Audrey Christie

On stage since 1943, American actress Audrey Christie entered films with 1952's Deadline USA. She settled into a series of brittle roles as "other women," supercilious society dragons, or blowsy older ladies whom the younger hero had unwisely taken up with. Examples of Christie's screen personae include her performance in Carousel (1956) as Mrs. Mullins, the employer and erstwhile lover of ne'er-do-well carney barker Billy Bigelow (Gordon MacRae). In 1961's Splendor in the Grass, Christie was the frustrated, authoritarian mother of mixed-up teenager Natalie Wood, whose nastiness all but forced Wood into her tryst with Warren Beatty. A more glamorous but no less unpleasant Christie appeared in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), as a pretentious Denver society leader whose snooty attitude towards nouveau riche Molly Brown (Debbie Reynolds) earns her a pie in the face. Audrey Christie also did plenty of television, including a stint on the very early live comedy Young and Gay (1950), and an (uncharacteristic) nice role as Eddie Foy Jr.'s patient wife on the 1962 sitcom Fair Exchange.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide