Nora Cecil
Nora Cecil (September 26, 1878 – May 1, 1951) was an English-born American actress whose 30-year career spanned both the silent and sound film eras.
Nora Cecil

film screenshot (Artcraft Pictures Corporation) · [1] · Public domain
- Name
- Nora Cecil
- Born
- 26 September 1878
- Birthplace
- London, England
- Died
- 1 May 1951
- Place of death
- Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Occupation
- Actress
- Nationality
- United States
- Languages
- English
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Nora Cecil (September 26, 1878 – May 1, 1951) was an English-born American actress whose 30-year career spanned both the silent and sound film eras.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Nora Cecil. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1603313 · wikipedia · Nora Cecil
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Nora Cecil • Born — 26 September 1878 • Birthplace — London, England • Died — 1 May 1951 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Occupation — Actress • Years Active — 1915–1947 • Children — 2
Stage
Stage
Cecil's career began on the stage, when she debuted in London at age 19. She appeared in the Broadway production The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast, which ran for more than 240 performances at the Broadway Theatre in 1901–1902. (A 1930 newspaper article says that Cecil "made her debut, three decades ago, on the London stage.")
Personal life and death
Personal life and death
Cecil was married to real estate broker Russell Evans, who died in 1949. They had two children: Dorothy Cecil, who was also an actress, with a short stage-career, and Kenneth Russell Evans, who became a petroleum engineer. She was cremated.
Filmography
Filmography
(Per AFI database) • The Arrival of Perpetua (1915) • Alias Jimmy Valentine (1915) • The Wild Girl (1917, as Norah Cecile) • Royal Romance (1917) • The Little Duchess (1917) • American Buds (1918) • By Hook or Crook (1918) • The Love Net (1918) • The Zero Hour (1918) • The Appearance of Evil (1918) • The Power and the Glory (1918) • Prunella (1918) • Miss Crusoe (1919) • Woman, Woman! (1919) • Red Foam (1920) • The Daughter Pays (1920) • Footfalls (1921, uncredited) • Manslaughter (1922) • Darwin Was Right (1924) • The Deadwood Coach (1924) • Lightnin (1925, uncredited) • His Majesty, Bunker Bean (1925) • Born to Battle (1926, uncredited) • Chip of the Flying U (1926) • Midnight Faces (1926) • The Passionate Quest (1926) • The Demi-Bride (1927) • The Devil Dancer (1927) • The Fortune Hunter (1927) • Sensation Seekers (1927) • Born to Battle (1927) • The Silent Rider (1927) • A Trick of Hearts (1928) • The Big City (1928) • The Cavalier (1928) • The Baby Cyclone (1928) • Driftwood (1928) • Seven Footprints to Satan (1929) • The Little Accident (1930) • Only Saps Work (1930) • Outward Bound (1930) • Seven Days Leave (1930) • Street Scene (1931) • Caught Plastered (1931) • The Ruling Voice (1931) • Stepping Sisters (1932) • Doctor Bull (1933) • The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) • Peg O' My Heart (1933) • Design for Living (1933) • Laughing Boy (1934) • The Old Fashioned Way (1934) • You're Telling Me! (1934) • Upperworld (1934) • 6 Day Bike Rider (1934) • Glamour (1934) • Chained (1934) • The Merry Widow (1934) • Pursued (1934) • Search for Beauty (1934) • Once to Every Woman (1934) • Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935) • Collegiate (1935) • Car 99 (1935) • Way Down East (1935) • Vagabond Lady (1935) • Woman Wanted (1935) • Grand Exit (1935) • Memories and Melodies (1935), a short about American composer Stephen Foster of Kentucky trying to sell a song at a local shop. She played a grumpy customer. • Dancing Pirate (1936) • Poppy (1936) • Fury (1936) • Career Woman (1936) • College Holiday (1936) • Girl of the Ozarks (1936) • Little Miss Nobody (1936) • Laughing at Trouble (1936) • We Went to College (1936) • Nothing Sacred (1937) • Champagne Waltz (1937) • The Mighty Treve (1937) • Easy Living (1937) • Night of Mystery (1937) • Blossoms on Broadway (1937) • Borrowing Trouble (1937) • She Asked for It (1937) • Partners in Crime (1937) • King of Alcatraz (1938) • Mr. Boggs Steps Out (1938) • International Settlement (1938) • No Time to Marry (1938) • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939) • Stagecoach (1939) as Boone's Landlady (uncredited) • The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939) • Union Pacific (1939) • Saint Louis Blues (1939) • What a Life (1939) • Anne of Windy Poplars (1940) • Lucky Partners (1940) • Those Were the Days! (1940) • The Captain Is a Lady (1940) • Young People (1940) • Queen of the Mob (1940) • A Girl, a Guy and a Gob (1941) • It Started with Eve (1941) • Three Girls About Town (1941) • Unexpected Uncle (1941) • Little Men (1941) • Apache Trail (1942) • Call Out the Marines (1942) • Daring Young Man (1942) • I Married a Witch (1942) as Harriet Wooley • Jail House Blues (1942) • Obliging Young Lady (1942) • Tish (1942) • The Wife Takes a Flyer (1942) • The Unknown Guest (1943) • The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) • Together Again (1944) • The Thin Man Goes Home (1945) • Lady on a Train (1945) • Molly and Me (1945) • Johnny Comes Flying Home (1946) • The Kid from Brooklyn (1946) • The Missing Lady (1946) • No Leave, No Love (1946) • Two Sisters from Boston (1946) • Hollywood Bound (1946) • Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) • The Sea of Grass (1947)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1878
Nora Cecil born at London.
1951
Nora Cecil died at Los Angeles.
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.
London.
Birth place
Los Angeles.
Death place
Film
Cecil appeared in well over 100 feature films and film shorts. In 1915, she moved from the stage into films, her first appearance being in a starring role in The Arrival of Perpetua, directed by Émile Chautard. She often played "welfare workers, landladies, schoolmistresses and maiden aunts". • Illustration — Cecil in Street Scene (1931) • Illustration — Cecil in Nothing Sacred (1937) One of the most significant roles was in the W.C. Fields vehicle The Old Fashioned Way in 1934. Some of the other notable films in which Cecil appeared include Ernst Lubitsch's historical romance The Merry Widow, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald; the 1939 version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, starring Mickey Rooney; and the John Ford classic Stagecoach, with John Wayne. Her final acting performance was in a small role as Louisa Ames in Mourning Becomes Electra in 1947, starring Rosalind Russell.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
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 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
37,408 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Noora NiasariPerson
- Noot SeearPerson
- Nora ArmaniPerson
- Nora AunorPerson
- Nora DenneyPerson
- Nora DunnPerson
- Nora EphronPerson
- Nora FingscheidtPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Nora Cecil?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.