Bess Flowers
Bess Flowers (November 23, 1898 – July 28, 1984) was an American actress best known for her work as an extra in hundreds of films.[1] She was known as "The Queen of the Hollywood Extras,"[2] appearing in more than 350 feature films and numerous comedy shorts in her 41-year career.[3]
Bess Flowers | |
---|---|
Born | Sherman, Texas, U.S. | November 23, 1898
Died | July 28, 1984 85) Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged
Years active | 1923–1964 |
Spouse(s) | William S. Holman
(m. 1929; div. 1930) |
Children | 1 |
Career
Born in Sherman, Texas, Flowers' film debut came in 1923, when she appeared in Hollywood.[4] She made three films that year, and then began working extensively. Many of her appearances are uncredited, as she generally played non-speaking roles.
By the 1930s, Flowers was in constant demand. Her appearances ranged from Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford thrillers to comedic roles alongside of Charley Chase, the Three Stooges, Leon Errol, Edgar Kennedy, and Laurel and Hardy.
She appeared in the following five films which won the Academy Award for Best Picture: It Happened One Night, You Can't Take it with You, All About Eve, The Greatest Show on Earth, and Around the World in Eighty Days.[2] In each of these movies, Flowers was uncredited. Including these five movies, she had appeared in twenty-three Best Picture nominees in total, making her the record holder for most appearances in films nominated for the award.[2] Her last movie was Good Neighbor Sam in 1964.[3]
Flowers's acting career was not confined to feature films. She was also seen in many episodic American TV series, such as I Love Lucy, notably in episodes, "Lucy Is Enceinte" (1952), "Ethel's Birthday" (1955), and "Lucy's Night in Town" (1957), where she is usually seen as a theatre patron.
Outside her acting career, in 1945, Flowers helped to found the Screen Extras Guild[1] (active: 1946-1992, then merged with the Screen Actors Guild), where she served as one of its first vice-presidents and recording secretaries.[2]
Personal life
Flowers was first married on September 2, 1923, in Ventura County, California, to Cullen Tate[5] (1894–1947), an assistant director for Cecil B. DeMille. They had a daughter,[6] and they were divorced in 1928 in Los Angeles. Her second marriage took place on August 5, 1929, in Los Angeles, to William S. Holman (1895–1962). They were divorced in 1930 in Los Angeles. She and Tate had one child, Patricia E. Tate (January 29, 1924 – August 1, 1972).
Death
Flowers died on July 28, 1984, at age 85 in the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital[3]:129 in Woodland Hills, California. She was cremated and her ashes interred at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory (Los Angeles).
Selected filmography
- 1920s
- Hollywood (1923)
- The Silent Partner (1923)
- Irene (1926)
- Lone Hand Saunders (1926)
- Hands Across the Border (1926)
- Glenister of the Mounted (1926)
- Old Ironsides (1926) (uncredited)
- Blondes by Choice (1927)
- Show People (1928) (uncredited)
- We Faw Down (1928, Short)
- The Saturday Night Kid (1929) (uncredited)
- Their Own Desire (1929) (uncredited)
- 1930s
- Ten Cents a Dance (1931)
- Strangers May Kiss (1931) (uncredited)
- A Free Soul (1931) (uncredited)
- Monkey Business (1931) (uncredited)
- Possessed (1931)
- Sinister Hands (1932)
- Sin's Pay Day (1932)
- It Happened One Night (1934) - Agnes, Gordon's Secretary (uncredited)
- One Exciting Adventure (1934)
- The Whole Town's Talking (1935) (uncredited)
- A Night at the Opera (1935) (uncredited)
- Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) (uncredited)
- Forgotten Faces (1936)
- Two-Fisted Gentleman (1936)
- My Man Godfrey (1936) (uncredited)
- Dodsworth (1936) (uncredited)
- Theodora Goes Wild (1936) (uncredited)
- Topper (1937) (uncredited)
- The Awful Truth (1937) (uncredited)
- Nothing Sacred (1937) (uncredited)
- Paid to Dance (1937)
- The Shadow (1937)
- Ever Since Eve (1937) (uncredited)
- Termites of 1938 (1938, Short) (uncredited)
- Holiday (1938) (uncredited)
- You Can't Take It With You (1938) (uncredited)
- Mutts to You (1938, Short)
- The Lady Objects (1938)
- Midnight (1939) (uncredited)
- Rose of Washington Square (1939) (uncredited)
- The Roaring Twenties (1939) as a nightclub patron (uncredited)
- Ninotchka (1939) (uncredited)
- 1940s
- A Plumbing We Will Go (1940, Short) (uncredited)
- The Boys from Syracuse (1940)
- Boom Town (1940) (uncredited)
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) (uncredited)
- The Lady Eve (1941) (uncredited)
- Meet John Doe (1941) (uncredited)
- Ziegfeld Girl (1941) (uncredited)
- The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) (uncredited)
- I Married an Angel (1942) (unconfirmed)
- The Palm Beach Story (1942) (uncredited)
- The Glass Key (1942) (uncredited)
- Now, Voyager (1942) (uncredited)
- I Married a Witch (1942) (uncredited)
- Springtime in the Rockies (1942) (uncredited)
- Tahiti Honey (1943) (uncredited)
- Heaven Can Wait (1943) (uncredited)
- Mr. Skeffington (1944) (uncredited)
- Double Indemnity (1944) (uncredited)
- Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) (uncredited)
- Laura (1944) (uncredited)
- The Woman in the Window (1944) (uncredited)
- Hollywood Canteen (1944) (uncredited)
- A Song for Miss Julie (1945) (uncredited)
- The Affairs of Susan (1945) (uncredited)
- Mildred Pierce (1945) (uncredited)
- Micro-Phonies (1945) (cameo) (uncredited)
- Gilda (1946) (uncredited)
- The Blue Dahlia (1946) (uncredited)
- Notorious (1946) (uncredited)
- The Big Sleep (1946) (uncredited)
- The Razor's Edge (1946) (uncredited)
- Humoresque (1946) (uncredited)
- Dead Reckoning (1947) (uncredited)
- The Farmer's Daughter (1947) (uncredited)
- The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) (uncredited)
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) (uncredited)
- Song of the Thin Man (1947)
- Cass Timberlane (1947) (uncredited)
- A Double Life (1947) (uncredited)
- The Bride Goes Wild (1948) (uncredited)
- The Big Clock (1948) (uncredited)
- The Noose Hangs High (1948) (uncredited)
- Romance on the High Seas (1948) (uncredited)
- A Date with Judy (1948) (uncredited)
- A Song Is Born (1948) (uncredited)
- Neptune's Daughter (1949) (uncredited)
- The Great Gatsby (1949) (uncredited)
- Mighty Joe Young (1949) (uncredited)
- Sky Liner (1949)
- My Friend Irma (1949) (uncredited)
- 1950s
- Young Man with a Horn (1950) (uncredited)
- No Man of Her Own (1950) (uncredited)
- The Damned Don't Cry (1950) (uncredited)
- Father of the Bride (1950) (uncredited)
- Born to Be Bad (1950)
- All About Eve (1950) (uncredited)
- Lullaby of Broadway (1951) (uncredited)
- Show Boat (1951) (uncredited)
- The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) (uncredited)
- Singin' in the Rain (1952) (uncredited)
- The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) (uncredited)
- Angel Face (1953) (uncredited)
- Murder Without Tears (1953) (uncredited)
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) (uncredited)
- The Band Wagon (1953) (uncredited)
- The Robe (1953) (uncredited)
- Torch Song (1953) (uncredited)
- Calamity Jane (1953) (uncredited)
- Easy to Love (1953) (uncredited)
- Executive Suite (1943) (uncredited)
- Dial M for Murder (1954) (uncredited)
- The Student Prince (1954) (uncredited)
- Rear Window (1954) (uncredited)
- A Star Is Born (1954) (uncredited)
- White Christmas (1954) (uncredited)
- Désirée (1954) (uncredited)
- Interrupted Melody (1955) (uncredited)
- To Catch a Thief (1955) (uncredited)
- You're Never Too Young (1955)
- Guys and Dolls (1955) (uncredited)
- I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) (uncredited)
- Ride the High Iron (1956) (uncredited)
- Never Say Goodbye (1956) (uncredited)
- Anything Goes (1956) (uncredited)
- Giant (1956) (uncredited)
- Around the World in 80 Days (1956) (uncredited)
- Funny Face (1957) (uncredited)
- Designing Woman (1957) (uncredited)
- Sweet Smell of Success (1957) (uncredited)
- Jailhouse Rock (1957) (uncredited)
- Pal Joey (1957) (scenes cut)
- Witness for the Prosecution (1957) - courtroom spectator (uncredited)
- Vertigo (1958) (uncredited)
- Houseboat (1958) (uncredited)
- Imitation of Life (1959) (uncredited)
- North by Northwest (1959) (uncredited)
- 1960s
- Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960) (uncredited)
- Where the Boys Are (1960) (uncredited)
- The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) (uncredited)
- Return to Peyton Place (1961) (uncredited)
- Blue Hawaii (1961) (uncredited)
- Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) (uncredited)
- Pocketful of Miracles (1961) (uncredited)
- Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) (uncredited)
- The Manchurian Candidate (1962) (uncredited)
- Who's Minding the Store? (1963) (uncredited)
- Move Over, Darling (1963) (uncredited)
- 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) (uncredited)
- The Carpetbaggers (1964) (uncredited)
- Good Neighbor Sam (1964) (uncredited)
References
- Slide, Anthony (September 5, 2012). Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players, and Stand-Ins. Univ. Press of Mississippi. pp. 152–153. ISBN 9781617034749. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
- Feinberg, Scott. "20 Feet From Movie Stardom: The Overlooked Story of Hollywood's Greatest Extra". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media LLC. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
- Slide, Anthony. 2010.Silent Players: a Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 103. ISBN 9780813127088.
- Tevis, Robert E. (Fall 2016). "Send Me ... Bess Flowers". Films of the Golden Age (86): 88–93.
- Scott, Tony (2001). The Stars of Hollywood Forever. Lulu.com. ISBN 9781312916975. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
- Cloud, Barbara (June 6, 1999). "A career of standing out in a crowd". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh. p. 14. Retrieved March 1, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
Further reading
- Maltin, Leonard (2015) [First published 1969]. "Bess Flowers". The Real Stars : Profiles and Interviews of Hollywood's Unsung Featured Players (softcover) (Sixth / eBook ed.). Great Britain: CreateSpace Independent. pp. 81–87. ISBN 978-1-5116-4485-3.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bess Flowers. |
- Bess Flowers at IMDb
- An appreciation by Joe McElhaney
- Bess Flowers at Virtual History