(January 28, 1882 – June 23, 1965) was an American stage and film actress.
Born Marie Anne Boland
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, she was the daughter of William Boland, an actor, and his wife Mary Cecilia Hatton. She had an older sister named Sara.
Boland originally was in a convent but left and was performing on stage by the age of fifteen. She debuted on Broadway
in 1907 in the play The Ranger
with Dustin Farnum
and had appeared in eleven Broadway productions, notably with John Drew
, before making her silent film
debut for Triangle
Studios in 1915. She entertained soldiers in France during World War I
then returned to America. After appearing in nine movies, she left filmmaking in 1920, returning to the stage and appearing in a number of Broadway productions. She became famous as a comedienne.
Boland's greatest success on the stage in the 1920s was the comedy The Cradle Snatchers
(1925–26), in which she, Edna May Oliver
, and Margaret Dale
, having been abandoned by their husbands, take on young lovers. Boland's paramour was Humphrey Bogart
in one of his first roles.
After an eleven year absence, in 1931 she returned to Hollywood
under contract to Paramount Pictures
. She achieved far greater film success with her second try, becoming one of the 1930s most popular character actresses, always playing major roles in her films and often starring, notably in a series of comedies opposite Charles Ruggles
Boland appeared in numerous... Read More