Lee Patrick
Photos with Lee Patrick
Biography
New York City, New York, USA
Lee Patrick could play a tough, scrapping, hard-bitten dame as she did in the gritty women's prison drama Caged (1950), or the meek and twittery socialite wife as exemplified as Doris Upson in the freewheeling farce Auntie Mame (1958). The versatile character actress had plenty of places to go in films and TV and she did, for over five decades. Born in New York City in 1901, Lee's father was an editor of a trade paper who prompted her interest in theater. Read more... a long and popular NY stage presence during the 20s and early 30s with such scene-stealing roles in June Moon, Little Women, Blessed Event and Stage Door. Good notices in the last play led to an RKO contract and steady secondary film work starting in 1937. By the 40s she had became an invaluable Warner Bros. stock player enhancing such movies as The Sisters (1938), Saturday's Children (1940), Dangerously They Live (1941), Now, Voyager (1942), Mrs. Parkington (1944), and Mildred Pierce (1945). However, probably her best known role of that period was that of Effie, the wry, altruistic Girl Friday to 'Humphrey Bogart (I)' 's Sam Spade in the classic The Maltese Falcon (1941). Lee also found time to do radio with a running part on The O'Neils. During her potboiler run at Warners, she seemed to play everything with a biting, cynical edge, from nurses to floozies, but in the mid-50s the now matronly actress suddenly seemed to blossom before our very eyes into a dithery and obtuse Billie Burke-like delight as she geared herself toward comedy eccentrics. TV got a heads up on this angle when she played society doyenne Henrietta Topper, the flighty, quivery-voiced wife of Leo G. Carroll on the popular ghostly sitcom Topper (1953) which ran from 1953 to 1955. And there would be other fun and fluttery turns in Pillow Talk (1959) and 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964), to name a couple. In the mid-1960s Lee retired to travel and paint, but was coaxed back one more time to revive her role of Effie in the Maltese Falcon spoof The Black Bird (1975). The only one joining her from the original cast was Elisha Cook Jr..
Long and happily married to newsman-writer Tom Wood of "The Lighter Side of Billy Wilder," Lee was plagued by health problems in later years and died of a heart seizure in 1982. They had no children.
Long and happily married to newsman-writer Tom Wood of "The Lighter Side of Billy Wilder," Lee was plagued by health problems in later years and died of a heart seizure in 1982. They had no children.
Actor

Character:
Flora Gibbon
The Sisters 1938
14

Character:
Molly
Invisible Stripes 1939
5

Character:
Gladys
City for Conquest 1940
17

Character:
Florrie Sands
Saturday's Children 1940
3

Character:
Delia Snedeker
South of Suez 1940
2

Character:
Mary Larrabee
Ladies Must Live 1940
3

Character:
Blondie White
Footsteps in the Dark 1941
3

Character:
Rose Fairchild
The Smiling Ghost 1941
1

Character:
Josie La Rue
Million Dollar Baby 1941
27

Character:
Nurse Johnson
Dangerously They Live 1941
1

Character:
Mrs. Pettijohn
Honeymoon for Three 1941
4

Character:
Betty Trent
Kisses for Breakfast 1941
5

Character:
'Deb' McIntyre
Now, Voyager 1942
5

Character:
Betty Wilmoth
In This Our Life 1942
6

Character:
Rena Leslie
George Washington Slept Here 1942
4

Character:
Polly Franklin
A Night to Remember 1942
2

Character:
Dorcas
Jitterbugs 1943
6

Character:
Miss Pennington
Nobody's Darling 1943
5

Character:
Agatha Parkinson
Larceny with Music 1943
8

Character:
Madeleine Parkington Swann
Mrs. Parkington 1944
8

Character:
Fay Lawrence
Gambler's Choice 1944
2

Character:
Mrs. Blake
Moon Over Las Vegas 1944
9

Character:
Cora Elliott
Faces in the Fog 1944
1

Character:
Mrs. Maggie Biederhof
Mildred Pierce 1945
8

Character:
Gladys Hopkins
Keep Your Powder Dry 1945
6

Character:
Lil
Mother Wore Tights 1947
31

Character:
Asylum Inmate
The Snake Pit 1948
9

Character:
Melissa Price
The Doolins of Oklahoma 1949
3

Character:
Rose
Take Me to Town 1953
4

Character:
Marge
There's No Business Like Show Business 1954
31

Character:
Car Owner Mistaken for Madeleine
Vertigo 1958
2

Character:
Mrs. Walters
Pillow Talk 1959
6

Character:
Rheba Spelding
Visit to a Small Planet 1960
1

Character:
Mrs. Howard Cassin
7 Faces of Dr. Lao 1964
2

Character:
Mrs. Hitchcock
The New Interns 1964
1

Character:
Mrs. Paisley
The Far Out West 1967
1

Character:
Effie Perine
The Maltese Falcon 1941
0

Character:
Mrs. Ewell
Summer and Smoke 1961
0

Character:
Elvira Powell
Caged 1950
0

Character:
Lelah Dolan
The Untouchables 1959
0

Character:
Connie
Mr. Adams and Eve 1957
0

Character:
Doris Upson
Auntie Mame 1958
9

Character:
Geraldine Addison
The Farmer's Daughter 1963
0

Character:
Maudie Baker
The Donna Reed Show 1958
0

Character:
Phoebe
Pete and Gladys 1960
0

Character:
Emmie Wasey
The 20th Century-Fox Hour 1955
0

Character:
Mrs. Leota Carreway
The Rifleman 1958
0

Character:
Nona Rumson
77 Sunset Strip 1958
0

Character:
Aunt Wilma
The Real McCoys 1957
0

Character:
Eva Clark
The Thin Man 1957
0

Character:
Madame Fleury
Goodbye Again 1961
2

Character:
Cora
Hazel 1961
1

Character:
Woman
Queen Esther & Purim 0
0