From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Esther Dale (November 10, 1885 – July 23, 1961) was an American actress, best known perhaps for her role as Aunt Genevieve in the 1935 Shirley Temple vehicle, Curly Top. On the stage, Dale starred in Carrie Nation on Broadway in 1933. Her other Broadway credits include Harvest of Years (1947), And Be My Love (1944), and Another Language (1932). Dale's first film was Crime Without Passion (1934) in an uncredited role. She was a familiar face in films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, frequently playing stern, authoritarian characters such as prison matrons and head nurses, although she was equally adept at playing grande dames and ladies of the aristocracy. Dale played many roles in television over the years. In the 1958-1959 season of The Donna Reed Show, Dale played a job-seeking housekeeper who is frightened from the Stone home by Jeff Stone's pet mouse, and she appeared in the 1957 Maverick episode "According to Hoyle" opposite James Garner.
The Mortal Storm
(Marta)
Blondie Has Servant Trouble
(Anna Vaughn)
Monkey Business
(Mrs. Rhinelander)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
(Mrs. Krausheimer)
Holiday Affair
(Mrs. Ennis)
Dead End
(Mrs. Fenner)
No Man of Her Own
(Josie)
Curly Top
(Genevieve Graham)
The Awful Truth
(Mrs. Leeson)
Her Favorite Patient
(Martha Gravitt)
A Stolen Life
(Mrs. Johnson)
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
Dangerously They Live
(Dawson, Goodwin's Housekeeper)
Bad Little Angel
(Miss Brown, Orphanage Secretary (uncredited))
All-American Co-Ed
(Aunt Matilda Collinge)
I Dream Too Much
(Mrs. Dilley (uncredited))
Walk Softly, Stranger
(Miss Thompson)
Maisie Gets Her Man
(Mrs. McIntyre (Uncredited))
The Unfinished Dance
(Olga)
Private Worlds
(Matron)
My Reputation
(Anna)
The Oklahoman
(Mrs. Fitzgerald)
Blackmail
(Sarah)
Murder in Times Square
(Longacre Lil)
Back Street
(Mrs. Smith)
Margie
(Grandma McSweeney)
Broadway Serenade
(Mrs. Olsen, the Landlady)
Convicted Woman
(Chief Matron Brackett)
And One Was Beautiful
(Margaret)
Aloma of the South Seas
(Tarusa)
Stolen Heaven
(Lieschen)
The Case Against Mrs. Ames
(Matilda)
Condemned Women
(Mrs. Clara Glover, Head Matron)
Women Without Names
(Head Matron Ingles)
Arise, My Love
(Susie)
Smoky
(Mrs. 'Gram' Richards)
6,000 Enemies
(Prison Matron)
The Great Man Votes
(Mrs. Markham)
The Wedding Night
(Mrs. Kaise Novak)
The North Star
(Anna Kurin)
Laddie
(Sarah, the Housekeeper)
Easy Living
(Lillian)
Tell No Tales
(Mrs. Haskins)
Prison Farm
(Cora Waxley)
Girls on Probation
(Mrs. Engstrom)
Old Acquaintance
(Harriet)
Damaged Goods
(Mrs. Dupont)
Made for Each Other
(Annie (uncredited))
A Letter From Bataan
(Mrs. Jackson)
A Child Is Born
(Prison Matron (uncredited))
The Women
(Ingrid (uncredited))
In Old Kentucky
(Dolly Breckenridge)
Swanee River
(Temperance Woman)
Sergeant Madden
(Mrs. McGillivray)
On Such a Night
(Miss Belinda Fentridge)
Village Barn Dance
(Minerva Withers)
Fury
(Mrs. Whipple)
Timothy's Quest
(Hitty Tarbox)
Untamed
(Mrs. Smith)
Hollywood Boulevard
(Martha)
Betrayed Women
(Head Matron Ballard)
Abe Lincoln in Illinois
(Lincoln's Cook (uncredited))
Wild Money
(Jenny Hawkins)
What's Cookin'?
(Mrs. Murphy (uncredited))
The Farmer in the Dell
(Ma Boyer)
Behind City Lights
(Sarah Lowell)
Cross-Country Romance
(Mrs. McGillicuddy)
I Live My Life
(Brumbaugh, Mrs. Gage's Housekeeper)
Mary Burns, Fugitive
(Kate)
Blondie Goes to College
(Mrs. Carrie Dill, the Landlady)
Surrender
(Aunt May)
Forty Little Mothers
(Mrs. Mason the Landlady)
Ten Gentlemen from West Point
(Mrs. Thompson)
How to Sub-Let
(Mrs. Mustavas)
Big Town Czar
(Ma Daley)
Outcast
(Hattie Simmerson)
North to Alaska
(Woman at Picnic)
Unfinished Business
(Aunt Mathilda)
You're Telling Me
(Aunt Fannie Handley)
A Song Is Born
(Miss Bragg)
Wrecking Crew
(Mike O'Glendy)
The Sound and the Fury
(Mrs. Maud Mansfield)
The Egg and I
(Birdie Hicks)
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
(Birdie Hicks)
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
(Birdie Hicks)
Ma and Pa Kettle
(Mrs. Birdie Hicks)
Swing Your Partner
(Caroline Bird, aka Anna Robbins)
The Great Impersonation
(Mrs. Unthank)
On Stage Everybody
(Ma Cassidy)
Too Young to Kiss
(Mrs. Boykin)
Crime Without Passion
(Miss Keeley (uncredited))
A Tale of Two Cities
(Pross)
Lady of Secrets
(Miss Eccles)
Opened by Mistake
(Mrs. Anthony DeBorest)
On Moonlight Bay
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
December Bride
Thriller
(Ellen the Maid)
M Squad
(Julia Sheldon)
The Donna Reed Show
Lock-Up
Cavalcade of America
(Aunt Tabitha)
Mr. & Mrs. North
Maverick
(Ma Braus)
Four Star Playhouse
(Mrs. Weston)