Kathleen Freeman

Kathleen Freeman (February 17, 1923August 23, 2001) was an American actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed acerbic maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors and relatives, almost invariably to comic effect. In film, she is perhaps best remembered for appearing in 11 Jerry Lewis comedies in the 1950s and 1960s, The Blues Brothers (1980) and its sequel, and Naked Gun : The Final Insult (1994). Early life Freeman was born on February 17, 1923, in Chicago, Illinois. She began her career as a child, dancing in her parents' vaudeville act. Freeman was a Democrat who supported Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election. She was also a practitioner of Religious Science International Career Film Freeman made her film debut in Wild Harvest (1947). For a short time in the early 1950s, Freeman was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player, appearing mostly in small and uncredited bit parts. Her most notable early role was an uncredited part in the 1952 MGM musical Singin' in the Rain as Jean Hagen's diction coach Phoebe Dinsmore.