
Acting
Sep 19, 1894
Eureka, California, USA
Minerva Urecal
Acting
Biography
A stage actress, Urecal made her screen debut in 1934. For the remainder of her career and two hundred plus movies, she played cleaning women, landladies, shopkeepers and the like. She was known as a Marjorie Main type actress and later went on to a career in television playing in such shows as "Tugboat Annie" and "Peter Gunn." Minerva claimed her name was an amalgam of her hometown, Eureka, California.
Feature Films (177)

During their annual visit to the Iowa State Fair, the Frake family enjoy many adventures. Proud patriarch Abel has high hopes for his champion swine Blueboy; and his wife Melissa enters the mincemeat and pickles contest...with hilarious results.
State Fair

In this western, a young cowboy rides out to avenge his father's killer. Eventually, he finds the scoundrel, but by this time opts not to kill him for the cowboy has fallen in love with the outlaw's niece. Later, the killer ends up killed and the hero is blamed for the crime.
Wanderer of the Wasteland

A scientist keeps his wife young by killing, stealing the bodies of, and taking the gland fluid from virgin brides.
The Corpse Vanishes

A detective investigating kidnapping case discovers the victim, who may be a zombie.
The Living Ghost

Never Give a Sucker an Even Break is a 1941 film about a man who wants to sell a film story to Esoteric Studios. On the way he gets insulted by little boys, beaten up for ogling a woman, and abused by a waitress. W. C. Fields' last starring role in a feature-length film.
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break

Gambling boat operator Jenny Blake throws over her gambler beau Jack Morgan in order to marry into high society.
Lady for a Night

Marc Hill is the attorney for Emmet Devrey, a real estate developer with a past, who is being blackmailed by his former partner Sam Baggett. When Sam's unfaithful wife Marge cooks up a scheme with her used car salesman lover Jeff Calder to bilk both Devrey and her alcoholic husband, Sam is killed and Devrey is accused of the crime. Mark is called to prove his employers innocence.
Double Jeopardy

An old Chinese man rides into the town of Abalone, Arizona and changes it forever, as the citizens see themselves reflected in the mirror of Lao's mysterious circus of mythical beasts.
7 Faces of Dr. Lao

A bucolic lawyer takes on big-city corruption, setting out to prove that an above-suspicion politician is actually a crook - all while falling in love with the politician's daughter.
A Man Betrayed

Kit Madden is traveling to Hollywood, where her best-selling novel is to be filmed. Aboard the train, she encounters Marines Rusty and Dink, who don't know she is the author of the famous book, and who don't think much of the ideas it proposes. She and Rusty are greatly attracted, but she doesn't know how to deal with his disdain for the book's author.
Without Reservations
Television & Series (18)

The Bradley family are proud owners of the Shady Rest Hotel. Kate and her three young daughters do the job of running the hotel.
Petticoat Junction

The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.
Perry Mason

Angel is an American sitcom that aired on CBS during the 1960–1961 television season. The series was created and executive produced by Jess Oppenheimer, and stars Annie Fargé as the title character.
Angel

The Adventures of Tugboat Annie is a 1957 Canadian-filmed television series starring Minerva Urecal as Annie Brennan, the role originated by Marie Dressler in the 1933 screen classic Tugboat Annie. Urecal was the fourth actress to portray Tugboat Annie; the others were Dressler, Marjorie Rambeau in Tugboat Annie Sails Again, and Jane Darwell in Captain Tugboat Annie. Norman Reilly Raine's stories of the salty tugboat captain Annie Brennan, a character based on the life of Thea Foss, first appeared in prose form in the weekly US journal Saturday Evening Post in the late 1920s. She was soon developed into a movie character, depicted in three films, portrayed by a different actress in each. Finally, in 1954, a television series was commissioned by the independent American production company TPA. The pilot took two whole years to complete, at a then-record cost of $129,000. Elsa Lanchester, Jay C. Flippen, and Chill Wills were all in line for major roles at one point or another at this early stage. The series was filmed in Toronto harbor and was first shown in Canada, having attracted ratings good enough to interest American television stations. What had succeeded in Canada proved a disappointment in the United States, where the viewing audiences had presumably become accustomed to greater sophistication than the simplistic humor of this series.









