Ellen Corby: The Famous Grandmother In The Waltons Show

Ellen Corby, who played the grandmother on the television series “The Waltons,” died in 1999 at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif, at 87 years of age.

Ms. Corby, born Ellen Hansen, spent 12 years as a script assistant before turning to acting. 

She performed in more than 100 movies and, because of her acting skills, was nominated for an Academy Award. 

There are many plays and successful films on her account, but she was recognized by ‘The Waltons,’ a popular CBS series that ran from 1972 to 1981, Ms. Corby performed her best-known role as Grandma Esther Walton. 

Grandma Walton was part of a close-knit Virginia family in the drama from writer Earl Hamner Jr. played Esther Walton so beautifully that she won three Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe Award.

Ellen Corby performed alongside Will Geer, who portrayed Zebulon Walton on “The Waltons” until he died in 1978. No one played “Grandpa” Walton again on the show.

Although Corby has died, her co-stars still cherish her to this day. The Waltons cast reunited for Stars in the House to raise money for The Actors Fund. 

Eric Scott, Kami Cotler, Judy Norton, and Michael Learned shared memories of Corby while former production assistant John Dayton spilled the dirt on CBS’s plans for her. 

CBS Tried to Fire Ellen Corby After Her Stroke

When Corby had a stroke in 1976, she dropped a season and a half of the TV show. 

The show portrayed Grandma having aphasia due to the stroke, which limited her communication. Corby also had to show to CBS that she could continue to work, which she did. 

When Corby returned to The Waltons, the show made a big deal of Grandma returning from the hospital. The whole family welcomes her. However, that was not the first time the actors had seen Corby.

“You have to remember one thing,” Scott said. “Some of us would visit her at her House while she was recouping and stuff. So we had already seen her and spent time with her, but to have her back on set was a gift. We didn’t look at it as the fact that she has a severe handicap and she’s going to come on TV and she is going to show it in its raw form. She did it so beautifully. Look back at the performances and she got what she wanted out of every scene that she did after that.“

Cotler added that The Waltons’ portrayal of Grandma with a stroke was impressive in the landscape of television.

“There was a woman who was writing her Ph.D. about The Waltons and disability where she looked at all the different episodes that featured somebody with a disability,” Cotler said. “She said that had really never happened like that before.“

The reason CBS wanted to fire Ellen Corby from ‘The Waltons’ because

Corby had limited speech after her stroke. Dayton said the network considered her condition a barrier to production until she proved she could hit every cue.

“Can I just say something about CBS now that I don’t have to worry about a job,” Dayton said. “It was CBS that vacillated on the aphasia. But, it was within the company that the excuse for not bringing her back was that it would take too long. They thought she would not be up to the job and boy were they wrong. Were they ever wrong.“

Ellen Corby Was More Working Behind The Scenes Than Grandma

Episodes of The Waltons portrayed Grandma fighting with her new condition, worrying that The Waltons didn’t require her anymore. That was all acting, said Learned.

“She wasn’t that way in her life,” Learned said. “She struggled but she never felt sorry for herself. I never felt that she was feeling self-pity or any of that. She had a strength of character that was beyond description. We all had fun together actually. Even after she had her disability, we still had a lot of fun. She had a such a great sense of humor. She knew what she wanted and knew how to let people know and she was a wonderful actress.“

Corby would also cherish the cast behind the scenes. 

“She could sing and play the piano,” Learned said. “It was the weirdest thing, and she did, for us between takes. She would sing ‘Let Me Call you Sweetheart.’ She could sing all verse one, two and three but to try to talk was hard for her.“

Ellen Corby Relationship

During her time on “The Waltons,” she was paired with another old actor named Harry Hay, who performed as grandpa. 

Although they were the apparently perfect old-aged couple who would bring a joyful tear to anyone’s eyes, the onscreen couple was gay.

The actress had a long-term partner known as Stella Luchetta. The duo kept a close friendship, and the press proclaimed them to be friends and later realized that they could have been partners — they lived together for nearly 50 years.

Corby never openly declared this, and she was even married to a man named Francis Corby to curb possible critics’ comments and save her work.

Corby’s reign in the movie industry spanned more than five decades. She finally died, having lived a fulfilling life. The actress died in 1999 at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills at the age of 87 years.

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