ELLEN CORBY

June 3, 1911 – April 14, 1999

Ellen Hansen Corby was born in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1911, just two months before Lucille Ball. An interest in amateur theater while in high school led her to Atlantic City in 1932, where she briefly worked as a chorus girl.  A year later she moved to Hollywood. She spent 11 years as a script clerk and doing extra work. Corby is best remembered for the role of Grandma Walton on the CBS series “The Waltons” (1971-81) for which she won three Emmy Awards. She was also nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Aunt Trina in I Remember Mama (1948). That film also featured “Lucy” performers Florence Bates (Mrs. Pettebone) and Rudy Vallee. 

In addition, she appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), Sabrina (1954) starring William Holden, and the perennial holiday favorite It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) with Lucy character actors Charles Lane and Sheldon Leonard. 

Besides being the same age, Corby started film acting in 1933, just like Lucille Ball, and entered television around 1950, just like Lucy. Both became two of the medium’s most cherished female stars. 

Lucy-lovers fondly remember Corby as Miss Hanna, Lucy McGillicuddy’s high school drama teacher from Jamestown in “Lucy Meets Orson Welles” (ILL S6;E3) in 1956.  

Miss Hanna traveled to New York City just to see Lucy perform Shakespeare with Orson Welles – not knowing that she is merely the assistant in his magic act.  

Two years before her Oscar nomination for I Remember Mama, Corby did two films with Lucille Ball. 

In The Dark Corner (1946), Corby she played a new maid who meets a nasty ending her first day on the job.  

In Lover Come Back (1946), she played Lucille Ball’s secretary. The cast also included Charles Winninger, who played Fred Mertz’s old vaudeville partner, Barney Kurtz. 

During the first season of “The Lucy Show” in 1963, Corby played a Woman in the Park (with Benny Rubin), who watches in disbelief as Lucy Carmichael (in her bathrobe and slippers) wildly chases an escaped butterfly, wreaking havoc as she does!  

A few months later, Corby returned to “The Lucy Show” at the start of season three (now filmed in color), to play Miss Tanner, Danfield Bank secretary. This episode also marked the debut of Gale Gordon as Mr. Mooney. 

Corby and Ball were both in attendance for “The All-Star Party for Carol Burnett” on December 12, 1982. Corby was essentially ‘in the audience’ and did not speak, while Lucille Ball was there as a former honoree and Burnett’s mentor. 

When CBS celebrated their 50th Anniversary with a week of specials titled “On The Air” the Sunday night, March 26, 1978, kick-off featured CBS stars from each evening of the week in a grand parade. Naturally, Lucille Ball represented Mondays, while Corby joined the Thursday group representing “The Waltons.” 

The Corby Connection!

During her long run on “The Waltons” Corby acted opposite several “Lucy” alumni.

Helen Kleeb played Miss Mamie Baldwin on 47 episodes of “The Waltons” but first she played Mr. Reilly’s MGM secretary in “Ricky Needs an Agent” (ILL S4;E29) in 1955. 

John Ritter played the Reverend Fordwick in 18 episodes of “The Waltons” and later played himself on “Life With Lucy” in 1986.  

Peggy Rea played Rose Burton on 3 episodes of “The Waltons” but first played a member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in several episodes of “I Love Lucy” and was also a member of Lucy Carter’s Bridge Club on “Here’s Lucy.” 

William Schallert played Stanley Perkins on four episodes of “The Waltons” but played Mr. Cresant, Danfield Tigers Little League Manager, on season one of “The Lucy Show.” Like Corby, he also returned for at start of the more colorful season two. 

Lucy’s good friend and frequent guest star Mary Wickes played Cousin Octavia in a May 1981 episode of “The Waltons” (opposite Helen Kleeb) but unfortunately Ellen Corby was not in the show that week. 

In an even weaker connection to Corby, just after Desi Arnaz Jr. left “Here’s Lucy,” he was in the 1971 film Red Sky at Morning starring future John Boy Walton Richard Thomas. The film also featured “Lucy” character actors Strother Martin (“Off to Florida”) and Richard Crenna (“The Young Fans”). Before marrying Desi Arnaz Jr. in 1980, Linda Purl starred in two episodes of “The Waltons,” one of which featured Corby. 

In 1963, Corby did an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show,” filmed on the Desilu backlot, and later did two episodes of its spin-off, “Gomer Pyle USMC” – one in 1964, and another in 1969. “The Andy Griffith Show” was a spin-off of “The Danny Thomas Show” which did a rare TV cross-over with “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” titled “Lucy Makes Room for Danny” in 1957. In return, Lucy and Desi turned up on Thomas’s show as the Ricardos. In 1966, Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) made a cameo appearance on “The Lucy Show,” which means that both Lucy Ricardo and Lucy Carmichael both exist in the same world!  

“I can’t go anywhere without meeting someone I worked with. When the children on ‘The Waltons’ heard that I worked with Laurel and Hardy, I was in”. ~ Ellen Corby

In 1934, Ellen married Francis Corby, a director / cinematographer who was two decades her senior; they divorced in 1944. The marriage did not produce children and she never remarried. Following a stroke in November 1976, Corby was supported by her partner, Stella Luchetta, whom she met in the 1950s and who lived with her until her death in 1999 at the age of 87.