Kathleen Freeman

Kathleen Freeman (February 17, 1923August 23, 2001) was an American actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed acerbic maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors and relatives, almost invariably to comic effect. In film, she is perhaps best remembered for appearing in 12 Jerry Lewis comedies in the 1950s and 1960s and The Blues Brothers (1980).

Early life

Freeman was born on February 17, 1923 in Chicago, to Jessica Dixon, a soprano known as "The Overseas Girl" at the end of World War I, and Frank Freeman, known as "The Minstrel Man". Dixon entertained American troops in England, France, and post-war Germany, while Freeman headed Freeman's Forty Musical Minstrels in 1918. The couple married in 1922.

Freeman began her career at age 2, She reported that eventually she "got caught" at around age 10, and then began attending school.

Freeman attended the University of California at Los Angeles, majored in music to be a classical pianist, "got in a play and got a laugh". on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Television

In 1948, Peggy Webber saw Freeman on stage at the Circle Theatre, and hired her for Webber's live local series "Treasures of Literature", her first television job. From 1988 to 2001, Freeman appeared in more than 50 productions of the California Artists Radio Theatre, which records live performances of classic books and plays for KPCC (FM), KPFK NPR Playhouse, and National Public Radio, for Peggy Webber, the executive director.

In addition to teaching acting classes in the Los Angeles area, Freeman was a familiar presence on television. In 1958–59, she appeared three times on Buckskin, a children's program set in a hotel in a fictitious Montana town. She appeared from the 1950s until her death in regular or recurring roles on many sitcoms, including six episodes of The Bob Cummings Show (as Bertha Krause), Topper (as Katie the maid), and The Donna Reed Show (as Mrs. Celia Wilgus, the Stones' busybody next door neighbor). In 1964, she appeared in five episodes of The Lucy Show. Later, she was cast in a recurring role on Hogan's Heroes as Frau Gertrude Linkmeyer. In 1973, she had a co-starring role with Dom DeLuise in the sitcom Lotsa Luck (based on the British sitcom On the Buses).

She appeared in several episodes of Wagon Train, Funny Face (as Kate Harwell), I Dream of Jeannie (as a grouchy supervisor in a fantasy preview of Major Nelson's future, and later as a hillbilly), the short-lived prehistoric sitcom It's About Time (as Mrs. Boss), and as a nurse in Love, American Style.

Freeman played Sgt. Carter's mother in a 1969 episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., as well as appearing as a different character in a 1968 episode of the same series. She also made multiple appearances on The Beverly Hillbillies as various characters.

She appeared as the voice of Peg Bundy's mom, an unseen character in several episodes of Married... with Children. She also appeared in episodes of Mama's Family, Growing Pains, Simon & Simon, ALF, L.A. Law, The Golden Girls, Doogie Howser, M.D., Roseanne, Coach, ER, Home Improvement, and many other shows in the 1980s and 1990s.

Besides her role in The Full Monty, she remained active in her final years with a regular voice role in As Told by Ginger, a voice bit in the animated feature film Shrek, and a guest appearance on the sitcom Becker. In her final episode of As Told by Ginger, "No Hope for Courtney", Freeman's character Mrs. Gordon retires from her teaching job. The script originally was written to have Gordon return to Lucky Elementary School, but Freeman died during production, so the episode was rewritten to have Gordon die as well and was dedicated in Freeman's memory.

Film

thumb|right|260px|[[Cary Grant and Freeman (in uncredited role) as a laundromat gossip in Houseboat (1958)]]

For a short time in the early 1950s, Freeman was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player, appearing mostly in small and uncredited bit parts. Her most notable early role was an uncredited part in the 1952 MGM musical Singin' in the Rain as Jean Hagen's diction coach Phoebe Dinsmore.

Beginning with the 1954 film 3 Ring Circus, Freeman became a favorite foil of Jerry Lewis, playing opposite him in 11 films. These included most of Lewis's better-known comedies, including The Disorderly Orderly as Nurse Higgins, The Errand Boy as the studio boss's wife, and The Nutty Professor as Millie Lemon. Over 30 years later, she made a brief appearance in Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.

Her other film roles included appearances in The Missouri Traveler (1958), The Fly (1958), the Western spoofs Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971), and appearances in a spate of comedies in the 1980s and 1990s. Freeman played Sister Mary Stigmata (referred to as the Penguin) in John Landis' The Blues Brothers (1980) and Blues Brothers 2000 (1998). She also played a foul-mouthed apartment building manager in Dragnet (1987), a teacher in Hocus Pocus (1993), and a gangster mother in Naked Gun : The Final Insult (1994). She also had cameos in Joe Dante's Innerspace (1987) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) (as tipsy cooking host Microwave Marge). Her final film role was in Shrek (2001), where she played an old woman, Donkey's original owner, who tried selling him for money.

In the 1973 film The Sting, Freeman appeared in a family photo for Kid Twist’s character (played by Harold Gould) in the Western Union office scene.

Personal life and death

Weakened by illness, Freeman was forced to withdraw from the Full Monty cast. Five days later, she died of lung cancer at age 78 at Lenox Hill Hospital.

She never married and she had no children. The report of her death in the British newspaper The Guardian mentioned her "long-time companion Helen Ramsey"; and similarly Variety called her Freeman's "best friend". Helen Ramsey and Freeman were University of California at Los Angeles students at the same time.

Filmography

Film

{| class="wikitable"

!Year

!Title

!Role

!Notes

| rowspan="4" | 1948

| The Naked City

| Stout Girl on Elevated Train

| rowspan="5" | Uncredited

| Casbah

| American Woman

| The Saxon Charm

| rowspan=2|Nurse

| Behind Locked Doors

| rowspan="3" | 1949

| Mr. Belvedere Goes to College

| Gwendolyn

| Annie Was a Wonder

| Annie Swenson

| Short film

| The Story of Molly X

| Seamstress Con

| rowspan="3" | Uncredited

| rowspan="8" | 1950

| No Man of Her Own

| Clara Larrimore

| The Secret Fury

| Jury Member

| House by the River

| Effie Ferguson, Party Guest

| The Reformer and the Redhead

| Lily Rayton Parker

| Once a Thief

| Phoebe

| Lonely Heart Bandits

| Bertha Martin

| A Life of Her Own

| Switchboard Operator, Betsy Ross Hotel

| rowspan="13" | Uncredited

| The Second Face

| Shirley

| rowspan="10" | 1951

| The Company She Keeps

| Jessie, Parolee with Child

| Cry Danger

| Second Cigarette Clerk

| Cause for Alarm!

| Woman

| A Place in the Sun

| Factory Worker, Prosecution Witness

| Appointment with Danger

| Nun

| Strictly Dishonorable

| Silent Movie Organist

| Behave Yourself!

| Pet Shop Proprietor's Wife

| Come Fill the Cup

| Lil, Newspaper Switchboard Operator

| Let's Make It Legal

| Reporter

| The Wild Blue Yonder

| Nurse Baxter

| rowspan="11" | 1952

| The Greatest Show on Earth

| Spectator

| Love Is Better Than Ever

| Mrs. Kahrney

| Singin' in the Rain

| Phoebe Dinsmore

| rowspan="2" | Uncredited

| Talk About a Stranger

| Rosa, Grocery Clerk

| Kid Monk Baroni

| Maria Baroni

| Skirts Ahoy!

| Sarcastic Seamstress

| rowspan="2" | Uncredited

| Wait 'til the Sun Shines, Nellie

| The Burdges' Maid

| O. Henry's Full House

| Mrs. Dorset

| Uncredited<Br>Segment: "The Ransom of Red Chief"

| Monkey Business

| Mrs. Brannigan, Neighbor

| rowspan="3" | Uncredited

| The Prisoner of Zenda

| Gertrud Holf

| The Bad and the Beautiful

| Miss March

| rowspan="9" | 1953

| The Magnetic Monster

| Nelly

| She's Back on Broadway

| Annie

| rowspan="2" | Uncredited

| Confidentially Connie

| Mother of Twins

| The Glass Wall

| Zelda, Fat Woman

| A Perilous Journey

| Leah

| Dream Wife

| Chambermaid

| Uncredited

| The Affairs of Dobie Gillis

| 'Happy Stella' Kowalski

| Half a Hero

| Welcomer

| The Glass Web

| Mrs. O'Halloran

| rowspan="2" | Uncredited

| rowspan="4" | 1954

| Battle of Rogue River

| Sis Pringle

| The Far Country

| Grits

| Athena

| Miss Seely

| 3 Ring Circus

| Custard-Pie Gag Victim

| rowspan="3" | Uncredited

| rowspan="2" | 1955

| The Seven Year Itch

| Woman at Vegetarian Restaurant

| Artists and Models

| Mrs. Muldoon

| rowspan="3" | 1957

| The Midnight Story

| Rosa Cuneo

| Pawnee

| Mrs. Carter

| Kiss Them for Me

| Nurse Wilinski

| Uncredited

| rowspan="5" | 1958

| The Missouri Traveller

| Serena Poole

| Too Much, Too Soon

| Miss Magruder

| Uncredited

| The Fly

| Emma

| Houseboat

| Laundromat Gossip

| Uncredited

| The Buccaneer

| Tina

| 1960

| North to Alaska

| Lena Nordquist

| rowspan="3" | 1961

| Madison Avenue

| Miss Thelma Haley

| The Ladies Man

| Katie

| The Errand Boy

| Mrs. Helen Paramutual / Mrs. T.P.

| 1962

| Wild Harvest

| Goldie

| rowspan="2" | 1963

| The Nutty Professor

| Millie Lemmon

| Who's Minding the Store?

| Mrs. Glucksman

| rowspan="3" | 1964

| Mail Order Bride

| Sister Sue

| The Patsy

| Katie

| Uncredited

| The Disorderly Orderly

| Nurse Maggie Higgins

| rowspan="3" | 1965

| The Rounders

| Agatha Moore

| That Funny Feeling

| Woman at Phone Booth

| Marriage on the Rocks

| Miss Blight

| 1966

| Three on a Couch

| Murphy

| rowspan="2" | 1967

| The Big Mouth

| Little Old Lady

| Uncredited

| Point Blank

| First Citizen

| 1968

| The Helicopter Spies

| Mom

| rowspan="5" | 1969

| Support Your Local Sheriff!

| Mrs. Danvers

| Hook, Line & Sinker

| Mrs. Hardtack, Baby Sitter

| Death of a Gunfighter

| Mary Elizabeth

| The Good Guys and the Bad Guys

| Mrs. Stone, Mother

| Love American Style

| Nurse

| rowspan="3" | 1970

| The Ballad of Cable Hogue

| Mrs. Jensen

| Myra Breckinridge

| Bobby Dean Loner

| Which Way to the Front?

| Bland's Mother

| rowspan="2" | 1971

| Support Your Local Gunfighter!

| Mrs. Perkins

| Head On

| Nadine

| rowspan="3" | 1972

| Stand Up and Be Counted

| Sarah

| Where Does It Hurt?

| Mrs. Mazzini

| The Unholy Rollers

| Karen's Mother

| 1973

| Your Three Minutes Are Up

| Mrs. Wilk

| 1974

| So Evil, My Sister

| Hilda

| 1975

| The Strongest Man in the World

| Officer Hurley

| 1978

| The Norseman

| Old Indian Woman

| 1980

| The Blues Brothers

| Sister Mary Stigmata, a.k.a. The Penguin

| 1981

| Heartbeeps

| Helicopter Pilot

| rowspan="3" | 1986

| The Best of Times

| Rosie

| Inside Out

| Mother

| Voice

| The Malibu Bikini Shop

| Loraine Bender

| rowspan="4" | 1987

| In the Mood

| Beulah Marver

| Dragnet

| Enid Borden

| Innerspace

| Dream Lady

| Teen Wolf Too

| Admissions Lady

| 1988

| The Wrong Guys

| Grunskis' Mom

| rowspan="4" | 1989

| Chances Are

| Mrs. Handy

| Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

| Dance Teacher

| Voice

| The Princess and the Dwarf

| rowspan=2|Unknown

| Hollywood Chaos

| rowspan="2" | 1990

| Gremlins 2: The New Batch

| Microwave Marge

| The Willies

| Miss Titmarsh

| rowspan="2" | 1991

| Joey Takes a Cab

| Lola

| Dutch

| Gritzi

| 1992

| FernGully: The Last Rainforest

| Elder #1

| Voice