Aline MacMahon (May 3, 1899 – October 12, 1991) was an Oscar-nominated American actress.
MacMahon was born Aline Laveen MacMahon in the Pittsburgh suburb of McKeesport, Pennsylvania; her family was Jewish and the origin of their surname, "MacMahon", is unclear. She was raised in New York City and educated at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York and at Barnard College in New York, New York.
Asked how to say her surname, she told The Literary Digest it was mack-MAN. (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)
MacMahon began appearing on Broadway in the early 1920s. Her first film role was in 1931 in Five Star Final, but she jumped back and forth between Broadway and Hollywood throughout her career.
In 1944 MacMahon appeared in the film Dragon Seed, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in that film. Other films included the film version of Sinclair Lewis's novel Babbitt (1934), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), The Life of Jimmy Dolan, Ah, Wilderness! (1935), When You're in Love (1937), The Flame and the Arrow (1950), All the Way Home (1961), and The Young Doctors (1963), I Could Go On Singing (1963).
MacMahon died at the age of 92 of pneumonia in New York, New York. Her husband, Clarence Stein, the legendary planner and architect and the founder of the Regional Planning Association died in 1975. They had no children.
