Catherine Proctor

Proctor was born in New Edinburgh, Ontario, one of the six children^[6] of William Proctor and Catherine McDonald Proctor.^[7] Her father worked in real estate and hotels, and died in 1892.^[8] She began performing as a dramatic reader while still a girl.^[9] She attended the Toronto College of Music, and appeared in college theatrical productions.^[10]

Proctor had a busy stage career for over five decades. She toured with stock companies beginning in 1902.^[11] Her stage credits included roles in The Pretty Sister of José,^[7] The Other Girl, Peter Pan, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1906),^[12] Paid in Full,^[7] Society and the Bulldog (1908), The Concert (1910–1912),^[13] The Easiest Way (1912),^[7] The Governor's Lady (1913),^[14] Now and To-morrow (1915), Depths of Purity (1915),^[15][16] Out There (1917),^[17] The Wooing of Eve (1917), Happiness (1917–1918),^[18] The Matinee Hero (1918), The Mirage (1920–1921),^[19] Ambush (1921), The Wife with the Smile (1921),^[20] East of Suez (1922),^[21] Bristol Glass (1923),^[22] Macbeth (1924), The Steam Roller (1924), Ariadne (1925), The Importance of Being Earnest (1926), L'Aiglon (1927–1928),^[23] Electra (1928),^[24] Girl Trouble (1928),^[24] Sakura (1928), The Royal Box (1928–1929), The Ghost Parade (1929), Greater Love (1931), If Booth Had Missed (1932),^[25] Nine Pine Street (1933),^[26] Ah, Wilderness! (1935),^[8] The Puritan (1936), Howdy Stranger (1937), Reflected Glory (1937), Miss Quis (1937), Biography (1937),^[21] The Late George Apley (1944–1945),^[27] Arsenic and Old Lace (1943, 1950, 1956),^[28][29][5] Mistress of Jalna (1953),^[30] and Separate Tables (1958).^[31]

On radio, Proctor was in a 1934 production of a comedy Thursday Night.^[32] She appeared in several silent films, and had small roles in several more sound pictures. "Yes, I have seen myself in a film," she told a Toronto newspaper in 1915. "It feels most uncanny. Sometimes I thought, 'Surely I never looked as badly as that?'"^[33]