Josephine Hull


Actor

About

Also Known As
Josephine Sherwood
Birth Place
Newtonville, Massachusetts, USA
Born
January 03, 1884
Died
March 12, 1957
Cause of Death
Cerebral Hemorrhage

Biography

Although she boasted a 50-year career, Hull is best known for her later roles as plump, scatterbrained matrons. Born Josephine Sherwood to a well-to-do New England family, the hopeful actress attended Radcliffe and The New England Conservatory of Music before making her stage debut in stock in 1905. After some years as a chorus girl and touring stock player, she married actor Shelley Hul...

Photos & Videos

Arsenic and Old Lace - Scene Stills
Harvey - Lobby Cards

Family & Companions

Shelley Vaughan Hull
Husband
Actor. Married from 1910 until his death in 1919; older brother of actor Henry Hull (1890-1977).

Notes

"She has a distinctive gift for comedy and the scatter-brained ladies she creates so brilliantly are the antithesis of the lady herself who has an even disposition and a well-balanced mind." --Daniel Blum in GREAT STARS OF THE AMERICAN THEATER, 1951

"Miss Hull is a vastly skillful trouper who knows what to do with a pause, an inflection, a glance, a jolting utterance--who can nearly always get more out of a line or scene than the author wrote into it." --critic Ward Morehouse, quoted in Current Biography, 1953.

Biography

Although she boasted a 50-year career, Hull is best known for her later roles as plump, scatterbrained matrons. Born Josephine Sherwood to a well-to-do New England family, the hopeful actress attended Radcliffe and The New England Conservatory of Music before making her stage debut in stock in 1905. After some years as a chorus girl and touring stock player, she married actor Shelley Hull (younger brother of the more well-known actor Warren Hull) in 1910. When her husband died in 1919, the actress retired until 1923, when she returned under the name Josephine Hull.

Hull had her first major stage success in George Kelly's Pulitzer-winning "Craig's Wife" in 1926. Kelly wrote a role especially for her in his next play "Daisy Mayme" which also was staged in 1926. She continued working in New York theater throughout the 1920s. In the 30s, Hull scored in three great Broadway hits, as a batty matriarch in "You Can't Take It With You" (1936), as an agreeably homicidal aunt in "Arsenic and Old Lace" (1941), and in "Harvey" (1944). The plays all had long runs, and took up ten years of Hull's career.

Hull only made five films, beginning with two 1932 Fox features, "After Tomorrow" (recreating her stage role) and "The Careless Lady." She missed out on recreating her "You Can't Take It With You" role in 1938, as she was still onstage with the show (Spring Byington filled in onscreen). But Hull and Jean Adair did play the Brewster sisters in the 1944 film "Arsenic and Old Lace," and Hull was in the screen "Harvey" as well. It is for that role that she won her 1950 Oscar as Best Supporting Actress. "Variety" said that Hull, as "the slightly balmy aunt who wants to have Elwood committed, is immense, socking the comedy for every bit of its worth."

Hull made only one further film, the 1951 "The Lady from Texas," and appeared in the CBS-TV version of "Arsenic and Old Lace" in 1949 (with Ruth McDevitt as her sister). Moving to the Bronx, Hull had been retired for some years before her death in 1957.

Life Events

1905

Made stage debut with Castle Square Stock Company in Boston, Massachusetts

1919

Retired from acting after death of her husband, actor Shelley Hull

1923

Returned to acting in NY stage production of "Roger Bloomer"

1926

First major stage success in the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Craig's Wife"

1932

Film debut, in "After Tomorrow"

1936

Had major stage success with "You Can't Take It with You"

1949

Only major TV appearance, "Arsenic and Old Lace" on CBS

1951

Last film appearance, "The Lady From Texas"

Photo Collections

Arsenic and Old Lace - Scene Stills
Here are some scene stills from Frank Capra's Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), starring Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, and Raymond Massey.
Harvey - Lobby Cards
Here are several Lobby Cards from Harvey (1950), starring James Stewart. Lobby Cards were 11" x 14" posters that came in sets of 8. As the name implies, they were most often displayed in movie theater lobbies, to advertise current or coming attractions.

Videos

Movie Clip

Harvey (1950) -- (Movie Clip) Dowd's My Name Opening director Henry Koster’s treatment of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Mary Chase, James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd, Josephine Hull his sister Veda, whom she also played on Broadway, Victoria Horne as the daughter Myrtle Mae, in Harvey, 1950.
Harvey (1950) -- (Movie Clip) This Person You Call Harvey Veda (Josephine Hull), with her brother Elwood (James Stewart, not seen) already hustled away by the sanitarium staff, explains to Dr. Sanderson (Charles Drake) why she’s having him committed, leading to substantial confusion, in Harvey, 1950, from the Mary Chase play.
Arsenic And Old Lace (1944) -- (Movie Clip) I Hope There's A Fatted Calf Daffy Aunts Abby and Martha (Josephine Hull, Jean Adair) are wondering why nephew Mortimer (Cary Grant, not seen) is so upset over their murder habit when his criminally insane brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey), with sidekick Einstein (Peter Lorre), appears, in Arsenic And Old Lace, 1944.
Arsenic And Old Lace (1944) -- (Movie Clip) Murder Will Out Just married famous critic Mortimer (Cary Grant) discussing a long lost brother with Aunt Abby (Josephine Hull), preparing a celebration with Aunt Martha (Jean Adair), presumes their crazy brother Teddy is to blame, as he discovers their shocking hobby, in Frank Capra's Arsenic And Old Lace, 1944.
Arsenic And Old Lace (1944) -- (Movie Clip) All Alone In The World Mortimer (Cary Grant) is desperate to delay his bride (Priscilla Lane) and have his uncle committed, having just discovered his aunts Abby and Martha (Josephine Hull, Jean Adair) like to poison old men, when a candidate (Edward McWade) appears, in Arsenic And Old Lace, 1944.

Trailer

Family

William H Sherwood
Father
Perfume importer.
Mary Elizabeth Sherwood
Mother
Board of education executive.

Companions

Shelley Vaughan Hull
Husband
Actor. Married from 1910 until his death in 1919; older brother of actor Henry Hull (1890-1977).

Bibliography

Notes

"She has a distinctive gift for comedy and the scatter-brained ladies she creates so brilliantly are the antithesis of the lady herself who has an even disposition and a well-balanced mind." --Daniel Blum in GREAT STARS OF THE AMERICAN THEATER, 1951

"Miss Hull is a vastly skillful trouper who knows what to do with a pause, an inflection, a glance, a jolting utterance--who can nearly always get more out of a line or scene than the author wrote into it." --critic Ward Morehouse, quoted in Current Biography, 1953.