Boland, Mary (1880–1965)

American actress. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 28, 1880; died in June 1965; daughter of W.A. Boland (an actor from Detroit); mother unknown; attended Sacred Heart Convent school in Detroit, Michigan.

Films include:

The Edge of the Abyss (1915); The Price of Happiness (1916); The Stepping Stone (1916); Mountain Dew (1917); The Prodigal Wife (1918); The Perfect Lover (1919); His Temporary Wife (1920); Secrets of a Secretary (1931); The Night of June 13th (1932); Evenings for Sale (1932); Trouble in Paradise (1932); If I had a Million (1932); Mama Loves Papa (1933); Three-Cornered Moon (1933); The Solitaire Man (1933); Four Frightened People (1934); Six of a Kind (1934); Melody in Spring (1934); Stingaree (1934); Here Comes the Groom (1934); Down to Their Last Yacht (1934); The Pursuit of Happiness (1934); Ruggles of Red Gap (1935); People Will Talk (1935); The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935); Two for Tonight (1935); Early to Bed (1936);

A Son Comes Home (1936); Wives Never Know (1936); College Holiday (1936); Marry the Girl (1937); Danger—Love at Work (1937); There Goes the Groom (1937); Artists and Models Abroad (1938); Little Tough Guys in Society (1938); The Magnificent Fraud (1939); The Women (1939); Night Work (1939); He Married His Wife (1940); New Moon (1940); Pride and Prejudice (1940); In Our Time (1944); Nothing but Trouble (1945); Julia Misbehaves (1948); Guilty Bystander (1950).

Following in her actor-father's footsteps, Mary Boland made her debut in Detroit in 1901, as Eleanor Burnham in A Social Highwayman, and played in various stock companies while still a teenager. Her Broadway debut came in 1905, as Dorothy Nelson in Strongheart. Although she started as a tragedienne, she eventually made her mark in comedy. Boland was at her best portraying madcap, scatterbrained wives and mothers on stage in the 1920s and in films during the 1930s. Her portrayals of the stepmother in Clarence (1919) and the flighty matron in The Vinegar Tree (1930) were two such successful stage roles. Between theater and films, Boland's career spanned five decades. One of her most memorable film roles was opposite Charlie Ruggles in Ruggles of Red Gap, in 1935. She last appeared on the New York stage as the domineering mother in the 1954 production of Lullaby.