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If a piece of New York cheesecake could talk, it would sound like Thelma Ritter, today’s Friday Face, born in Brooklyn on Valentine’s Day 1902. She would become the most beloved character actress of her day.

At age 8, Ritter was performing recitals and monologues at Brooklyn’s PS 77. After acting in high school plays and stock companies, she enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She married actor Joseph Moran in 1927, and they had two children.

She resumed her career performing in radio in 1940. In 1946, her old friend, director George Seaton, offered her a bit part in the now classic “Miracle on 34th Street,” in which Thelma would play a tired holiday shopper. Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck was so moved by her performance, he had her role expanded — and it launched an unparalleled film career that would see 6 Oscar nominations as Best Supporting Actress. She never won.

Her first nomination was for her absolutely delicious role as the acerbic maid Birdie, opposite Bette Davis in 1950′s “All About Eve.” There isn’t a scene she’s in that she doesn’t steal.

She would earn four consecutive nominations — a feat equaled only by Jennifer Jones, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, and Al Pacino. Greer Garson had five consecutive nominations.

In the original “Titanic” made in 1953, she portrayed the cardplaying wisecracker, Maude Young. One of her lines is delivered wistfully and has always stayed with me.

Maude: [after Richard has rejected his son Norman and refused to play in the shuffleboard match with him]

“It certainly clouded up. Well, word’ll do it faster than a hickory stick any time.”

Hitchcock fans know her from 1954′s “Rear Window,” where she plays Stella, the visiting nurse for Jimmy Stewart. She played opposite Frank Sinatra and Edward G. Robinson in “A Hole in the Head.” She got drunk with Rock Hudson in “Pillow Talk.”

Ritter played serious roles too… she was perfect as Burt Lancaster’s mother  in “Birdman of Alcatraz.”

She had the gift of being able to say everything with a look.

Thelma worked steadily in television. Her daughter, Monica Moran, launched a brief film career. I can’t find any info about her son.

Here’s a clip from a Hitchcock TV show opposite another great character actress, Mary Wickes.

Nurse! This is from her work opposite Susan Hayward in “With a Song in My Heart.”

Below as Moe Williams with Richard Widmark in “Pickup on South Street.” … she was a walking Hopper painting.

Here’s Thelma in an early uncredited role, “A Letter to Three Wives,” where she plays Connie Gilchrist’s loveable neighbor with an opinion. She often played cards in her films.

Thelma Ritter died of a heart attack 10 days before her 67th birthday, shortly after performing on a Jerry Lewis TV show.

Shockingly, Thelma Ritter does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Howie Mandel, Nicolas Cage and the Olsen twins do.

You can write to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce here, to ask for a star for Thelma.

The marvelous, witty, earthy, darling Thelma Ritter is today’s Friday Face.

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