Biography

The daughter of actor-manager Samuel Rupert Woods and actress Lillie Roberts, Ethel Griffies began her own stage career at the age of 3. She was 21 when she finally made her London debut in 1899, and 46 when she made her first Broadway appearance in "Havoc" (1924). Discounting a tentative stab at filmmaking in 1917, she made her movie bow in 1930, repeating her stage role in Old English (1930). Habitually cast as a crotchety old lady with the proverbial golden heart, she alternated between bits and prominently featured roles for the next 35 years. Her larger parts included Grace Poole in both the 1934 (Jane Eyre (1934)) and 1943 (Jane Eyre (1943)) versions of "Jane Eyre" and "Mrs. Bundy", the amateur ornithologist in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). Every so often she'd take a sabbatical from film work to concentrate on the stage; she made her last Broadway appearance in 1967, at which time she was England's oldest working actress. Presumably at the invitation of fellow Briton Arthur Treacher, Ethel was a frequent guest on TV's The Merv Griffin Show (1962), never failing to bring down the house with her wickedly witty comments on her 80 years in show business.
- IMDb mini biography by: ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)

At the time of her death she was the oldest working actress in English Theatre. Her career began as a baby in 1881 when she was carried onstage by her acting parents.

Ethel Griffies played (uncredited) the Landlady in BOTH Waterloo Bridge (1931) & Waterloo Bridge (1940). She was Mrs. Hobley in the earlier version and Mrs. Clark in the later version.

She played Grace Poole in both the 1934 and 1943 versions of Jane Eyre.

Parents were players Samuel Rupert Woods and Lillie Roberts.

Her first husband's stage name was 'Walter Beaumont'.

They get to know your face too well out there in Hollywood, and you're finished.