Edna May Oliver (née Nutter, November 9, 1883 – November 9, 1942) was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the better-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters.

Personal life Edna May Oliver was born in Malden, Massachusetts, the daughter of Ida May and Charles Edward Nutter. Oliver quit school at age 14 upon the death of her father, and went to work to support her family by working as a milliner and a dressmaker. From an early age she also performed as a singer. She aspired to be an opera singer, but when that didn't work out she switched to an acting career. Reportedly, one of the places in Boston where she sang was the "Oliver Street Humanitarian" church, which purportedly was the source for her stage name which she adopted when she began pursuing a stage career. As a character actor she was self-deprecating about her looks, giving herself such nicknames as "Prune Puss" and "Pickle Pan".

Career She achieved her first success in 1917 on Broadway in Jerome Kern's musical comedy Oh, Boy!, playing the hero's comically dour Aunt Penelope. In 1923 she appeared as Hannah in the Broadway version of Owen Davis's Icebound. She would later reprise the Hannah role in William C. De Mille's silent film of Icebound the following year. In 1925, Oliver appeared on Broadway in The Cradle Snatchers, costarring Mary Boland, Gene Raymond, and Humphrey Bogart. Oliver's most notable stage appearance was as Parthy, wife of Cap'n Andy Hawks, in the original 1927 stage production of the musical Show Boat. She reprised her role in the 1932 Broadway revival, but turned down the chance to play Parthy in the 1936 film version to play the Nurse in that year's film version of Romeo and Juliet. In 1942, after an absence of several years from the Broadway stage, Oliver was considering returning to do a new play written by Walter Drey titled My Aunt Alice, but ill-health later that year forced her to drop the idea.

Her film debut was in 1923 in Wife in Name Only. She continued to appear in films until Lydia in 1941. She first gained major notice in films for her appearances in several comedies starring the team of Wheeler & Woolsey, including Half Shot at Sunrise, her first film under her RKO Radio Pictures contract in 1930. Usually in featured parts, she starred in ten films, including Fanny Foley Herself (1931) and Ladies of the Jury (1932). She played wealthy, domineering Aunt March in the 1933 version of Little Women.

Oliver's most popular star vehicles were mystery-comedies, starring as spinster sleuth Hildegarde Withers from the popular Stuart Palmer novels. The series ended prematurely when she left RKO to sign with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1935; the studio attempted to continue the series with Helen Broderick and then ZaSu Pitts as Withers.

While at MGM, David O. Selznick cast Oliver in two film versions of novels by Charles Dickens, as the prim, acidic Miss Pross, in A Tale of Two Cities (1935), starring Ronald Colman, and as the title character's eccentric aunt, Betsy Trotwood, in David Copperfield (also 1935).

She appeared in the Shirley Temple film Little Miss Broadway (1938) as the landlord of a hotel for vaudevillians who wants to shut it down. She also performed in two 1939 movie musicals: with Tyrone Power in the Sonja Henie skating film Second Fiddle, and in a supporting role as the agent of the title characters in the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle. A 1940 comic performance as Laurence Olivier's Mr. Darcy's domineering aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice and a 1941 role as Merle Oberon's grandmother in Lydia concluded her film career.

She was also cast in noncomedic films such as Cimarron (1931), Ann Vickers (1933), and Romeo and Juliet (1936).

Death Oliver died at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital (today Cedars-Sinai Medical Center) on her 59th birthday in 1942 shortly after being diagnosed with abdominal cancer, and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Awards and honors Oliver received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Drums Along the Mohawk (1939).

Stage (This list is limited to New York/Broadway theatrical productions.)

+ Broadway credits of Edna May OliverDateTitleRoleDecember 5, 1916 - January 1917The MasterFebruary 20, 1917 – March 30, 1918Oh BoyMiss Penelope BuddNovember 25, 1919 – January 7, 1920The Rose of ChinaMrs. HobsonFebruary 2, 1920 – May 1, 1920My Golden GirlMrs. Judson MitchellNovember 1, 1920 – December 11, 1920The Half MoonMrs. Francis Adams JarvisSeptember 26, 1921 – unknownWait 'Til We're MarriedAunt MeridianNovember 28, 1921 – December 1921Her Salary ManMrs. Sophie PerkinsSeptember 6, 1922 – September 1922Wild Oats LaneJuneFebruary 10, 1923 – June 1923IceboundHannahOctober 13, 1924 – November 15, 1924In His ArmsMrs. John ClarendonJanuary 13, 1925 – February 1925IsabelMrs. John ClarendonSeptember 7, 1925 – October 1926Cradle SnatchersEthel DrakeDecember 27, 1927 – May 4, 1929Show Boat Parthy Ann HawksMay 19, 1932 – October 22, 1932Show Boat Parthy Ann Hawks

Filmography + Silent filmsYearTitleRoleStudio/distributor 1923 Wife in Name Only Mrs. DornhamPyramid Pictures1923Three O'Clock in the MorningHettyC. C. Burr Pictures1924Restless WivesBenson's SecretaryC. C. Burr Pictures1924IceboundHannahFamous Players–Lasky1924 ManhattanMrs. TrapesFamous Players–Lasky1925The Lucky DevilMrs. McDeeFamous Players–Lasky1925Lovers in QuarantineAmelia PincentFamous Players–Lasky1925The Lady Who LiedFirst National Pictures1926The American VenusMrs. NilesFamous Players–Lasky1926Let's Get MarriedJ. W. SmithFamous Players–Lasky

+ TalkiesYearTitleRoleStudio/Distributor 1929 The Saturday Night KidMiss StreeterParamount Productions1930Half Shot at SunriseMrs. MarshallRKO Pictures1931CimarronMrs. Tracy WyattRKO Pictures1931 Forbidden AdventureBessie TateParamount Productions1931Fanny Foley HerselfFanny FoleyRKO Pictures1931 Laugh and Get RichSarah AustinRKO Pictures1931Cracked NutsAunt Minnie Van VardenRKO Pictures1932The Penguin Pool MurderMiss Hildegarde Martha WithersRKO Pictures1932Ladies of the JuryMrs. Livingston Baldwin CraneRKO Pictures1932The ConquerorsMatilda BlakeRKO Pictures1932Hold 'Em JailVioletRKO Pictures1933Ann VickersMalvina WormserRKO Pictures1933Meet the BaronDean PrimroseMGM1933 The Great JasperMadame TalmaRKO Pictures1933It's Great to Be AliveDr. ProdwellFox Film Corp.1933 Only YesterdayLeonaUniversal Pictures1933Little WomenAunt MarchRKO Pictures1933Alice in WonderlandThe Red QueenParamount Productions1934The Last GentlemanAugusta Pritchard20th Century Fox1934The Poor RichHarriet SpottiswoodUniversal Pictures1934Murder on the BlackboardHildegarde WithersRKO Pictures1934We're Rich AgainMaudeRKO Pictures1935David CopperfieldAunt Betsey TrotwoodMGM1935No More LadiesMrs. Fanny "Grandma" TownsendMGM1935Murder on a HoneymoonHildegarde WithersRKO Pictures1935A Tale of Two CitiesMiss ProssMGM1937My Dear Miss AldrichMrs. Lou AthertonMGM1937ParnellAunt Ben WoodMGM1937RosalieQueen of RomanzaMGM1937Romeo and JulietThe NurseMGMNote: Premiered August 20, 1936, but not released until April 16, 19371938Little Miss BroadwaySarah Wendling20th Century Fox1938Paradise for ThreeMrs. Julia KunkelMGM1939 Nurse Edith CavellCountess de MavonImperadio Pictures Ltd1939Drums Along the MohawkMrs. McKlennar20th Century Fox1939The Story of Vernon and Irene CastleMaggie SuttonRKO Pictures1939 Second FiddleAunt Phoebe20th Century Fox1940Pride and PrejudiceLady Catherine de BourghMGM1941LydiaSarah MacMillanAlexander Korda Films1976America at the MoviesFootageAmerican Film Institute

Radio Oliver was a regular cast member from 1941 to 1942 on the Bob Burns series The Arkansas Traveler. She often played the character of an off-beat nurse, the type of role she had already performed earlier during her movie career.

On July 5, 1942 Oliver started a new summer radio series titled The Remarkable Miss Tuttle. She played the lead role of Josephine Tuttle, and the program had a planned 13-week run. However, Oliver quickly became ill and her role was taken over by her friend Mary Boland. When it became apparent that Oliver could not return, the title of the program was changed to The Remarkable Miss Crandall, with Boland playing the new lead character. This new format only lasted two weeks, and for the remaining four weeks the program was replaced by a new series, Mayor of the Town, starring Lionel Barrymore.

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