Ethel Griffies

Highest Rated: 100% Jane Eyre (1944)

Lowest Rated: 67% The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945)

Birthday: Apr 26, 1878

Birthplace: Not Available

The daughter of actor-manager Samuel Rupert Woods and actress Lillie Roberts, Ethel Griffies began her own stage career at the age of 3. Griffies was 21 when she finally made her London debut in 1899, and 46 when she made her first Broadway appearance in Havoc (1924). Discounting a tentative stab at filmmaking in 1917, she made her movie bow in 1930, repeating her stage role in Old English (1930). Habitually cast as a crotchety old lady with the proverbial golden heart, she alternated between bits and prominently featured roles for the next 35 years. Her larger parts included Grace Poole in both the 1935 and 1944 versions of Jane Eyre, and the vituperous matron who accuses Tippi Hedren of being a harbinger of doom in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). Every so often, she'd take a sabbatical from film work to concentrate on the stage; she made her last Broadway appearance in 1967, at which time she was England's oldest working actress. Presumably at the invitation of fellow Briton Arthur Treacher, Ethel Griffies was a frequent guest on TV's Merv Griffin Show in the late 1960s, never failing to bring down the house with her wickedly witty comments on her 80 years in show business.

Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

MOVIES

RATING	TITLE	CREDIT	BOX OFFICE	YEAR
No Score Yet	Bus Riley's Back in Town	Mrs. Spencer	—	1965
95%	The Birds	Mrs. Bundy	—	1963
94%	Billy Liar	Florence	—	1963
No Score Yet	The Homestretch	Aunt Martha	—	1947
No Score Yet	Devotion	Aunt Branwell	—	1946
No Score Yet	Saratoga Trunk	Mme. Clarissa Van Steed	—	1946
No Score Yet	Sing While You Dance	Actor	—	1946
80%	The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (Guilty of Murder?)	Mrs. Nelson	—	1945
No Score Yet	Molly and Me	Mrs. Lamb	—	1945
No Score Yet	Thrill of a Romance	Mrs. Fenway	—	1945
67%	The Horn Blows at Midnight	Lady Stover	—	1945
No Score Yet	Music for Millions	Mrs. McGuff	—	1944
No Score Yet	The Keys of the Kingdom	Mrs. Glennie	—	1944
80%	The White Cliffs of Dover	Woman on Train	—	1944
100%	Jane Eyre	Grace Poole	—	1944
No Score Yet	Holy Matrimony	Lady Vale	—	1943
80%	First Comes Courage	Nurse	—	1943
No Score Yet	Forever and a Day	Wife	—	1943
No Score Yet	Time to Kill	Mrs. Murdock	—	1942
No Score Yet	Charlie Chan in Castle in the Desert	Mme. Saturnia	—	1942
No Score Yet	Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake	Matron	—	1942
No Score Yet	Remember the Day	Actor	—	1941
No Score Yet	Great Guns	Aunt Agatha	—	1941
No Score Yet	Billy the Kid	Mrs. Hanky	—	1941
No Score Yet	Dead Men Tell	Patience Nodbury	—	1941
89%	How Green Was My Valley	Mrs. Nicholas	—	1941
No Score Yet	A Yank in the RAF	Mrs. Fitzhugh	—	1941
86%	Stranger on the Third Floor	Mrs. Kane	—	1940
No Score Yet	Anne of Windy Poplars	Hester Pringle	—	1940
80%	Waterloo Bridge	Mrs. Clark	—	1940
No Score Yet	Irene	Princess Minetti	—	1940
No Score Yet	Vigil in the Night	Matron East	—	1940
No Score Yet	We Are Not Alone	Mrs. Raymond	—	1939
No Score Yet	The Star Maker	Voice Teacher	—	1939
No Score Yet	Crackerjack	Annie	—	1938
No Score Yet	The Return of Peter Grimm	Mrs. Batholomew	—	1935
77%	Werewolf of London	Mrs. Whack	—	1935
No Score Yet	Vanessa, Her Love Story	Winifred Trent	—	1935
93%	Anna Karenina	Mme. Karatasoff	—	1935
71%	The Mystery of Edwin Drood	Miss Twinkleton	—	1935
No Score Yet	The Painted Veil	Lady Coldchester	—	1934
No Score Yet	We Live Again	Aunt Maria	—	1934
No Score Yet	Jane Eyre	Grace	—	1934
No Score Yet	Sadie McKee	Woman in Subway	—	1934
100%	The House of Rothschild	Woman Guest	—	1934
No Score Yet	Four Frightened People	Mrs. Ainger's mother	—	1934
No Score Yet	Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back	Mrs. Field	—	1934
No Score Yet	Torch Singer (Broadway Singer)	Martha Alden	—	1933
67%	Alice in Wonderland	Governess	—	1933
No Score Yet	White Woman	Mrs. Chisholm	—	1933
100%	Love Me Tonight	Aunt	—	1932
No Score Yet	Are You Listening?	Mrs. Peters	—	1932
No Score Yet	Impatient Maiden	Nurse Lovett	—	1932
No Score Yet	The Road to Singapore	Mrs. Everard	—	1931
No Score Yet	Waterloo Bridge	Mrs. Hoble	—	1931
No Score Yet	The Millionaire	Mrs. Andrews (uncredited)	—	1931

Quotes from Ethel Griffies' Characters

Mrs. Bundy:	I hardly think a few birds are going to bring about the end of the world.
Melanie Daniels:	These weren't a few birds.

On Dvd & Streaming

Ethel Griffies

Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

MOVIES

Quotes from Ethel Griffies' Characters