Reta Shaw (September 13, 1912 – January 8, 1982) was an American character actress known for playing authoritative women, housekeepers, and domineering wives, especially on television.
Loved her in "Escape to Witch Mountain"
by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 24, 2016 5:48 PM |
She was great in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. I don't know why she wasn't given bigger roles.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 24, 2016 5:52 PM |
She's too young for DL's demographic. She'd take off here if she were more matured.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 24, 2016 6:01 PM |
And with Hermine Baddaley --another great--in MARY POPPINS.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | July 24, 2016 6:02 PM |
Her little soft shoe routine in PAJAMA GAME (starting at 3:35 in this clip) with Eddie Foy, Jr. is a classic. She's so elegant and light on her feet despite her bulk.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | July 24, 2016 6:06 PM |
Was she in Pollyanna!???
by Anonymous | reply 6 | July 24, 2016 6:07 PM |
Love that voice of hers!
Chain smoker??
by Anonymous | reply 7 | July 24, 2016 6:11 PM |
A trans trailblazer!
by Anonymous | reply 8 | July 24, 2016 6:15 PM |
She was awesome as bossy Aunt Hagatha on [italic]Bewitched[/italic] -- always giving poor Clara a hard time about her broom-driving skills.
Hagatha: Clara, stick to business!
Clara, Oh, keep yer shirt on!
by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 24, 2016 6:30 PM |
Yes, she was in "Pollyanna" as the cook.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | July 24, 2016 6:37 PM |
[quote]Her little soft shoe routine in PAJAMA GAME (starting at 3:35 in this clip) with Eddie Foy, Jr. is a classic.
Thanks for the link, R5. That number is the very best part of that movie.
Reta Shaw's career had lots of variety, for sure. Recently, I saw her in an early episode of The Andy Griffith Show, where she played one of three criminals who escaped from prison and held Barney hostage in a vacant cabin just outside of Mayberry. It was a hoot.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | July 24, 2016 6:43 PM |
Love her. It must not have been easy for her to get as much work as she did. She was in PICNIC as one of Roz Russell's old maid schoolteacher cronies.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | July 24, 2016 6:49 PM |
Love her perfect Maine accent! I miss hearing that.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | July 24, 2016 6:53 PM |
Also perfect in the TV series "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir."
by Anonymous | reply 14 | July 24, 2016 7:03 PM |
She was a kindergarten teacher bitten by the acting bug. Helene Hanff did a nice profile of working with Shaw in summer theater in the book "Underfoot in Show Business."
by Anonymous | reply 15 | July 24, 2016 7:07 PM |
R5 and R12, she originated those roles in PICNIC and PAJAMA GAME on Broadway before the films.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | July 24, 2016 7:13 PM |
She was ideal at playing an old busybody or battleaxe who lacked sympathy. She usually did it with a comedic flair.
The actress did not like it when writers used her weight as a joke. So fat jokes were out, although her size was the elephant in the room, so to speak.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | July 24, 2016 7:23 PM |
Gay?
by Anonymous | reply 18 | July 24, 2016 7:24 PM |
Trans
by Anonymous | reply 19 | July 24, 2016 7:27 PM |
She was Mary Wickes, with class.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | July 24, 2016 7:28 PM |
She played Aunt Hagatha on Bewitched!
She would be perfect to play Barbara in the Barbara Bush story.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | July 24, 2016 8:38 PM |
Her look was very typical of women in their 50s and 60s. Now 70-year-olds try to look 39.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | July 24, 2016 8:40 PM |
Op, you're very unusual dude
by Anonymous | reply 23 | July 24, 2016 8:40 PM |
Reta Shaw HAS BEEN a DL fave since day 1! People mention her and her work all the time! Where ya been?
by Anonymous | reply 24 | July 24, 2016 8:41 PM |
Was she also the old bag who played the maid on I love Lucy?
by Anonymous | reply 25 | July 24, 2016 8:43 PM |
R25, no, that was Vivian Vance.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | July 24, 2016 8:44 PM |
She does look like Bill Frawley in a cheap wig
by Anonymous | reply 27 | July 24, 2016 9:59 PM |
I think of her whenever someone says old battle axe.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | July 24, 2016 10:10 PM |
She was a mean mean lady who touched me in my no no place
by Anonymous | reply 29 | July 24, 2016 10:13 PM |
R25 No, that was Verna Felton.
Another great character actress and voice actress.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | July 25, 2016 11:51 AM |
Why, this thread is bigger than the, than the Whispering Steeple in Kansas City.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | July 25, 2016 12:28 PM |
Milo, you haven't touched your tapioca!
by Anonymous | reply 32 | July 25, 2016 12:41 PM |
I've been a fan of hers for YEARS.
Check out her performance in "Paris When It Sizzles" as a cocktail society chanteuse.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | July 25, 2016 12:50 PM |
Didn't she play a butterfly on "I Dream of Jeannie"?
by Anonymous | reply 34 | July 25, 2016 12:54 PM |
R33 here:
I meant "Made in Paris."
by Anonymous | reply 36 | July 25, 2016 1:04 PM |
Her role as Big Maude Tyler in the episode "Convicts-at-Large" on The Andy Griffith Show is a classic.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | July 25, 2016 1:50 PM |
R13, I don't hear an accent; she speaks with that mid-Atlantic style they used to get with voice lessons.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | July 25, 2016 1:51 PM |
I eat shit.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | July 25, 2016 2:23 PM |
Have either of you ridden with Clara lately? Suicide! SHEER SUICIDE!
by Anonymous | reply 40 | July 25, 2016 2:41 PM |
She is a lot of fun as Robinson Peepers' doting aunt Marion who travels to Jefferson City just to watch him teach science on Mister Peepers. She is also great in All Mine to Give as the town busybody who tries to kidnap Glynis Johns' youngest daughter.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | July 25, 2016 2:57 PM |
She was on "The Lucy Show" playing a bitch who was resisting a summons. Lucy spots her in a department store, delivers the summons and also tells her that she almost didn't recognize her since she dyed her hair and got fatter.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | July 25, 2016 2:58 PM |
Wasn't she married to George Bernard Shaw?
by Anonymous | reply 43 | July 25, 2016 3:10 PM |
She just popped up in a Dick Van Dyke show ep. She was the unemployment lady. Rob: That's Petrie P E T R I E... Robert R O B Reta: E R T. Thank you.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | July 25, 2016 3:34 PM |
R42 That was a first-season episode of "Here's Lucy." Reta did appear on a third-season episode of "The Lucy Show" as a "society woman" Lucy and the Countess were trying to persuade to invest in the Countess's charm school. It's a parody of "My Fair Lady" with Lucy as "Liza" and the Countess in the "Higgins" role. Notably, Reta is called a "fat lady" during the episode.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | July 25, 2016 3:53 PM |
No one escaped with their dignity intact after working with Lucy.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | July 25, 2016 4:24 PM |
I had'er.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | July 25, 2016 5:59 PM |
[quote]No, that was Verna Felton. Another great character actress and voice actress.
She died exactly one day before Walt Disney.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | July 25, 2016 6:04 PM |
No kidding, R49, you too?
by Anonymous | reply 52 | July 25, 2016 6:08 PM |
If Reta Shaw got in a fight with Kathleen Freeman, who would win?
by Anonymous | reply 53 | July 25, 2016 6:36 PM |
she was fat and always played some kind of domestic
by Anonymous | reply 54 | July 25, 2016 9:54 PM |
Is she in the 'Hag Hall of Fame'?
by Anonymous | reply 55 | July 25, 2016 10:19 PM |
r12, she worked CONSTANTLY. She had no trouble finding wonderful roles.
But did she pronounce her name Retta or Rita?
by Anonymous | reply 56 | July 25, 2016 10:20 PM |
I had had no idea until recently that she and Joan Blondell had any sort of careers prior to Ghost and Brides.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | July 25, 2016 10:45 PM |
Was she the inspiration for that total lezbomb 'Alice' on the 'Brady Bunch'???
by Anonymous | reply 58 | July 25, 2016 10:52 PM |
She should have played Kay on The Brady Bunch.
Maybe she was busy on Ghost and Mrs Muir at that time.
She's my favorite old battle-axe.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | July 25, 2016 10:55 PM |
It's funny but I never thought of her as a battle-axe because she usually played loyal sympathetic domestics. She rarely was cast as uppercrust snob.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | July 25, 2016 10:58 PM |
I always liked her but never knew her name.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | July 25, 2016 11:01 PM |
I remember seeing "The Pajama Game" a few years ago for the first time and being especially delighted by that number at R5. I was surprised that so many of the songs were familiar to me. As far as I know I never saw it and Original Cast Albums weren't exactly a staple of the house I grew up in. Gay osmosis? Mr. Peepers?
Like most successful character actors -- there was just something really likable about Reta and you were always happy to see her make an appearance in whatever tv show or movie you happened to be watching.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | July 25, 2016 11:30 PM |
[quote]But did she pronounce her name Retta or Rita?
She pronounced it Retta.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | July 26, 2016 4:10 AM |
Her hand gestures in "I'll Never Be jealous Again" are sublime.
by Anonymous | reply 64 | July 26, 2016 4:19 AM |
What r60 said -- she was the kind and jolly giantess that children love.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | July 26, 2016 4:23 AM |
Although she had studied acting in college, Reta Shaw was a school teacher in a small town in western Maine. During the Great Depression the WPA built a modest but lovely summer theater in a neighboring village. In those glory days of the "citronella circuit," many famous performers appeared on that stage while touring in stock. Reta was a volunteer ticket taker for a couple summers, getting the see all the shows for free. Shaw said to herself, "I can do that as well as any of them can." She gave up teaching to try her luck in Manhattan where her distinct type and commanding presence helped gain her work on stage and live television. Picnic and The Pajama Game took her from Broadway to Hollywood where she worked for the last twenty years of her career.
By the way, she played Mister Peepers' Aunt Lillian, not Marion.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | July 26, 2016 4:32 AM |
She really is light on her feet despite her size. Thanks r5.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | July 26, 2016 4:55 AM |
Married?
by Anonymous | reply 68 | July 26, 2016 8:57 AM |
Did she suffer fools?
by Anonymous | reply 69 | July 26, 2016 11:40 AM |
One Christmas one of my brothers was asked to say the blessing.As we bowed our heads and held hands we heard Taro Karo Solomon! Dad was not amused but it was a funny moment.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | July 26, 2016 12:34 PM |
She ate all the Fairy Toast. Every piece. The Queen was crestfallen.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | July 26, 2016 12:59 PM |
That Mr. Peepers clip in the Reta montage was charming. What a shame that the series is forgotten and isn't seen more today. Though I'm not sure audiences' lack of attention spans would have the patience to stick with something so fragile (and I don't just mean Wally Cox).
by Anonymous | reply 72 | July 26, 2016 2:47 PM |
I always thought maybe her and our Aunt Bea may have.....
by Anonymous | reply 73 | July 26, 2016 4:22 PM |
I've always loved Irma Kronkite and the "girls."
by Anonymous | reply 74 | July 26, 2016 4:35 PM |
I worked with someone whose family was friends with Reta Shaw. He said she she was very friendly and funny as hell. Went by the name of Reta Forrester in private life. She was in the film Picnic; my friend said she claimed that William Holden was drunk during the entire filming and that when he wasn't drunk, he and Kim Novak disappeared for hours at a time.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | July 26, 2016 6:39 PM |
Irma Kronkite! Could the name be any more fitting?
by Anonymous | reply 76 | July 26, 2016 6:40 PM |
Wally Cox gives me a boner.
by Anonymous | reply 77 | July 27, 2016 2:40 PM |
R47, I remember that episode as well. Because of the way it develops, you actually felt sorry for Reta because Lucy, after transformation, does act like, well, Lucy and Reta is outraged by it.
by Anonymous | reply 78 | July 27, 2016 2:58 PM |
She delivers the wit and vinegar in The Ghost and Mrs Muir.
It's not a cloying or sticky sitcom and part of that is due to Reta's distinct delivery.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | July 27, 2016 3:21 PM |
Here is Rita Shaw's Obituary from The New York Times
Reta Shaw, Was Mabel In 'The Pajama Game' Published: January 18, 1982
Reta Shaw, the chubby actress who pleased Broadway audiences in her comic role as Mabel in 'The Pajama Game' in 1952, died in Encino Calif., on Jan. 8. She was 69 years old.
Miss Shaw had appeared also in 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,' 'Picnic' and 'Annie Get Your Gun,' the last on tour with Mary Martin.
On television, she was seen with Red Skelton, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball and Andy Griffith and on the 'Mr. Peepers' series, 'Armstrong Circle Theater,' 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' and 'The Millionaire.'
She had featured roles in several motion pictures, including 'Picnic' and 'The Pajama Game.' Miss Shaw was a native of South Paris, Me., and a graduate of the Leland Powers School of the Theater in Boston.
She was married to William Forester, an actor. She leaves a daughter, Kathryn Anne Forester of Sherman Oaks, Calif., and a sister, Marguerite Shaw of Bronxville, N.Y.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | July 27, 2016 3:22 PM |
Because it's Friday and I love Reta.
by Anonymous | reply 82 | January 26, 2018 4:42 PM |
She would have been a perfect Mama Morton in CHICAGO.
by Anonymous | reply 83 | January 26, 2018 4:52 PM |
If she was 69 in ‘82 - she was 39 in that Pajama Game clip - 1952. Could that be right?
Loved her as a kid as well.
by Anonymous | reply 84 | January 26, 2018 5:37 PM |
r84 That reminds of that quote from Elaine Stritch, "I was twenty, I looked forty, I got the job."
by Anonymous | reply 85 | January 26, 2018 5:40 PM |
Ok - the obit is wrong PJ Game was ‘57 - so she was an ancient 44. I guess she played 60 for 30 years.
by Anonymous | reply 86 | January 26, 2018 5:40 PM |
I loved her. She was very good in any role she performed.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | January 26, 2018 6:43 PM |