Hull, Josephine

(1886-1957)

   Josephine Sherwood, a native of Newtonville, Massachusetts, was educated at Radcliffe and studied with actress Kate Reignolds before gaining practical experience in several stock companies, including Boston's Castle Square Theatre. Her few attempts at Broadway were failures and in 1910 she retired from acting to marry actor Shelley Hull. When Hull died in 1919, his wife, now billed as Josephine Hull, returned to the theatre as a character actress. She won strong reviews in Neighbors (1923), Fata Morgana (1924), Craig's Wife (1925), and Daisy Mayme (1926), but her greatest successes came after 1930 in comic character roles in You Can't Take It With You* (1936), Arsenic and Old Lace* (1941), Harvey* (1944), and The Solid Gold Cadillac* (1953). Hull also appeared in motion pictures, including the screen version of Arsenic and Old Lace,* directed by Frank Capra in 1944.