditation. She had been practicing the technique for several years before.
She suffered a stroke in November 1976 from which she only partially recovered and returned to her role on The Waltons in March 1978.
- 1948 (1949): won in Motion Picture (as Aunt Trina in I Remember Mama)
- 1973: won in Series, Miniseries or Television Film (as Esther Walton in The Waltons)
- 1974: nominated for Series, Miniseries or Television Film (as Esther Walton in The Waltons)
- 1975: nominated for Series, Miniseries or Television Film (as Esther Walton in The Waltons)
- 1977: nominated for Series, Miniseries or Television Film (as Esther Walton in The Waltons)
Other Awards
- 1948 (1949): nominated for Academy Awards "Oscar" for Actress in a Supporting Role (as Aunt Trina in I Remember Mama)
- 1989 won Golden Boot Award of the Motion Picture and Television Fund