Kathleen Freeman
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Not Available
The inimitable American actress Kathleen Freeman has been convulsing film audiences with portrayals of dowdy, sharp-tongued matrons since she was in her 20s. After stage work, Freeman began taking bit roles in major-studio features in 1948, seldom getting screen credit but always making a positive impression. The best of her earliest roles was in Singin' in the Rain (1952); Freeman played long-suffering vocal coach Phoebe Dinsmore, whose Herculean efforts to get dumb movie star Jean Hagen to grasp the proper enunciation of the phrase "I can't staaaand him" proved uproariously futile. Often cast as domestics, Freeman had a year's run in 1953 as the "spooked" maid on the ghostly TV sitcom Topper. Freeman was a particular favorite of comedian Jerry Lewis, who cast the actress in showy (and billed!) roles in such farces as The Errand Boy (1961), The Nutty Professor (1963) and Who's Got the Action?. As Nurse Higgins in Lewis' Disorderly Orderly (1964), Freeman weeps quietly as Jerry meekly scrapes oatmeal off her face and babbles "Oh, Nurse Higgins...you're all full of...stuff." Lewis so trusted Freeman's acting instincts that he sent her to the set of director William Wyler's The Collector (1965) in order to help build up the confidence of Wyler's nervous young leading lady Samantha Eggar. Throughout the '70s and '80s, Freeman took occasional "sabbaticals" from her movie and TV assignments to do stage work, enjoying a lengthy run in a Chicago production of Ira Levin's Deathtrap. Like many character actors of the '50s, Kathleen Freeman is frequently called upon to buoy the projects of baby-boomer directors: she was recently seen as an hysterical Julia Child clone in Joe Dante's Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990).
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
88% | Shrek |
|
$267M | 2001 |
23% | Ready to Rumble |
|
— | 2000 |
23% | I'll Be Home for Christmas |
|
— | 1998 |
No Score Yet | Richie Rich's Christmas Wish |
|
— | 1998 |
46% | Blues Brothers 2000 |
|
— | 1997 |
No Score Yet | Two Guys Talkin' About Girls (At First Sight) |
|
— | 1995 |
54% | The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult |
|
— | 1994 |
38% | Hocus Pocus |
|
— | 1993 |
No Score Yet | Reckless Kelly |
|
— | 1993 |
63% | FernGully - The Last Rainforest |
|
— | 1992 |
No Score Yet | Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland |
|
— | 1992 |
No Score Yet | Nickel & Dime |
|
— | 1992 |
17% | Dutch |
|
— | 1991 |
71% | Gremlins 2: The New Batch |
|
— | 1990 |
No Score Yet | The Willies |
|
— | 1990 |
67% | Chances Are |
|
— | 1989 |
No Score Yet | Hollywood Chaos |
|
— | 1989 |
No Score Yet | Glitz |
|
— | 1988 |
No Score Yet | The Wrong Guys |
|
— | 1988 |
7% | Teen Wolf Too |
|
— | 1987 |
64% | In the Mood (The Woo Woo Kid) |
|
— | 1987 |
82% | Innerspace |
|
— | 1987 |
51% | Dragnet |
|
— | 1987 |
No Score Yet | The Malibu Bikini Shop |
|
— | 1986 |
31% | The Best of Times |
|
— | 1986 |
0% | Heartbeeps |
|
— | 1981 |
73% | The Blues Brothers |
|
— | 1980 |
No Score Yet | The Last Ride of the Dalton Gang |
|
— | 1979 |
No Score Yet | The Norseman |
|
— | 1978 |
No Score Yet | The Strongest Man in the World |
|
— | 1975 |
No Score Yet | Your Three Minutes Are Up |
|
— | 1973 |
71% | Unholy Rollers |
|
— | 1972 |
No Score Yet | Where Does It Hurt? |
|
— | 1972 |
No Score Yet | Psycho Sisters |
|
— | 1972 |
No Score Yet | Stand up and Be Counted |
|
— | 1972 |
62% | Support Your Local Gunfighter |
|
— | 1971 |
No Score Yet | Which Way to the Front? |
|
— | 1970 |
29% | Myra Breckinridge |
|
— | 1970 |
93% | The Ballad of Cable Hogue |
|
— | 1970 |
20% | Good Guys and the Bad Guys |
|
— | 1969 |
83% | Death of a Gunfighter |
|
— | 1969 |
75% | Support Your Local Sheriff! |
|
— | 1969 |
No Score Yet | Hook, Line and Sinker |
|
— | 1969 |
92% | Point Blank |
|
— | 1967 |
No Score Yet | Three on a Couch |
|
— | 1966 |
No Score Yet | Marriage on the Rocks |
|
— | 1965 |
No Score Yet | That Funny Feeling |
|
— | 1965 |
No Score Yet | The Rounders |
|
— | 1965 |
60% | The Disorderly Orderly |
|
— | 1964 |
82% | The Patsy |
|
— | 1964 |
No Score Yet | Mail Order Bride |
|
— | 1964 |
40% | Who's Minding the Store? |
|
— | 1963 |
84% | The Nutty Professor |
|
— | 1963 |
50% | The Errand Boy |
|
— | 1961 |
100% | The Ladies' Man |
|
— | 1961 |
50% | North to Alaska |
|
— | 1960 |
No Score Yet | The Buccaneer |
|
— | 1958 |
64% | Houseboat |
|
— | 1958 |
95% | The Fly |
|
— | 1958 |
No Score Yet | The Missouri Traveler |
|
— | 1958 |
No Score Yet | Too Much, Too Soon |
|
— | 1958 |
No Score Yet | Kiss Them for Me |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | Pawnee (Pale Arrow) |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | Appointment with a Shadow |
|
— | 1957 |
78% | Artists and Models |
|
— | 1955 |
100% | The Far Country |
|
— | 1955 |
No Score Yet | 3 Ring Circus (Jerrico, the Wonder Clown) |
|
— | 1954 |
No Score Yet | Athena |
|
— | 1954 |
No Score Yet | The Affairs of Dobie Gillis |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | The Glass Wall |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | The Magnetic Monster |
|
— | 1953 |
79% | The Bad and the Beautiful |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | The Glass Web |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | Dream Wife |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | She's Back on Broadway |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | The Prisoner of Zenda |
|
— | 1952 |
No Score Yet | O. Henry's Full House |
|
— | 1952 |
88% | Monkey Business |
|
— | 1952 |
No Score Yet | Kid Monk Baroni |
|
— | 1952 |
No Score Yet | Talk About a Stranger |
|
— | 1952 |
47% | The Greatest Show on Earth |
|
— | 1952 |
100% | Singin' in the Rain |
|
— | 1952 |
No Score Yet | Love Is Better Than Ever |
|
— | 1952 |
No Score Yet | Let's Make It Legal |
|
— | 1951 |
78% | A Place in the Sun |
|
— | 1951 |
No Score Yet | Cause for Alarm |
|
— | 1951 |
No Score Yet | Appointment With Danger |
|
— | 1951 |
No Score Yet | No Man of Her Own |
|
— | 1950 |
No Score Yet | The Reformer and the Redhead |
|
— | 1950 |
No Score Yet | A Life of Her Own |
|
— | 1950 |
62% | House By the River |
|
— | 1950 |
No Score Yet | Casbah |
|
— | 1948 |
88% | The Naked City |
|
— | 1948 |
No Score Yet | Wild Harvest |
|
— | 1947 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet |
As Told by Ginger
2000-2009
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Becker
1998-2004
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Caroline in the City
1995-1999
|
|
|
33% |
Grown Ups
1999-2000
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Coach
1989-1997
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
ER
1994-2009
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Melrose Place
1992-1999
|
|
|
76% |
Roseanne
1988-2018
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Married...With Children
1987-1997
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Doogie Howser, M.D.
1989-1993
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Martin
1992-1997
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
MacGyver
1985-1992
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Golden Girls
1985-1992
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Growing Pains
1985-1992
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Head of the Class
1986-1991
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
DuckTales
1987-1990
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
ALF
1986-1990
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Murphy Brown
1988-2019
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Facts of Life
1979-1988
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Hunter
1984-1991
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Kojak
1973-1978
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Hogan's Heroes
1965-1971
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Bonanza
1959-1973
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Beverly Hillbillies
1962-1971
|
|
|
72% |
Batman
1966-1968
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The High Chaparral
1967-1971
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
I Dream of Jeannie
1965-1970
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Ironside
1967-1975
|
|
|
100% |
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
1964-1968
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Dick Van Dyke Show
1961-1966
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962-1965
|
|
|
Quotes from Kathleen Freeman's Characters
Max: | But everyone here knows that Halloween was invented by the candy companies it's a conspiracy! |
Allison: | It just so happens that Halloween is based on the ancient feast called 'All Hallows Eve' It's the one night of they year where the spirits of the dead can return to Earth. |
Miss Olin: | Well said Allison! |
Miss Olin: | Poor Thackery Binx. Neither his father, his mother, nor anyone else..ever knew what became of him...those 3OO years ago. And so the Sanderson Sisters, were hanged by the Salem town folk. Now, there are those who say that on Halloween night...a black cat still guards the old Sanderson house,warning off any who might make the witches...come back to life! |
Miss Olin: | Poor Thackery Binx. Neither his father, his mother, nor anyone else..ever knew what became of him...those 3OO years ago. And so the Sanderson Sisters, were hanged by the Salem town folk. Now, there are those who say that on Halloween night...a black cat still guards the old Sanderson house, warning off any who might make the witches...come back to life! |