Catherine Doucet

American character actress from the theatre, former school teacher. On the New York stage since 1906 with 'Brown of Harvard', co-starring Laura Hope Crews. She acted under her maiden name Catherine Calhoun until 1920, then adopted the surname of her husband, the actor Paul Doucet, appearing almost exclusively in comedy. Her major successes included 'Miss Lulu Bett' (1920-21) and 'The Potters' (1923-24) as Ma Potter. Catherine Doucet made just a handful of films before the mid-1930's, only coming to the fore as Martha Dobie's (played by Miriam Hopkins) selfish aunt Lily Mortar in These Three (1936), based on Lillian Hellman's play 'The Children's Hour'. Film critic Frank S. Nugent described her performance as 'flawless'. For the rest of her career, Catherine portrayed a variety of indomitable matrons and society ladies. She gave excellent comic support in both stage and screen versions of 'As Husbands Go' and made a memorable foil to W.C. Fields in Poppy (1936).