Alice Brady, 1892-1939

Alice Brady in a scene from My Man Godfrey (1936)

Today marks the birth anniversary of character actress Alice Brady, who was born on this day in 1892. Brady did some silent work back when they were making silents in New York, and then spent a decade concentrating on the stage before Hollywood called and her her in sound movies several years after the transition. Her first talkie was 1933's When Ladies Meet, and it kicked off a successful, if all too brief career in Hollywood.

Brady would have supporting roles in a bunch of fun movies, such as My Man Godfrey pictured above, where she plays flighty mother to Carole Lombard; or One Hundred Men and a Girl, where she plays a flighty matron who screws up Deanna Durbin's dreams. She also appeared with Durbin in Three Smart Girls. But it was for In Old Chicago that Brady won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Sadly, Brady was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, which in the 1930s was even more of a death sentence than it might be today. She died a few days before her 47th birthday.