Outspoken & Freckled

Born in Brooklyn, New York on St. Valentine’s Day in 1905, Thelma Ritter was doing stock company bit parts around New York even before finishing high school.  Thelma later trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked for 14 years on stage, mostly in New England stock companies.  She worked on radio for much of the 1940s, would go on to win a Tony Award for Best Actress in a musical in 1958 for “New Girl in Town,” would receive six Academy Award nominations, all for Best Supporting Actress and received an EMMY nomination in the same category for a “Goodyear Playhouse” 1951 version of “The Catered Affair.”  Thelma Ritter was the epitome of what I consider a “working actress,” both because she continued to work in several mediums while gaining accolades in film and because of the “down to Earth,” everywoman persona she portrayed throughout her screen…