Lurene Tuttle (August 29, 1907,
Pleasant Lake, IndianaPleasant Lake is an unincorporated town in Steuben Township, Steuben County, Indiana....
- May 28, 1986,
Encino, CaliforniaEncino is a hilly district of the City of Los Angeles, California, United States. Specifically, it is located in the central portion of the southern San Fernando Valley and on the north slope of the Santa Monica Mountains...
) was a character actress, who made transitions from
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
to
radioRadio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, to
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
s and
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
. Her most enduring impact was in radio drama as one of network radio's most versatile actresses. Often appearing in 15 shows a week, she became known as the First Lady of Radio.
She became interested in acting after her family moved to
Southern CaliforniaSouthern California, or SoCal, is defined as the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population centers around three major metropolitan areas, each of which have over 3 million people; the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area with over 12 million inhabitants, the San Bernardino-Riverside...
, appearing in
Pasadena PlayhouseThe Pasadena Playhouse is a historic theatre located in Pasadena, California.-History:The Playhouse's history began in 1917 when actor/director Gilmor Brown began producing a season of plays at an old burlesque house he called the Savoy...
productions before joining the
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
troupe, Murphy's Comedians.
Lurene Tuttle (August 29, 1907,
Pleasant Lake, IndianaPleasant Lake is an unincorporated town in Steuben Township, Steuben County, Indiana....
- May 28, 1986,
Encino, CaliforniaEncino is a hilly district of the City of Los Angeles, California, United States. Specifically, it is located in the central portion of the southern San Fernando Valley and on the north slope of the Santa Monica Mountains...
) was a character actress, who made transitions from
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
to
radioRadio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, to
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
s and
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
. Her most enduring impact was in radio drama as one of network radio's most versatile actresses. Often appearing in 15 shows a week, she became known as the First Lady of Radio.
She became interested in acting after her family moved to
Southern CaliforniaSouthern California, or SoCal, is defined as the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population centers around three major metropolitan areas, each of which have over 3 million people; the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area with over 12 million inhabitants, the San Bernardino-Riverside...
, appearing in
Pasadena PlayhouseThe Pasadena Playhouse is a historic theatre located in Pasadena, California.-History:The Playhouse's history began in 1917 when actor/director Gilmor Brown began producing a season of plays at an old burlesque house he called the Savoy...
productions before joining the
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
troupe, Murphy's Comedians. By the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, Tuttle had put her remarkable vocal versatility to work in radio, and within a decade she became one of the most in-demand actresses in the medium.
Radio roles
On radio's
The Adventures of Sam SpadeThe Adventures of Sam Spade was a radio series based loosely on the private detective character Sam Spade, created by writer Dashiell Hammett for The Maltese Falcon. The show ran for 13 episodes on ABC in 1946, for 157 episodes on CBS in 1946-1949, and finally for 51 episodes on NBC in 1949-1951...
she played just about every female role, as well as Spade's man-hungry secretary Effie Perrine. She appeared in such shows as
The Adventures of Ozzie and HarrietThe Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an American sitcom, airing on ABC from October 3, 1952 to September 3, 1966, starring the real life Nelson family. The series starred Ozzie Nelson and his wife, singer Harriet Nelson , and their young sons, David Nelson and Eric Nelson, better known as Ricky...
, a role that testified to her vocal versatility: she played
Harriet NelsonHarriet Nelson was an American singer and actress. Nelson is best known for her role on the long-running sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.-Early life and career:...
's on-air mother at a time when she played, concurrently, a young adult on
The Great GildersleeveThe Great Gildersleeve , initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. Built around Throckmorton Philharmonic Gildersleeve, a character who had been a staple on the classic radio situation comedy Fibber McGee and Molly, The Great...
as the niece Marjorie Forrester, a character 20 years her junior. Tuttle also had regular roles in such shows as
Brenthouse (a
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
, as Nancy),
Dr. ChristianDr. Christian was a long-running radio series with Jean Hersholt in the title role. It aired on CBS from 1937 to 1954.After Hersholt portrayed a character based on Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe in the 20th Century Fox movie The Country Doctor , he wanted to do the same role on radio but could not get the...
(as nurse Judy Price),
Duffy's TavernDuffy's Tavern, an American radio situation comedy , often featured top-name stage and film guest stars but always hooked those around the misadventures, get-rich-quick-scheming, and romantic missteps of the title establishment's malaprop-prone, metaphor-mixing manager, Archie, played by the...
(as Dolly Snaffle),
One Man's FamilyOne Man's Family was a long-run radio-TV dramatic series, created by Carlton E. Morse. Broadcast for almost three decades, it was the longest running uninterrupted serial in the history of American radio.-Radio:...
(another soap; various roles),
The Red Skelton ShowThe Red Skelton Show is an American variety show that was a television staple for almost two decades, from the early 1950s through the early 1970s. It was second to Gunsmoke and third to The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings during that time. Skelton, who had previously been a radio star, had...
(as Junior's mommy and as Daisy June, roles she shared with Harriet Nelson),
Hollywood Hotel and the soap opera
Those We Love.
She made numerous guest appearances on such shows as
DragnetDragnet may refer to:*A type of fishing net also known as a seine*Dragnet , any system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects*Dragnet , a 1979 album by The Fall...
,
Lux Radio TheaterLux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series [NBC Blue Network ; CBS ; NBC ] which first adapted Broadway stage works, and then films to hour-long radio programs performed live before studio audiences...
,
The Screen Guild TheaterThe Screen Guild Theater was a popular radio anthology series during the Golden Age of Radio broadcast from 1939 until 1952 with leading Hollywood actors performing in adaptations of popular motion pictures such as Going My Way and The Postman Always Rings Twice.The show had a long run, lasting for...
and
SuspenseSuspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead up to a big event or dramatic...
(in "The Sisters", with
Rosalind RussellRosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Auntie Mame in film...
). In
The WhistlerThe Whistler is one of American radio's most popular mystery dramas, with a 13-year run from May 16, 1942 until September 22, 1955.The Whistler was the most popular West Coast-originated program with its listeners for many years...
she played good and evil twins and used separate microphones to stay in character for each twin.
Dr. ChristianDr. Christian was a long-running radio series with Jean Hersholt in the title role. It aired on CBS from 1937 to 1954.After Hersholt portrayed a character based on Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe in the 20th Century Fox movie The Country Doctor , he wanted to do the same role on radio but could not get the...
was unusual in that the show, according to critic
Leonard MaltinLeonard Maltin is an American film critic and film historian. He has authored several mainstream books on the cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
(in
The Great American Broadcast: A Celebration of Radio's Golden Age), solicited scripts from listeners (one of whom was a young
Rod SerlingRodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter and television producer, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. He was known in the more secular community as being an atheist despite converting to Unitarianism...
) and put them on the air — with a little help. Tuttle recalled:
- The real writers on the show had to fix them quite often a lot, because they were really quite amateurish. But they had nice thoughts, they had nice plots. They just needed fixing; the dialogue didn't work too well.
It was during her time on
Hollywood Hotel that Tuttle became an inadvertent co-catalyst in the founding of the
American Federation of Radio ArtistsThe American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is a performers' union that represents a wide variety of talent, including actors in radio and television, as well as radio and television announcers and newspersons, singers and recording artists , promo and voice-over announcers and other...
. According to Maltin, Tuttle's male counterpart on the show, veteran actor Frank Nelson (a frequent guest performer on
Jack BennyJack Benny , born Benjamin Kubelsky, was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
's program), tried to get both a raise to $35-per-show — at a time when the show paid $5,000 an appearance to headlining guest stars. Nelson eventually got the raises, but the negotiations prompted him to become an AFRA co-founder and one of its active members.
Tuttle also remembered the day the
Hollywood Hotel sound effects man was upstaged by a Hollywood legend:
- The soundman was supposed to do a little yipping, yappy dog, like a terrier. He sounded like a Newfoundland dog or something, and the director kept saying, "That won't do." So Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland is an actress. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. De Havilland is one of the last surviving female stars from 1930s Hollywood. She is also the last living lead from Gone with the Wind....
was sitting next to me, and she says, "I can do a very good dog." And I said, "Well, I don't think they'll let you do a dog. This is an audience show; you're a star, you can't do a dog." And she says, "I'm going to do it." So she went over to the director, went into the booth and said, "I'd like to try doing this dog for you." So they put her behind the screen, and she went on the show and she did that yipping dog."
Films and television
Tuttle became a familiar face to millions of television viewers with over 100 TV appearances from 1950 to 1986. On TV and in films, Tuttle streamlined herself into a pattern of roles between wise, loving wives/mothers or bristling matrons. She was familiar to the early television audience as wife/mother Lavinia (Vinnie) Day in Life with Father (1953-1955), while concurrently graduating to film roles in
Alfred Hitchcock'sSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
PsychoPsycho is an American suspense/horror movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, from the screenplay by Joseph Stefano. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, which was in turn inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein....
and such other films as
Heaven Knows, Mr. AllisonHeaven Knows, Mr. Allison is a 1957 Cinemascope film which tells the story of two people stranded on an island in the Pacific Ocean during World War II....
,
Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles was an American film director, writer, actor and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television, and radio. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years...
's
MacbethThe Tragedy of Macbeth, commonly just Macbeth, is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
,
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream HouseMr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is a 1948 American comedy film directed by H.C. Potter and starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. The film was written and produced by the team of Melvin Frank and Norman Panama and was an adaptation of Eric Hodgins' popular 1946 novel, illustrated by William...
,
The Fortune CookieThe Fortune Cookie is a 1966 film starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon in their first on screen collaboration, and directed by Billy Wilder.- Plot :...
and
The Affairs of Dobie Gillis. In
Don't Bother to KnockDon't Bother to Knock is a 1952 American thriller film starring Marilyn Monroe as Nell Forbes, a disturbed babysitter watching a child at the same New York hotel where pilot Jed Towers is staying. He sees her through his window and the two meet...
(1952) she portrayed a mother who lets a disturbed
Marilyn MonroeMarilyn Monroe , born Norma Jeane Mortenson, but baptized Norma Jeane Baker, was an American actress, singer and model....
babysit her daughter, and had a rare starring role as
Ma BarkerKate "Ma" Barker was an American criminal from the "public enemy era", when the exploits of gangs of criminals in the Midwest gripped the American people and press...
in
Ma Barker's Killer BroodMa Barker's Killer Brood is a crime film, released in 1960. The low budget film was directed by Bill Karn and starred Lurene Tuttle as the title character, Ma Barker, and Tristam Coffin as Arthur Dunlop....
(1960).
She guest starred twice on
Edmond O'BrienEdmond O'Brien was an American film actor who is perhaps best remembered for his role in D.O.A....
's 1960
syndicatedIn broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows to multiple individual stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in countries where television is scheduled by networks with local affiliates, particularly in the United States...
crime drama
Johnny MidnightJohnny Midnight is a 39-episode syndicated television series which aired during calendar year 1960 and starred Edmond O'Brien as a New York City actor turned private detective. Midnight's cases frequently focused upon Times Square and Broadway, where he had triumphed earlier on stage. Midnight...
. She then played a supporting role in the short-lived
Father of the BrideFather of the Bride may refer to the following:*Father of the Bride , starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor*Father of the Bride , remake of the 1950 film, starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton and Martin Short...
(1961) television situation comedy.
Lurene Tuttle's best known role to the general public was her stint as
Lloyd NolanLloyd Benedict Nolan was an American film and television actor.-Biography:Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer...
's senior nurse in the
Diahann Carroll-Early years:Carroll was born Carol Diahann Johnson in The Bronx, New York, to John Johnson and Mabel Faulk. Her family moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City when she was an infant...
series
JuliaJulia is an American sitcom best remembered as being one of the first weekly series to depict an African American woman in a non-stereotypical role. Previous television series featured African American lead characters, but the characters were usually servants...
(1968-1971) as the humorless but still warm-hearted Hannah Yarby. In 1980, Tuttle appeared in the
Bette DavisRuth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theatre. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
television movie,
White MamaWhite Mama is a 1980 television film drama directed by Jackie Cooper.It stars Bette Davis in the title role, with Ernest Harden Jr., Eileen Heckart, Virginia Capers, Anne Ramsey, Lurene Tuttle and Vincent Schiavelli....
.
Tuttle married
Melville RuickActor Melville Ruick was born in Boise, Idaho on July 8, 1898. He studied law at the University of California, but World War I changed him from a student lawyer to a student pilot. Ruick won his wings in the Air Service, Signal Corps, two weeks before the end of the war.During the lean years of...
, an actor she had met during her radio years; the couple had a daughter,
Barbara RuickBarbara Ruick was an American actress and singer.-Youth:Ruick was the daughter of actors Lurene Tuttle and Melville Ruick. She grew up acting out scenes with dolls, employing her mother as an audience. She attended Theodore Roosevelt High School , Burbank High School , and North Hollywood High...
, a musical comedy actress who married famed film composer
John WilliamsJohn Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career that spans six decades, Williams has composed many of the most famous film scores in Hollywood history, including Star Wars, Superman, Home Alone, the first three Harry Potter movies and all but two of Steven...
before dying unexpectedly in 1974. Tuttle and Ruick eventually divorced; Tuttle remarried, but her second marriage didn't last very long. She became a respected acting coach and teacher — something she'd always done, even at the height of her acting career (she often re-trained radio actors who'd been away from the craft during service in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
— until her death from cancer in 1986, aged 79. She was survived by three grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
Her
Sam Spade co-star,
Howard DuffHoward Green Duff was an American actor of film, television, stage, and radio.Duff was born in Charleston, Washington, now a part of Bremerton. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle in 1932 where he began acting in school plays only after he was cut from the basketball team. His...
, who delivered her
eulogyA eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services, however some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions...
, remembered Tuttle:
- She could just take hold of a part and do something with it... I think she never met a part she didn't like. She just loved to work, she loved to act. She's a woman who was born to do what she was doing and loved every minute of it.
Quotations
- "I could play opposite Jimmy Stewart
James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart was an American film and stage actor, best known for his self-effacing persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
or Fredric MarchFredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and in 1946 for The Best Years of Our Lives.-Early life:...
or Cary GrantArchibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was a British-American actor...
or Gary CooperFrank James “Gary” Cooper was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, individualistic, emotionally restrained, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
and Leslie HowardLeslie Howard Steiner , better known by his stage name Leslie Howard, was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer...
, and on the air I could be the most glamorous, gorgeous, tall, black-haired female you've ever seen in your life. Whatever I wished to be, I could be with my voice, which was the thrilling part to me."---On radio acting with major film stars doing radio guest turns.
- "There are very clever people in the business now who are just voice characters, who... turn on Voice 36 or Voice 9 or Voice 12 or something. But we always worked from the full person, at least I did, and I know that all of us tried to work that way because that's the only honest way to do it. You have to have a person who lives and breathes and walks and is alive, rather than just turning on a voice. You could conjure up, through imagination, anything you wanted to be." — On whether she was merely a voice artist.
- "He got steamed up and the half-hour show didn't really satisfy him, so he kept the audience there afterwards... He did at least an hour, sometimes an hour and a half." — On Red Skelton
Red Skelton , born Richard Bernard Skelton, was an American comedian who was best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971...
's being unable to stop performing after each installment of his half-hour show was done for the night.
- "Dear Lurene, Thank you for pulling me through so many broadcasts---fondly, Ronnie." --A note Tuttle received from actor Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
, who was fond of radio and accepted numerous radio jobs himself when film roles became harder for him to come by in his later years.
Listen to
External links