Birth Name: Ellen Hansen
Date of Birth: 3 June 1911, Racine, Wisconsin, USA
Date of Death: 14 April 1999, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (natural causes)
Ellen was the daughter of Fred and Dagmar (Nelleman) Hansen, who were both born in Denmark.
In 1929 Ellen moved to California intending to become an actress. Instead, she was offered a job as a script girl in the movies and remained in that capacity for nearly 12 years, before finally turning to acting in the 1940's.
Ellen's list of film credits and television shows is extensive, too many to list here. I was surprised how active she was as an actress. Her last Credit was in 1997 playing her well loved Grandma Walton in A Walton Easter
Mother Lurch "The Addam's Family"
Mrs. Kaufmann "Nanny and the Professer"
Ellen was nominated 5 times for The Emmy Awards as Best Supporting Actress in a Dramatic Series, she won three times.
Ellen was credited with writing two of the episodes – The Search (1976) and The Separation (1973)
On Bonanza she guest starred in two episodes.
Where we hear her epic tribute to Hoss and Joe. And my favorite line "Save us our men, there aren't enough to go around"
Caps by me
Ellen guest starred with William Demerest as our favorite bickering couple Cora and Enos Milford. They were well matched and I hear often we wish we had seen more of them.