Character actress Beulah Bondi entered the theatre at age 7, playing the male role of Little Lord Fauntleroy; it would be her last role in drag and one of the very few times that she'd play a character her own age. Upon graduation from Valparaiso University she joined a stock company, working throughout the country until her 1925 Broadway debut in "Wild Birds". Even in her late twenties and early thirties, Bondi specialized in playing mothers, grandmothers, and society dowagers. She made her first film, "Street Scene", in 1931, concentrating on movies thereafter. She is best known to modern film fans for her role as James Stewart's mother in the Christmastime favorite "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946). It was but one of several occasions (among them "Vivacious Lady" in 1938 and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" in 1939) that she played Stewart's mother; as late as 1971, Bondi was playing the same role in the short-lived sitcom "The Jimmy Stewart Show". Even after her official screen retirement - her last film was "Tammy and the Doctor" in 1963 - Bondi kept herself open for television roles, including an Emmy-winning 1977 performance on the dramatic TV series "The Waltons". Despite the fact that she was known for playing mother figures, Bondi never married in real life. She died from pulmonary complications due to broken ribs suffered when she tripped over her cat on January 11, 1981, aged 92.
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