Ellen Corby - Esther "Grandma" Walton, 1911-1999

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Ellen Corby - "Esther Walton"

Ellen Corby died on Wednesday, April 14, 1999 at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 87. In a career that spanned almost 60 years, Ellen delighted in playing characters rich in flavor and a no-nonsense flair. Her most famous character was that of matriarch Esther Walton. She was born Ellen Hansen in Racine, Wisconsin but grew up in Philadelphia. Both parents were Danish born and Ellen liked to say that she was "Danish at heart." Her father died when Ellen was a child and her mother, Dagmar, went into the business of operating a restaurant. The crash of 1929 swallowed up the Hansen savings and Ellen learned the value of a dollar. Beginning with her last year of high school, she earned money by entering amateur stage contests. She thought she was ready for show business and in 1932 she traveled to Hollywood by way of Atlantic City, NJ, where she appeared as a chorus girl for six months.

Someone told her the way to "break into the movies" was to go to a place in Hollywood’s Gower Gulch called "Poverty Row" where films were made on a shoestring. Ellen got a $25 part but the film was delayed and she eventually found work as a script girl. In the meantime, her mother also came to Hollywood and found work with the same film company as a cook. Dagmar Hansen was kind to everyone on the film, often feeding the hungry cast from her home. Her kindness earned her the nickname of "Buddy." Ellen went on as a script girl for the next 12 years working for RKO Radio Pictures on 150 films. During the evening, Ellen attended classes at The Actor’s Lab in Hollywood to learn more about the art of acting, and in the mid-1940’s got her break as an actress.

She once remarked that she knew virtually everyone in Hollywood. "I can’t go anywhere without meeting someone I worked with,"she said. "When the children on ‘The Waltons’ heard that I worked with Laurel and Hardy, I was in." She worked with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy on three features and several shorts. She also worked the Hopalong Cassidy movie series and wrote two scripts for it. She was married briefly to cameraman Francis Corby. They were divorced in 1944.

After her debut in the 1946 film ‘’Dark Corner,’’ she worked steadily as a character actor, often playing a fussy spinster or a busybody. Because of her reputation as a studious and reliable worker, all of her film roles were negotiated directly with studio executives, thus eliminating the need for an agent. She was eager to act and felt that exposure was important along with earning while learning. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as the lovelorn aunt in the 1948 film ‘’I Remember Mama,’’ starring Irene Dunne. It turned out to be her favorite film but she did not win the award.

She appeared in more than 100 movies, including ‘’Shane’’; "Vertigo’’; "It’s a Wonderful Life," in which she played a depositor who withdrew a small amount of money from the beleaguered Bailey Building and Loan; the original "Sabrina," in which she was Humphrey Bogart’s secretary; "Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte," in which she was the town gossip and "Please Don’t Eat the Daisies," in which she portrayed Martha the maid. Her mother died on September 9, 1963, at the age of 76. The loss of Ellen’s mother left an emptiness that could never be filled. "A great deal of me disappeared with her," said Ellen. "She was a large part of my life-much more than my husband ever was."

She also had an active career on television before The Waltons: As Hubcaps Lesch, she sold Barney Fife a bad car on "The Andy Griffith Show"; she played Mother Lurch in "The Addams Family"; and Miss Hanna, the beloved acting teacher in an episode of "I Love Lucy" where Lucille Ball meets Orson Welles. She had a recurring role with Robert Culp in the Western series "Trackdown," which appeared in 1957-1959, and on the family comedy "Please Don’t Eat the Daisies" which ran from 1965 to 1967.

Ellen made guest appearances on many television Westerns, including ‘’The Virginian,’’ ‘’The Rifleman’’ and ‘’Wagon Train.’’ She received a Golden Boot award from the Motion Picture and Television Fund in 1989.

She was recognized for her outstanding contribution on The Waltons by winning Emmy awards in 1973, 1975 and 1976 and a Golden Globe Award in 1974.

Ellen owned a RV and loved to travel around the country with her cat, Charlie Brown. She also traveled internationally going around the world twice, to Europe six times and twice to India.

Grandma is survived by her friend and care-giver of many years, Stella Luchetta of Los Angeles, and will be remembered by her loving fans around the world.

Good night, Grandma.

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Taken from an issue of People magazine in 1979


The cast's togetherness underwent perhaps its severest test with Ellen Corby's near-fatal stroke one fall night in 1976. "Ellen was never late for work," recalls Eric Scott, 20, who plays Ben. "Two producers got worried and went to her house. They saw a hand sticking up, waving faintly. It was Ellen on the floor trying to get their attention through a window." She missed a full season. Then, despite reservations from cast members about her partial paralysis and impaired speech, she insisted on coming back. "Working with her could be excruciatingly slow," Eric reports. "She would do two words over and over. In addition to natural impatience, we were scared that it would be the end of her. It was the honest feeling you have when a grandmother or someone you love has a stroke."

That spunk was totally in character for the Philadelphia-bred Corby who broke into showbiz as an Atlantic City chorus girl before going on to L.A. and 400-odd film roles and numerous writing credits (including two Waltons episodes). After all, it was she who first insisted on adding vinegar to her Grandma role to keep the show from "dissolving into marshmallow." The acerbity turned her relationship with Geer's Grandpa into the delight of the series and made them what the New York Times once called the "most realistic old people on TV."

Now, says Corby, who works at least two days a week and attends therapy daily, "I realized there were people I could reach with a message of strength through my visibility on The Waltons. I wanted to show them that I may be 65 and the victim of a stroke, but I can think and function. After the first show I was flooded with mail from all over the country. Those letters made the struggle worthwhile."

[Steve James]

Sept 2, 2013 11:41:34 GMT -5 @nickie said:

 "...and numerous writing credits (including two Waltons episodes)."

IMDB lists them as The Search (1976) and The Separation (1973).