Thelma Ritter

About Thelma Ritter

Thelma Ritter (February 14, 1902 – February 5, 1969) was an American Tony Award-winning character actress of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Ritter was born in Brooklyn, New York. After appearing in high school plays and stock companies, she trained as an actress at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She went on to establish a stage career but took a hiatus to raise her two children (her daughter is the actress Monica Moran) by her advertising-executive husband, Joseph Moran. Ritter then resumed her career on radio in the early 1940s.

Ritter did stock theater and radio shows early in her career, without much impact. Ritter's first movie role was in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). The 45-year-old made a memorable impression in a brief uncredited part, as a frustrated mother unable to find the toy that Kris Kringle has promised to her son. Her second role, in writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's A Letter to Three Wives (1949), also left a mark, although Ritter was again not listed in the credits.