Spring Byington

Orphaned as a child, Colorado-born Spring Byington became a professional actress with the Elitch Garden stock company at age 14. Even as a young woman, Ms. Byington specialized in portraying middle-aged dowagers, fussbudgets, flibbertigibbets and small-town gossips. Her first Broadway success was in the role of Louella Parsons clone Helen Hobart in Kaufman and Hart's Once in a Lifetime (1930). Three years later, she made her film debut as Marmee in Little Women. Her myriad of film credits included You Can't Take It With You (1938), for which she was Oscar-nominated. Her TV acting credits include her portrayal of Lily Ruskin on the popular sitcom December Bride, which ran from 1954 through 1959; she then rather unexpectedly popped up as a regular on a western, Laramie. One of Spring Byington's last performances was as society dowager "J. Pauline Spaghetti" on a 1967 episode of Batman. - Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide