17 Facts About Ellen Corby

Ellen Hansen Corby was an American actress and screenwriter.

Ellen Corby played the role of Esther "Grandma" Walton on the CBS television series The Waltons, for which she won three Emmy Awards.

Ellen Corby was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Aunt Trina in I Remember Mama.

Ellen Corby moved to Hollywood that same year and got a job as a script girl at RKO Studios and Hal Roach Studios, where she often worked on Our Gang comedies, alongside her future husband, cinematographer Francis Corby.

Ellen Corby held that position for the next 12 years and took acting lessons on the side.

Ellen Corby began her career as a writer at Paramount studios working on the western Twilight on the Trail.

Ellen Corby received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as a lovelorn aunt in I Remember Mama.

Ellen Corby appeared as the elderly Mrs Lesh, the crooked car peddler, on CBS's The Andy Griffith Show.

Ellen Corby went on to resume her role on the weekly television series The Waltons.

Ellen Corby won a Golden Globe award for best supporting actress in a TV series for The Waltons, and was nominated another three times.

Ellen Corby left the show November 10,1976, owing to a massive stroke she had suffered at home, which impaired her speech and severely limited her mobility and function.

Ellen Corby's role dropped to recurring during The Waltons' final two seasons, though she later resumed her role as Grandma Walton in five of the six Waltons reunion movies between 1982 and 1997.

In 1954, Ellen Corby met Stella Luchetta, a friend for the rest of her life.

In 1969 Ellen Corby was trained by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, to become a teacher of Transcendental Meditation.

Ellen Corby had been practicing the technique for several years before.

Ellen Corby suffered a stroke in November 1976 from which she recovered and returned to her role on The Waltons in March 1978.

When she failed to show up for work, Geer immediately suspected something was wrong as Ellen Corby was a true professional who was never late.