The Solid Josephine Hull

In anticipation of your inevitable question, yes, Josephine Hull (Josephine Sherwood, 1877-1957) WAS related to Henry Hull, she was his sister-in-law.

There were three thespian Hull brothers. The oldest, Howard, married Margaret Anglin. Middle brother Shelley married Josephine in 1910. He appeared in 17 Broadway plays including the original 1903 production of Sweet Kitty Bellairs, often cast opposite such major actress as Billie Burke,Laurette Taylor,Mrs. Fiske, and Fay Bainter. Josephine, by comparison, was minor at the time of their marriage, having done regional stock and a couple of minor things on Broadway. Originally from Newton, Mass, she’d launched her professional acting career in Boston. She retired when she married Hull. But then Shelley died of the Spanish Flu (if we’re still calling it that), in 1919. After a substantial period of mourning, Josephine returned to the stage in 1923 at the age of 46 — short and stocky, now in full matronly fussbudget mode.

Hull’s Broadway track record is kind of legendary. Of her three dozen appearances a high number were historic productions. They include the original productions of George Kelly’s Craig’s Wife (1925) and Daisy Mayme (1926), as well as The Wild Man of Borneo (1929), Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take It With You (1936, in the role of Penelope), Arsenic and Old Lace (1941, in the role of Abby), Harvey (1944, as Veta), and Kaufman’s The Solid Gold Cadillac (1952). Remarkably some of these shows ran so long, Hull spent almost the entire decade of the 1940s appearing in just two of them: Arsenic and Old Lace (41-44) and Harvey (44-49).

In fact, Hull’s stage success largely crowded out prospects in the cinema. performing in the stage production of You Can’t Take It With You, prevented her being in Frank Capra’s 1938 screen version. But she was able to work with the director in the 1944 movie version of Arsenic and Old Lace, and actually won an Oscar for her performance in the 1950 film of Harvey.

Hull’s handful of other films include an early sound short called The Bishop’s Candlesticks (1929) based on a scene from Les Miserables, directed by George Abbott and featuring Walter Huston; a 1932 screen adaption of After Tomorrow, which Hull had acted in on Broadway the previous year; Careless Lady (1932) with Joan Bennett and John Boles; and The Lady from Texas (1951) with Howard Duff. In the early to mid ’50s she acted on several live television dramas. Her last credit was a 1955 episode of The United States Steel Hour.