![]() Pitts had demanded a salary hike of $8000 per script, so Roach terminated her services. In 1933, reputedly after seeing her in Flying Colors, producer Hal Roach hired Kelly to team up with Thelma Todd in a series of short-subject comedies, and to replace her then-current co-star ZaSu Pitts after a contract dispute, beginning with Beauty and the Bus (1933). Kelly made her screen debut in a Vitaphone short subject filmed there in Brooklyn, The Grand Dame (1931), where she plays a rich gangster's rich moll. Film career Lobby card for short comedy The Tin Man (1935) with Patsy Kelly and Thelma Todd The early 1930s In her later years, she appeared in No, No, Nanette (1971) with Ruby Keeler and Jack Gilford, and Irene (1973) with Debbie Reynolds. In other Broadway activity, she performed in Three Cheers (1928) with Will Rogers and Dorothy Stone, Earl Carroll's Sketch Book (1929) with William Demarest and Faith Bacon, Earl Carroll's Vanities (1930) with Jack Benny and Jimmy Savo, The Wonder Bar (1931) with Al Jolson, and in the Howard Dietz-Arthur Schwartz musical revue Flying Colors (1932) with Clifton Webb, Imogene Coca, Buddy Ebsen, and Charles Butterworth. Kelly made her Broadway debut in 1927, performing in Harry Delmar's Revels with Bert Lahr and Winnie Lightner at the Shubert Theatre. Fay remarked, "And they didn't wait on you?" She remained with Fay for several seasons until Fay eventually dismissed her, either for refusing a proposal of marriage and for not calling him by his surname, or refusing to travel to England. ![]() He thought it was sissy stuff, anyhow." In one routine, Kelly told Fay and the audience that she had been at the beauty parlor. (Willie) originally tried out for the job, but ultimately, it was Kelly who ended up landing the position at The Palace Theatre with Fay, while Willie went to work at the Waldorf Astoria, after being Fay's chauffeur for a spell. ![]() She performed in Frank Fay's act, first in a song-and-dance routine and later as Fay's comic foil. I liked the dancing and in time I began to teach in the school where I had just been studying." He thought perhaps that would get me interested in something besides baseball. "So," Kelly once recalled, reminiscing about the years leading up to that, "Father Quinn, who knew about me and my tap, advised my mother to send me to dancing school. In 1923, at age 13, she advanced from pupil to instructor, raking in $18 a week but coming home at nearly two or three in the morning. Paul's Cathedral School, then Professional Children's School with Keeler. It was at this point her parents decided to send her to dancing school, where she broke her ankle at the end of her first week. She fell from a fire escape when she was seven, was struck by an automobile when she was eight, and was involved in no less than five accidents in one week at the age of nine. She had had more than her share of scrapes when she was young. Learning how to tap dance at Jack Blue's School of Rhythm and Tap, she befriended future talent and fellow hoofer Ruby Keeler. In 1922 she began her entertainment career in vaudeville as a dancer at the age of 12. "I was always spinning and tripping about the house, usually over chairs." She was originally inspired to become a firefighter decades before the field would open to the first FDNY woman in 1982, but her mother enrolled her in a dancing school to keep her off the streets of Manhattan. She acquired the nickname "Patsy" by being the butt of her family's gentle teasing and becoming the "fall guy" for many of their shenanigans. She was the youngest of five children, only two of whom were born in America. Her father John was a police officer who left Ballinrobe, County Mayo, Ireland around 1900 to escape persecution. Kelly was born Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly in Brooklyn, New York to Irish immigrant parents John and Delia Kelly. She continued appearing in film and television roles until she suffered a stroke in January 1980 that limited her ability to speak.Įarly life and early career Youth and formative years Kelly returned to the stage in the 1971 revival of No, No, Nanette, for which she won a Tony Award. Kelly returned to the screen after 17 years with guest spots on television and in film roles. She also became a lifelong friend and personal assistant of Tallulah Bankhead. Kelly's career continued in similar roles after Todd's death in 1935.Īfter her film career declined in the mid-1940s, Kelly returned to New York, where she worked in radio and summer stock. She is known for her role as the brash, wisecracking sidekick to Thelma Todd in a series of short comedy films produced by Hal Roach in the 1930s. Patsy Kelly (born Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly Janu– September 24, 1981) was an American actress. Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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