Blossom Rock
Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald (August 21, 1895 – January 14, 1978), also known as Blossom Rock, was an American actress of vaudeville, stage, film and television. During her career she was also billed as Marie Blake or Blossom MacDonald. Her younger sister was screen actress and singer Jeanette MacDonald.
Also recorded as Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald · Marie Blake · Blossom MacDonald
Blossom Rock

Promotional photo · CC0
- Born
- 1895. · Philadelphia.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- actress.
- Languages
- English.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald (August 21, 1895 – January 14, 1978), also known as Blossom Rock, was an American actress of vaudeville, stage, film and television. During her career she was also billed as Marie Blake or Blossom MacDonald. Her younger sister was screen actress and singer Jeanette MacDonald.
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Note VALÉORINE
Blossom Rock (1895–1978) was an actor, actress and film actor, among other activities, of American nationality. The actor was born in Philadelphia and died in Los Angeles. Languages used include English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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Authority files
wikidata · Q273814 · wikipedia · Blossom Rock
In this article
Personal life
Personal life
Rock is best known for her role as "Grandmama" on the 1960s macabre/black comedy sitcom The Addams Family.
Blossom Rock was born on August 21, 1895, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the second of three daughters born to Anna May (née Wright) and Daniel McDonald. The family later changed the spelling of their last name to MacDonald. As a youth, Blossom first performed in vaudeville with her younger sister, Jeanette. She had an elder sister, Elsie Wallace MacDonald, who had also been a vaudeville performer and then operated a dance school until 1962. She married actor Clarence Warren Rock, on September 26, 1926, in Manhattan, and they performed as a vaudeville act titled "Rock and Blossom" from 1925 to 1929. Clarence Rock died in 1960, and the couple had no children.
Career
Career
Rock adopted the name Marie Blake for her film career, beginning as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player in 1937 with an uncredited appearance in My Dear Miss Aldrich. Her first credited major part was Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), and she then played her most notable onscreen role as Sally, the hospital switchboard operator, in the nine films that comprised MGM's popular Dr. Kildare series from 1938 to 1942. She once had the same agent as Irene Ryan, whose similar career later caused Rock to fire him. Rock returned to using her real name in the 1950s, and later gained her biggest fame by playing "Grandmama" on the ABC sitcom The Addams Family, which was originally broadcast from 1964 to 1966. In October 1964, she made a public appearance in character at a haunted house at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
Illness and death
Illness and death
Rock suffered a stroke in December 1967 that affected her speech and prevented her from reuniting with fellow castmates for the 1977 television film Halloween with the New Addams Family. However, she reportedly watched the film from the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital. She died at age 82 on January 14, 1978, in Los Angeles, and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Philadelphia.
Birth place
Los Angeles.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Blossom Rock”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q273814: Blossom Rock
Unverified · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Inman, Julie. Addams' Grandmama Visits Haunted House. The Indianapolis Star. October 22, 1964.
- 2.Mansour, David. From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century. Andrews McMeel Publishing. 190. 2005. 978-0-7407-9307-3.
- 3.Gross, Ed. Here's What Happened to the Cast of 'The Addams Family' — and Not a Lot of it Was Good!. Closer Weekly. 2020-08-05.
- 4.Rowan, Terry. Character-Based Film Series Part 1. Lulu.com. 60. September 16, 2016. 978-1-3654-2105-1.
- 5.J. MacDonald's Sis Plays Granny Addams. El Paso Herald-Post. 30. July 17, 1965.
- 6.Obituaries: Clarence W. Rock. Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. 6. July 18, 1960.
- 7.Cox, Stephen. The Addams Chronicles: An Altogether Ooky Look at the Addams Family. Harper Paperbacks. 119. 1991. 978-0-0609-6897-7.
- 8.Chapter 3 - 1964-1982. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
- 9.Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons. McFarland. 637–638. 2016. 978-0-7864-7992-4.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Partially resolvedauthority record
Unverified
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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