Mildred Dorothy Dunnock (January 25, 1901 – July 5, 1991) was an American stage and screen actress. She was nominated twice for an Academy Award for her work in Death of a Salesman (1951) and Baby Doll (1956).
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Early life
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Dunnock graduated from Western High School. She developed an interest in theater while she was a student at Goucher College where she was a member of Alpha Phi sorority and the Agora dramatic society. After graduating, she taught English at Friends School of Baltimore and helped with productions of plays there.
While teaching school in New York, she earned her Master of Arts degree at Columbia University and acted in a play while she was there. She also studied at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg, Robert Lewis and Elia Kazan.
Career
After roles in Broadway productions of Life Begins (1932) and The Hill Between (1938), Dunnock won praise for her performance as a Welsh school teacher in The Corn is Green in 1940 — a role that she performed while she was a full-time teacher at Brearley School. The 1945 film version marked her screen debut. During the 1940s she performed mainly on stage, in such dramas as Another Part of the Forest (1946) and Death of a Salesman (1949) and in the musical Lute Song (1946). She also performed in regional theatrical productions, including those of the Long Wharf Theatre and the Yale Repertory Theatre.
