Nora Dunfee(1915-1994)
- Additional Crew
- Actress
- Music Department
Dialect coach and actress on Broadway and in film, best known for her
performance as the Elderly Southern Lady on the bench with Tom Hanks in
Forrest Gump (1994), Dunfee began her professional career at the Ogunquit Playhouse
in 1939 where she was discovered by Sinclair Lewis, author of the American
classic "Main Street," and cast in his production of Thornton Wilder's "Our
Town." She subsequently played the Nurse in "Romeo and Juliet" with
Diana Barrymore and appeared with her husband, actor David Clarke and daughter
K.C. Ligon in "The Visit" with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. Dunfee taught
privately in New York and California and coached numerous prominent
performers for Broadway and film, including Mel Gibson, Jessica Lange, Diane Keaton,
Sissy Spacek Barbara Hershey, Susan Sarandon, and James Earl Jones who had been her student at the
American Theatre Wing in New York, and continued to work with her
throughout his career. Dunfee was Master Teacher of Speech and Text of
the Graduate Acting Program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York
University, for twenty-eight years, where her students included Billy Crudup
and Marcia Gay Harden.
