Thelma Leeds (December 18, 1910 – May 27, 2006), also known as Thelma Bernstein, was an American actress.

Life and career

Toast of New York Cary Grant Thelma Leeds

Leeds was born Thelma Goodman in New York City, to Katie and Joseph Goodman, Russian-Jewish immigrants. She was the mother of actor/director

Albert Brooks Albert Brooks (born Albert Lawrence Einstein ; July 22, 1947) is an American actor and filmmaker. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for 1987's '' Broadcast News'' and was widely praised for his performance as a ...

Bob Einstein Stewart Robert Einstein (November 20, 1942 – January 2, 2019) was an American actor, comedy writer, and producer. He created and performed the satirical stuntman character Super Dave Osborne, and was also known for his roles as Marty Funkh ...

(TV's "

Super Dave Osborne Super Dave Osborne is a character created and played by comedian Bob Einstein. Einstein's comedic depiction was of a naïve but optimistic stuntman who was frequently comically injured when his stunts went spectacularly wrong. Character sketch Su ...

"), and Clifford Einstein, chairman of Dailey & Associates Advertising in

West Hollywood, California West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most ...

and chairman of the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's o ...

. In the early 1930s, Leeds sang

light opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

on the radio. She also performed in New York nightclubs as Thelma Goodman, her birth name. One night in the mid-1930s a

RKO RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...

talent scout In professional sports, scouts are experienced talent evaluators who travel extensively for the purposes of watching athletes play their chosen sports and determining whether their set of skills and talents represent what is needed by the scou ...

caught her nightclub act. The studio signed her to a contract and gave her the name Thelma Leeds. She had an uncredited role in the 1936

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...

Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...

musical ''

Follow the Fleet ''Follow the Fleet'' is a 1936 American RKO musical comedy film with a nautical theme starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their fifth collaboration as dance partners. It also features Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard, and Astrid Allwyn, ...

''. She later had supporting roles in ''

The Toast of New York ''The Toast of New York'' is a 1937 American biopic directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Edward Arnold, Cary Grant, Frances Farmer, and Jack Oakie. The film is a fictionalized account of the lives of financiers James Fisk and Edward S. St ...

'' (1937) and ''

New Faces of 1937 ''New Faces of 1937'' is a 1937 American musical film directed by Leigh Jason and starring Joe Penner, Milton Berle and Harriet Hilliard. Its plot is similar to '' The Producers'' (1968). Intended as the first film of an annual RKO Pictures r ...

''. She met her husband Harry "Parkyakarkus" Einstein, a dialect comedian, while filming ''New Faces of 1937''. Leeds retired from show business after marrying Einstein in 1937. Two years after Einstein's death in 1958, she married Irving "Bernie" Bernstein; he died in 1983. In 1981, Leeds played Brooks' mother in '' Modern Romance''. She reportedly was the inspiration for Brooks' 1996 comedy ''

Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...

'', which starred

Debbie Reynolds Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer, and businesswoman. Her career spanned almost 70 years. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her portra ...

. Clifford Einstein told the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'':

I think mom was bugged that she couldn't play (Brooks' mother in ''Mother'') ... She loved to laugh at herself and loved the portrayal of ''Mother'' that, while not her story, was certainly loosely based on her: the kind of mother that loves to control everything.

Death

Leeds died at her home in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...

of natural causes, aged 95. She was entombed at Home of Peace Cemetery.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leeds, Thelma 1910 births 2006 deaths American people of Russian-Jewish descent American radio actresses American film actresses 20th-century American actresses Jewish American actresses Actresses from New York City Burials at Home of Peace Cemetery 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women