Kathleen Freeman (February 17, 1923 – August 23, 2001) was an American actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed acerbic maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors and relatives, almost invariably to comic effect. In film, she is perhaps best remembered for appearing in 12 Jerry Lewis comedies in the 1950s and 1960s and The Blues Brothers (1980).

Early life

Freeman was born on February 17, 1923 in Chicago, to Jessica Dixon, a soprano known as "The Overseas Girl" at the end of World War I, and Frank Freeman, known as "The Minstrel Man". Dixon entertained American troops in England, France, and post-war Germany, while Freeman headed Freeman's Forty Musical Minstrels in 1918. The couple married in 1922. Freeman began her career as a age 2, dancing in her parents' vaudeville act, Dixon and Freeman, then got caught at ten years old. Freeman attended the University of California at Los Angeles, majored in music to be a classical pianist, "got in a play and got a laugh".

Career

Stage

Freeman then worked in the Circle Players on Santa Monica Boulevard. "'I became part of a theater group that came from ULCA, the Circle Players, which got to be at one point fairly internationally famous. And then we split off from that and started our own, Player's Ring and Gallery Theater.' - Kathleen Freeman"

Television

In 1948, Peggy Webber saw Freeman on stage at the Circle Theatre, and hired her for Webber's live local series "Treasures of Literature", her first television job. From 1988 to 2001, Freeman appeared in more than 50 productions of the California Artists Radio Theatre, which records live performances of classic books and plays for KPCC (FM), KPFK NPR Playhouse, and National Public Radio, for Peggy Webber, the executive director. In addition to teaching acting classes in the Los Angeles area, Freeman was a familiar presence on television. In 1958–59, she appeared three times on Buckskin, a children's program set in a hotel in a fictitious Montana town. She appeared from the 1950s until her death in regular or recurring roles on many sitcoms, including six episodes of The Bob Cummings Show (as Bertha Krause), Topper (as Katie the maid), and The Donna Reed Show (as Mrs. Celia Wilgus, the Stones' busybody next door neighbor). In 1964, she appeared in five episodes of The Lucy Show. Later, she was cast on Hogan's Heroes as Frau Gertrude Linkmeyer. In 1973, she had a co-starring role with Dom DeLuise in the sitcom Lotsa Luck (based on the British sitcom On the Buses). She appeared in several episodes of Wagon Train, Funny Face (as Kate Harwell), I Dream of Jeannie (as a grouchy supervisor in a fantasy preview of Major Nelson's future, and later as a hillbilly), the short-lived prehistoric sitcom It's About Time (as Mrs. Boss), and as a nurse in Love, American Style. Freeman played Sgt. Carter's mother in a 1969 episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., as well as appearing as a different character in a 1968 episode of the same series. She also made multiple appearances on The Beverly Hillbillies as various characters. She appeared as the voice of Peg Bundy's mom, an unseen character in several episodes of Married... with Children. She also appeared in episodes of Mama's Family, Growing Pains, Simon & Simon, ALF, L.A. Law, The Golden Girls, Doogie Howser, M.D., Roseanne, Coach, ER, Home Improvement, and many other shows in the 1980s and 1990s. She remained active in her final years with a regular voice role in As Told by Ginger, a voice bit in the animated feature film Shrek, and a guest appearance on the sitcom Becker. She received a Tony Award nomination and a Theatre World Award for her role as Jeannette Burmeister in the musical version of The Full Monty. In her final episode of As Told by Ginger, "No Hope for Courtney", Freeman's character Mrs. Gordon retires from her teaching job. The script originally was written to have Gordon return to Lucky Elementary School, but Freeman died during production, so the episode was rewritten to have Gordon die as well and was dedicated in Freeman's memory.

Film

For a short time in the early 1950s, Freeman was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player, appearing mostly in small and uncredited bit parts. Her most notable early role was an uncredited part in the 1952 MGM musical Singin' in the Rain as Jean Hagen's diction coach Phoebe Dinsmore. Beginning with the 1954 film 3 Ring Circus, Freeman became a favorite foil of Jerry Lewis, playing opposite him in 11 films. These included most of Lewis's better-known comedies, including The Disorderly Orderly as Nurse Higgins, The Errand Boy as the studio boss's wife, and The Nutty Professor as Millie Lemon. Over 30 years later, she made a brief appearance in Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. Her other film roles included appearances in The Missouri Traveler (1958), The Fly (1958), the Western spoofs Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971), and appearances in a spate of comedies in the 1980s and 1990s. Freeman played Sister Mary Stigmata (referred to as the Penguin) in John Landis' The Blues Brothers (1980) and Blues Brothers 2000 (1998). She also played a foul-mouthed apartment building manager in Dragnet (1987), a teacher in Hocus Pocus (1993), and a gangster mother in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994). She also had cameos in Joe Dante's Innerspace (1987) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) (as tipsy cooking host Microwave Marge). Her final film role was in Shrek (2001), where she played an old woman. In the 1973 film The Sting, Freeman appeared in a family photo for Kid Twist’s character (played by Harold Gould) in the Western Union office scene.

Personal life

She was a Democrat who supported Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election. Weakened by illness, Freeman was forced to leave the Full Monty cast. Five days later, she died of lung cancer at age 78 at Lenox Hill Hospital. She was cremated and her ashes interred in a niche at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. She never married and she had no children. The report of her death in the British newspaper The Guardian mentioned her "long-time companion Helen Ramsey"; Playbill's report referred to Ramsey as Freeman's "longtime and best friend", and similarly Variety called her Freeman's "best friend". Helen Ramsey and Freeman were University of California at Los Angeles students at the same time.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games