Una Merkel

Highest Rated: 100% The Bank Dick (1940)

Lowest Rated: 14% The Kentuckian (1955)

Birthday: Dec 10, 1903

Birthplace: Covington, Kentucky, USA

Although she is best known for her later work, Una Merkel actually started in film in 1920 as Lillian Gish's stand-in for Way Down East. After a stage career in the 1920s, she returned to films as Ann Rutledge in D. W. Griffith's Abraham Lincoln (1930). The vivacious character actress brightened up dozens of films, playing mostly comic roles interspersed with an occasional dramatic part. Films to watch include Dangerous Female (1931); Private Lives (1931); Red-Headed Woman (1932); 42nd Street (1933), the film in which she memorably says of Ginger Rogers' character Anytime Annie: "The only time she ever said no she didn't hear the question;" The Merry Widow (both 1934 and 1952); Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935); Born to Dance (1936); Destry Rides Again (1939), where she and Marlene Dietrich have a frenzied hair-pulling battle over the hapless Mischa Auer; On Borrowed Time (1939); The Bank Dick (1940); Road to Zanzibar (1941); This Is the Army (1943); With a Song in My Heart (1952); and The Parent Trap (1961), among many others. In 1956, she won a Tony Award for The Ponder Heart and in 1961 was nominated for an Academy Award for Summer and Smoke in the role she had originated on the stage.

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Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

MOVIES

RATING	TITLE	CREDIT	BOX OFFICE	YEAR
40%	Spinout	Violet Ranley	—	1966
No Score Yet	A Tiger Walks	Mrs. Watkins	—	1964
No Score Yet	Summer Magic	Maria Popham	—	1963
No Score Yet	Summer and Smoke	Mrs. Winemiller	—	1961
90%	The Parent Trap	Verbena	—	1961
No Score Yet	The Mating Game	Ma Larkin	—	1959
No Score Yet	The Girl Most Likely	Mom	—	1958
No Score Yet	The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown	Bertha	—	1957
No Score Yet	Bundle of Joy	Mrs. Dugan	—	1956
No Score Yet	The Kettles in the Ozarks	Miss Bedelia Baines	—	1956
14%	The Kentuckian	Sophie	—	1955
No Score Yet	I Love Melvin	Mom Schneider	—	1953
No Score Yet	The Merry Widow	Kitty Riley	—	1952
67%	With a Song in My Heart	Sister Marie	—	1952
No Score Yet	Rich, Young and Pretty	Glynnie	—	1952
No Score Yet	Golden Girl	Mrs. Crabtree	—	1951
No Score Yet	My Blue Heaven	Miss Gilbert	—	1950
No Score Yet	Kill the Umpire	Betty Johnson	—	1950
No Score Yet	The Man from Texas	Widow Weeks	—	1948
No Score Yet	The Bride Goes Wild	Actor	—	1948
No Score Yet	It's a Joke, Son!	Mrs.Magnolia Claghorn	—	1947
No Score Yet	This Is the Army	Rose Dibble	—	1943
No Score Yet	It's a Joke, Son!	Actor	—	1943
No Score Yet	The Mad Doctor of Market Street	Aunt Margaret Wentworth	—	1942
89%	Road to Zanzibar	Julia Quimby	—	1941
100%	The Bank Dick	Myrtle Sousé	—	1940
96%	Destry Rides Again	Lily Belle Callahan	—	1939
No Score Yet	On Borrowed Time	Marcia Giles	—	1939
No Score Yet	Some Like It Hot (Rhythm Romance)	Flo Saunders	—	1939
No Score Yet	Saratoga	Fritzi O'Malley	—	1937
No Score Yet	Don't Tell the Wife	Nancy Dorsey	—	1937
100%	True Confession	Daisy McClure	—	1937
No Score Yet	Good Old Soak	Nellie	—	1937
No Score Yet	Born to Dance	Jenny Saks	—	1936
No Score Yet	Speed	Josephine Sanderson	—	1936
No Score Yet	Riffraff	Lil	—	1936
89%	Broadway Melody of 1936	Kitty Corbett	—	1935
No Score Yet	The Night Is Young	Fanni	—	1935
No Score Yet	Murder in the Fleet	Toots Simmons	—	1935
No Score Yet	Biography of a Bachelor Girl	Slade	—	1935
No Score Yet	Evelyn Prentice	Amy Drexel	—	1934
82%	The Merry Widow	Queen	—	1934
No Score Yet	The Cat's Paw	Petunia Pratt	—	1934
No Score Yet	Paris Interlude	Cassie Bond	—	1934
No Score Yet	Murder in the Private Car	Georgia	—	1934
No Score Yet	Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back	Gwen	—	1934
90%	Bombshell (Blonde Bombshell)	Mac	—	1933
96%	42nd Street	Lorraine Fleming	—	1933
No Score Yet	The Secret of Madame Blanche	Ella	—	1933
No Score Yet	Midnight Mary	Bunny	—	1933
No Score Yet	Clear All Wires	Dolly Winslow	—	1933
No Score Yet	Broadway to Hollywood	Flirt in Audience (uncredited)	—	1933
No Score Yet	Huddle	Thelma	—	1932
No Score Yet	Man Wanted	Actor	—	1932
No Score Yet	Impatient Maiden	Betty Merrick	—	1932
No Score Yet	She Wanted a Millionaire	Mary Taylor	—	1932
No Score Yet	Red Headed Woman	Sally	—	1932
No Score Yet	They Call It Sin	Dixie Dare	—	1932
71%	The Maltese Falcon	Effie Perrine	—	1931
80%	Private Lives	Sibyl Chase	—	1931
No Score Yet	The Secret Witness	Lois Martin	—	1931
64%	The Bat Whispers	Dale Van Gorder	—	1930
75%	Abraham Lincoln	Ann Rutledge	—	1930

Quotes from Una Merkel's Characters

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