From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Esther Dale (November 10, 1885 – July 23, 1961) was an American actress, best known perhaps for her role as Aunt Genevieve in the 1935 Shirley Temple vehicle, Curly Top. On the stage, Dale starred in Carrie Nation on Broadway in 1933. Her other Broadway credits include Harvest of Years (1947), And Be My Love (1944), and Another Language (1932). Dale's first film was Crime Without Passion (1934) in an uncredited role. She was a familiar face in films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, frequently playing stern, authoritarian characters such as prison matrons and head nurses, although she was equally adept at playing grande dames and ladies of the aristocracy. Dale played many roles in television over the years. In the 1958-1959 season of The Donna Reed Show, Dale played a job-seeking housekeeper who is frightened from the Stone home by Jeff Stone's pet mouse, and she appeared in the 1957 Maverick episode "According to Hoyle" opposite James Garner.
The Awful Truth
1937
Old Acquaintance
1943
Monkey Business
1952
Convicted Woman
1940
Murder in Times Square
1943
Dead End
1937
Abe Lincoln in Illinois
1940
The Case Against Mrs. Ames
1936
Condemned Women
1938
Blackmail
1939
A Tale of Two Cities
1953
Swanee River
1939
Blondie Goes to College
1942
Holiday Affair
1949
Broadway Serenade
1939
Fury
1936
Betrayed Women
1955
Untamed
1940
Crime Without Passion
1934
Too Young to Kiss
1951
On Moonlight Bay
1951
A Stolen Life
1946
No Man of Her Own
1950
Behind City Lights
1945
Tell No Tales
1939
The Farmer in the Dell
1936
The Women
1939
What's Cookin'?
1942
Prison Farm
1938
Private Worlds
1935
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
1941
Made for Each Other
1939
North to Alaska
1960
Margie
1946
A Song Is Born
1948
A Child is Born
1939
The Mortal Storm
1940
Maisie Gets Her Man
1942
On Stage Everybody
1945
Big Town Czar
1939