Jessie Ralph's early life as a sailor's daughter led her to the stage at the age of 16, where she began performing with a stock company in either Boston, Massachusetts, or Providence, Rhode Island, in the year 1880. It would take her 26 years to make her Broadway debut in "The Kreutzer Sonata", where she enjoyed third billing as a seasoned actress.
For over two decades, Jessie established herself as a character actress on Broadway, taking on various roles such as nurses, maids, and aunts. She worked with renowned playwrights like George M. Cohan and acted in Shakespearean plays, including "Twelfth Night" and "Romeo and Juliet". In 1923, she played the role of Juliet's nurse in a production that ran for an impressive 174 performances, alongside Eva Le Gallienne and Katharine Cornell.
Jessie's Hollywood career began in 1933, when she reprised her Broadway role as Aunt Minnie in "Child of Manhattan". Her relatively brief tenure in Hollywood was marked by a series of notable performances. She played the iconic role of Peggotty in "David Copperfield" (1935) and was Greta Garbo's loyal maid Nanine in "Camille" (1936). Jessie also portrayed the matriarch of the Whiteoaks in "Jalna" (1935),an adaptable society matron in "San Francisco" (1936),and a mother-in-law to W.C. Fields in "The Bank Dick" (1940).
Whether in comedy or drama, Jessie consistently delivered strong performances, playing a Chinese aunt in both stage and screen adaptations of "The Good Earth" (1937) and a kind sorceress in "The Blue Bird" (1940). The New York Times praised her performance in "I Live My Life" (1935),stating, "Jessie Ralph as the tyrannical head of the family, proves again that she is the best of the screen grandmothers."
After a leg amputation in 1941, Jessie retired from acting and passed away three years later.
