Percy Kilbride

Although Universal-International had promised him Ma and Pa Kettle at Home (1954) would be the last Ma and Pa Kettle movie, the studio made two more movies without him. The starring role he left vacant was filled by Arthur Hunnicutt as Pa's brother in The Kettles in the Ozarks (1956), and Parker Fennelly as Pa himself in The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm (1957). Neither movie was as profitable as the seven in which Kilbride played Pa.

Had originally wanted Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1953) to be his swan song, but was lured by Universal-International to do Ma and Pa Kettle at Home (1954) on the condition that it would be the last Ma and Pa Kettle movie.

He was billed third behind Robert Cummings and Ann Blyth in Free for All (1949).

As a result of their successful collaboration in The Egg and I (1947), he and Marjorie Main were reunited in Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin' (1948), their first and only non-Ma and Pa Kettle movie.

It began in earnest with the part of Orion Peabody in the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn wartime drama Keeper of the Flame (1942); Kilbride was already fifty-four by then.

He had a long career in theater before making movies, playing hundreds of roles, mostly rustic bumpkins, in stage and stock. His film career included two isolated early films: White Woman (1933) and Soak the Rich (1936).