Hermione Baddeley
Hermione Baddeley
Hermione Baddeley
Baddeley was known for standout supporting performances in such films as Mary Poppins (as Ellen, the maidservant), The Belles of St Trinian’s, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Passport to Pimlico, The Pickwick Papers, Tom Brown’s Schooldaysand A Christmas Carol, although she first began making films back in the 1920s. She was a principal character in Brighton Rock (1947). She had a successful professional relationship with Sir Noel Coward, appearing in many of his plays throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The most successful was her teaming with fellow namesake Hermione Gingold in Coward’s comedy Fallen Angels .
She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Simone Signoret’s best friend, music teacher Elspeth, in Jack Clayton’s Room at the Top (1959). With under three minutes of screen time, hers is the shortest role to be nominated for an Academy Award. In 1963, she was nominated for Broadway’s Tony Award as Best Actress (Dramatic) for The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore.
Hermione Baddeley
Her television roles brought her increased visibility; besides many guest appearances on series such as Danger Man, she became known to American TV audiences for her roles in Little House on the Prairie and Maude (where she played the hard-drinking and compulsively lying housekeeper, Mrs. Nell Naugatuck). Like fellow Mary Poppins maid Reta Shaw, she appeared on the show Bewitched, as Samantha’s beloved childhood nanny. Toward the end of her career, Hermione Baddeley was also a sought-after voice-over actress (The Aristocats, The Secret of NIMH).