1. Patsy Kelly is known for her role as the brash, wisecracking sidekick to Thelma Todd in a series of comedy shorts produced by Hal Roach in the 1930s.
38 Facts About Patsy Kelly
1. 2.
Patsy Kelly became a lifelong friend and personal assistant of Tallulah Bankhead.
3.
Patsy Kelly returned to the screen after 17 years with guest spots on television and sporadic film roles.
4.
Patsy Kelly returned to the stage in the 1971 revival of No, No, Nanette, for which she won a Tony Award.
5.
Patsy Kelly's father was a police officer who left Ballinrobe, County Mayo, Ireland around 1900 to escape persecution.
6.
Patsy Kelly was the youngest of five children, only two of whom were born in America.
7.
Patsy Kelly acquired the nickname "Patsy" by being the butt of her family's gentle teasing and becoming the "fall guy" for many of their shenanigans.
8.
Patsy Kelly fell from a fire escape when she was seven, was struck by an automobile when she was eight, and was involved in no less than five accidents in one week at the age of nine.
9.
Patsy Kelly first attended St Paul's Cathedral School, then Professional Children's School with Keeler.
10.
Patsy Kelly thought perhaps that would get me interested in something besides baseball.
11.
Patsy Kelly performed in Frank Fay's act, first in a song-and-dance routine and later as Fay's comic foil.
12.
Patsy Kelly made her Broadway debut in 1927, performing in Harry Delmar's Revels with Bert Lahr and Winnie Lightner at the Shubert Theatre.
13.
Patsy Kelly made her screen debut in a Vitaphone short subject filmed there in Brooklyn, The Grand Dame, where she plays a rich gangster's moll.
14.
Patsy Kelly, therefore, was quite reluctant to make the transition to films at first, but Thelma Todd encouraged her to remain in Hollywood, and so she did.
15.
Todd even drove to Pasadena to stop Patsy Kelly from returning on the train bound for New York.
16.
Patsy Kelly helped Kelly with her finances and tax trouble during the first few stages of her move out west.
17.
Shortly after filming wrapped on Beauty and the Bus, in August 1933, Patsy Kelly was injured as a passenger in a car driven by Gene Malin, the prominent drag performer.
18.
Patsy Kelly was told by the doctors that she had only ten years left to live based on the amount of sandy water that got into her lungs, but actually survived for decades after the accident.
19.
The Todd-Patsy Kelly shorts cemented Patsy Kelly's image: a brash, freewheeling, fun-loving, wisecracking woman who frequently punctured the pomposity of other characters.
20.
Patsy Kelly was a strong New England woman with a powerful sense of humor and a wonderful zest for life.
21.
In 1935, before Todd's death, and after Stan Laurel had a falling out with Hal Roach over a contract disagreement, there was talk of Patsy Kelly joining Oliver Hardy to play his wife and Spanky McFarland's mother in a series called The Hardy Family, but the project was jettisoned when Laurel returned to the fold.
22.
Patsy Kelly was in the running to play Laurel's wife in Sons of the Desert, but her part was eventually filled in by Dorothy Christy.
23.
Patsy Kelly co-starred with her predecessor ZaSu Pitts in Roach's train comedy Broadway Limited around this period.
24.
Patsy Kelly worked as a personal assistant to Tallulah Bankhead and appeared with her on stage in Dear Charles.
25.
Patsy Kelly later moved into Bankhead's mansion "Windows" in Bedford Village, New York acting as her domestic, or "guest resident".
26.
In 1971, Patsy Kelly returned to Broadway in the revival of No, No, Nanette with fellow hoofers Ruby Keeler and Helen Gallagher.
27.
Patsy Kelly scored a huge success as the wisecracking, tap-dancing maid, and won Broadway's 1971 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in the show.
28.
Patsy Kelly matched that success the following year when she starred in Irene with Debbie Reynolds, and was again nominated for a Tony.
29.
In 1976, Patsy Kelly appeared as the housekeeper Mrs Schmauss in the Walt Disney film Freaky Friday starring Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris.
30.
Patsy Kelly's final onscreen appearance was a guest spot in a two-part episode of The Love Boat in 1979.
31.
Patsy Kelly continued appearing in film and television roles until she suffered a stroke in January 1980 that limited her ability to speak.
32.
Patsy Kelly told a biographer that she was a "big dyke" but forbade him to publish that information until her career was over; it was published in 1994.
33.
Patsy Kelly later confirmed that she had an affair with Tallulah Bankhead when she worked as her personal assistant.
34.
Patsy Kelly loved food and eventually learned how to cook well.
35.
Patsy Kelly was wild about sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows.
36.
In January 1980, Patsy Kelly suffered a stroke while in San Francisco that caused her to lose the ability to speak.
37.
Patsy Kelly was admitted to Englewood Nursing Home in Englewood, New Jersey, on the advice of her old friend Ruby Keeler, where she underwent therapy.
38.
Patsy Kelly is interred alongside her parents, John and Delia Kelly, in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.