Ricca Allen on AllMovie

Enjoying one of the longest careers in screen history, Canadian-born character actress Ricca Allen came to films in 1914 after decades on the legitimate stage. Specializing in playing spinsters, Allen also portrayed a witch in swimming star Annette Kellerman's Daughter of the Gods (1916) and menaced Viola Dana in Aladdin's Other Lamb (1917). There were many other such roles in the 1920s and Allen continued her busy career well into the sound era, often playing stern housekeepers or schoolteachers. By the 1940s, she rarely achieved onscreen billing but can be spotted as Mrs. Thing in Carole Lombard's They Knew What They Wanted (1940) and as one of the rock people in Hal Roach's One Million B.C. (1940).