Cora Witherspoon on AllMovie

Cora Witherspoon began her 50-year career as a character actress at age 17, playing a septuagenarian in the New York production In Concert. She spent the better part of her Hollywood years portraying imperious society matrons, domineering maiden aunts, and henpecking hausfraus. Most filmgoers closely associate Witherspoon with her portrayal of W. C. Fields' slatternly wife in The Bank Dick (1940); despite their on camera animosity, Witherspoon and Fields were friends in real life, frequently exchanging complimentary correspondence. Though she preferred to work in New York, Cora Witherspoon continued commuting to Hollywood into the 1950s to maintain a decent standard of living.