Irene Tedrow (August 3, 1907 – March 10, 1995)[1] was an American character actress in stage, film, television and radio.
Among her notable roles are as Janet Archer in the radio series Meet Corliss Archer, Mrs. Lucy Elkins on the TV sitcom Dennis the Menace, and as Mrs. Webb in the stage production Our Town at the Plumstead Playhouse.[2]
Tedrow studied with Ben Iden Payne, who directed the Memorial Theater at Stratford-on-Avon, in England. She also had three seasons' experience with Maurice Evans's troupe in New York City and in national tourings.[3] In 1931, she was a member of the Chautauqua Repertory Theater.[4]
Tedrow was a founding member of San Diego's Old Globe Theater and was cast as an ingénue in the beginning of her career. In 1934, she portrayed 18 characters in multiple adaptations of Shakespearean plays at The Old Globe during the Chicago Fair.[2] She later joined Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. She appeared on Broadway through her 80s, including roles in King Richard III (1937), Hamlet (1938-1939), King Henry IV, Part I (1939), Our Town (1969)[5] and Pygmalion.
One of Tedrow's early roles as a regular cast member on a television program was that of Mrs. Ruggles on the first season of comedy series The Ruggles (1949-1950).[6] In 1959 she played a small part as Mrs. Adams in the weekly series Maverick in the episode "Gun Shy". She had a recurring role on the Dennis the Menace television sitcom from 1959 to 1963, portraying the character Mrs. Elkins. In 1966, she was cast in The Addams Family in the role of the stern, taciturn governess Miss Thudd ("Just call me Thudd"). As a character actor, she appears in many other shows produced from the mid-1940s into the 1970s. Some of those shows include the Lux Video Theatre,[7] Jefferson Drum, The Real McCoys, Rawhide, Mannix, The Twilight Zone, Leave it to Beaver, and The Andy Griffith Show. In 1955, she performed on The Jack Benny Program as a contestant with Benny in a mock segment of the You Bet Your Life series hosted by Groucho Marx.[8]
In the early 1960s, Tedrow made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Amy Douglas in "The Case of the Ominous Outcast", and a role on Bonanza in the episode "Abner Willoughby's Return". Later, she also performed in Dundee and the Culhane, Diff'rent Strokes, The Rockford Files, Facts of Life, Three's Company and two episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show as Congresswoman Margaret Geddes. In 1976, Tedrow played Mary Ludlow Hall, Eleanor Roosevelt's grandmother in Eleanor and Franklin.[9]
Tedrow's work in radio dated back at least to 1929. As a drama student at Carnegie Institute of Technology, she was master of ceremonies and student director for "Carnegie Tech Day at Gimbel's," which was broadcast on WCAE.[10] A 1937 radio listing shows her as one of the actresses in George Bernard Shaw's Back to Methuselah when it was broadcast on NBC Blue.[11]
During the 1940s and 1950s, Tedrow had roles in radio productions, including The Baby Snooks Show.[12] Tedrow appeared in an episode of Gunsmoke, titled "The Promise" (a.k.a. "The Handcuffs"), in 1954. Her roles included those shown in the table below.
Source: On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio[16] except as noted.
Tedrow's performance in Eleanor and Franklin garnered her one of the first Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Comedy or Drama Special (Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Comedy or Drama Special - 1976 per the Emmy Awards website).[9]
Tedrow was married to William Kent, who originally had come to the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany. The couple had two children, Roger and Enid.[17]
On March 10, 1995, Tedrow died from stroke complications in Hollywood at age 87.[2]
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