Josephine Hull(1877-1957)
- Actress
Josephine Sherwood changed her name after marrying stage actor
Shelly Hull in 1910. She studied drama at
Radcliffe College -- much to the dismay of her parents -- and first worked
on the stage in a stock company in Boston. Her husband died in 1919,
aged 35, of Spanish influenza. Josephine left the stage for three years
and never re-married but resumed her theatrical career with renewed
vigour from 1923. Short and dumpy of stature and with a distinctively brittle delivery,
Josephine possessed an undeniable stage presence as well as exquisite timing. On Broadway,
she alternated between comedy and drama. One of her best performances was as a member of
the balmy Vanderhof family in
You Can't Take It with You (1938) (the film version by
Frank Capra came out two years later).
She is most fondly remembered for two indelible theatrical
enactments which she would later reprise on screen. First, she was the
sweetly homicidal Abby Brewster in the farce
'Arsenic and Old Lace',
who, with her sister Martha (Jean Adair),
sets about poisoning lonely old men with elderberry wine. The play ran
on Broadway for three seasons (1941-44) and was a massive popular and
critical hit with 1444 performances. The resulting 1944 motion picture
was an equally resounding success and became one of Warner Brothers
three biggest money-making films of the year. Josephine's second major
role was that of Veta Louise Simmons, perpetually befuddled, beleaguered
sister of Elwood P. Dowd (whose best friend is an imaginary rabbit) in
Harvey (1950). This delightfully whimsical
play by Mary Chase was an even
greater smash hit, totalling 1775 performances between November 1944
and January 1949. Again, Josephine reprised her role on screen in 1950 and
deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress that
year. Critic Bosley Crowther commented
"Josephine Hull plays Elwood's sister with such hilarious confusion and
daft concern that she brings quite as much to the picture as does
Mr.Stewart - or his pal to be sure...and it would be an unhappy screen
version that did not contain her rotund frame, her scatter-brained
fussing and fluttering and her angelic gentleness of soul" (New York
Times, December 22 1950). Hardly surprising, then, that with so many
years spent on the stage, Josephine Hull's screen career was not particularly
prolific. She even got to first billing in the starring role of the
theatrical version of
'The Solid
Gold Cadillac' (1953-55), as Laura Partridge (later filmed with Judy Holliday
in the lead).
Josephine died in New York in March 1957 of a brain
hemorrhage, aged 80.
Shelly Hull in 1910. She studied drama at
Radcliffe College -- much to the dismay of her parents -- and first worked
on the stage in a stock company in Boston. Her husband died in 1919,
aged 35, of Spanish influenza. Josephine left the stage for three years
and never re-married but resumed her theatrical career with renewed
vigour from 1923. Short and dumpy of stature and with a distinctively brittle delivery,
Josephine possessed an undeniable stage presence as well as exquisite timing. On Broadway,
she alternated between comedy and drama. One of her best performances was as a member of
the balmy Vanderhof family in
You Can't Take It with You (1938) (the film version by
Frank Capra came out two years later).
She is most fondly remembered for two indelible theatrical
enactments which she would later reprise on screen. First, she was the
sweetly homicidal Abby Brewster in the farce
'Arsenic and Old Lace',
who, with her sister Martha (Jean Adair),
sets about poisoning lonely old men with elderberry wine. The play ran
on Broadway for three seasons (1941-44) and was a massive popular and
critical hit with 1444 performances. The resulting 1944 motion picture
was an equally resounding success and became one of Warner Brothers
three biggest money-making films of the year. Josephine's second major
role was that of Veta Louise Simmons, perpetually befuddled, beleaguered
sister of Elwood P. Dowd (whose best friend is an imaginary rabbit) in
Harvey (1950). This delightfully whimsical
play by Mary Chase was an even
greater smash hit, totalling 1775 performances between November 1944
and January 1949. Again, Josephine reprised her role on screen in 1950 and
deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress that
year. Critic Bosley Crowther commented
"Josephine Hull plays Elwood's sister with such hilarious confusion and
daft concern that she brings quite as much to the picture as does
Mr.Stewart - or his pal to be sure...and it would be an unhappy screen
version that did not contain her rotund frame, her scatter-brained
fussing and fluttering and her angelic gentleness of soul" (New York
Times, December 22 1950). Hardly surprising, then, that with so many
years spent on the stage, Josephine Hull's screen career was not particularly
prolific. She even got to first billing in the starring role of the
theatrical version of
'The Solid
Gold Cadillac' (1953-55), as Laura Partridge (later filmed with Judy Holliday
in the lead).
Josephine died in New York in March 1957 of a brain
hemorrhage, aged 80.