Biography
Katherine Elisabeth Wilson (August 19, 1916 – November 23, 1972), better known by her stage name, Marie Wilson, was an American radio, film, and television actress. She may be best remembered as the title character in My Friend Irma. Wilson began her career in Hollywood in the 1934 film Down to Their Last Yacht as a ship passenger, and then appeared in Babes in Toyland as Mary Quite Contrary. She appeared in Ladies Crave Excitement (1935), The Girl Friend (1935), Stars Over Broadway (1935), Miss Pacific Fleet (1935), The Big Noise (1936), Melody for Two (1937), Boy Meets Girl (1938), Sweepstakes Winner (1939), Virginia (1941), She's in the Army (1942), You Can't Ration Love (1944), Young Widow (1946), and Never Wave at a WAC (1952). Her career got a boost when she performed at Harold Lloyd's Beverly Hills Little Theatre for Professionals, which led to her being cast in Boy Meets Girl in 1938. In 1936, she played Miss Murgatroyd in Satan Met a Lady, a loose adaptation of the 1929 novel The Maltese Falcon1 by Dashiell Hammett. She was in The Great Garrick as Nicolle in 1937. Wilson was in Fools for Scandal as Myrtle in 1938. She was in Waterfront in 1939 as Ruby Waters. In 1949, In 1952, she played Jane Sweet in A Girl in Every Port, based on the short story They Sell Sailors Elephants by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan. In 1957, she played Marie Antoinette in The Story of Mankind, loosely based on the nonfiction book The Story of Mankind (1921) by Hendrik Willem van Loon. Wilson's last film was 1962's Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, based on the novel by Edward Streeter.
Wilson also had roles in short films, including Bum Voyage (1934), Slide, Nellie, Slide (1936), Vitaphone Pictorial Revue (Series 2 No. 6) (1938), and Vitaphone Pictorial Revue (Series 2 No. 12).