Patricia Collinge

Patricia Collinge was born in Dublin, Ireland on September 20, 1892. Collinge was best known for her role as the tragic alcoholic "Birdie Hubbard" in The Little Foxes. She was educated first by a visiting governess and then at a girls' school. She took dancing and piano lessons none of which interested her. She finally settled on being an actress. She made her first stage appearance at age 12 at the Garrick Theatre on December 21, 1904, as a Chinese doll in a Little Black Sambo. Her first New York stage appearance was on December 7, 1908 in The Queen of the Moulin Rouge. Collinge debuted in film in 1941 in The Little Foxes, reprising her stage role as Birdie Hubbard, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Other films include Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Tender Comrade (1943), and The Nun's Story (1959). She also reportedly worked with Alma Reville (Hitchcock's wife) and Ben Hecht on the screenplay for Hitchcock's next film, Lifeboat (1944), starring her former co-star Tallulah Bankhead. Collinge married James Nichols Smith, an investment counselor, on June 10, 1921. The marriage lasted many decades but produced no children. She died on April 10, 1974 in Manhattan, aged 81, following a heart attack.