Dandy Nichols

A short, doughfaced British actress, Dandy Nichols spent virtually a lifetime playing middle-class housewives (complete with hairnet), scrubwomen and domestics. Typical of her film roles was her one-line bit in the Beatles' Help! as the villain's mother ("Oh, he's a good boy!"). At first playing docile characters, Nichols' screen personality became more belligerent as the Women's Rights movement took hold. Dandy Nichols' most lasting media contribution was as the feckless Else Garnett on the British TV sitcom Til Death Do Us Part -- a character later Americanized as Edith Bunker (Jean Stapleton) on All in the Family.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide