Mary Rose Brady (1892-1939) will have found it relatively easy to break into the New York film industry, given that her first picture, As Ye Sow (1914) was made by William A Brady Productions, her father’s company. She had previously acted on stage, including in a Broadway production with which her father was associated. She continued to work in the theatre during her film career, including a leading role in the 1931 premiere of Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra.
Brady acted in films until 1923, then concentrated on the stage until travelling to Hollywood in 1933. After one supporting role at MGM, she starred in two musicals, playing very different kinds of stage mother: Broadway to Hollywood and Stage Mother.
Alice Brady’s most beloved role is probably as Carole Lombard’s batty mother in My Man Godfrey (1936), which earned her a nomination for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. She won in the category the following year, for her part in In Old Chicago (1938), this time as Tyrone Power’s mother, responsible for starting the cataclysmic fire.
Brady’s final role was as yet another mother, the noble Abigail Clay in John Ford’s Young Mr Lincoln (1939)a
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