Reta Shaw (September 13, 1912 – January 8, 1982) was an American character actress known for playing strong, hard-edged, working women in film and on many of the most popular television programs of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States.

She may be best remembered as the housekeeper, Martha Grant, on the television series The Ghost & Mrs. Muir and as the cook, Mrs. Brill, in the 1964 film Mary Poppins.

[4] The daughter and granddaughter of women who believed in spiritualism, Shaw reportedly once told a newspaper interviewer that she had been "brought up on a ouija board.

"[1] Shaw graduated from Paris High School in 1929, and was awarded the Alumni Prize, as well as a varsity letter for her role as manager of the girls track team at commencement.

[5] She sang at the South Paris Congregational Church[6] and participated in amateur theatricals,[7] [8] and would later study acting and graduate from the Leland Powers School of the Theater in Boston, Massachusetts.

Shaw subsequently did comedy work in night clubs, and during World War II joined the Red Cross Entertainment Unit, serving for three years, mostly overseas, including 18 months in Iceland.

[1] She then appeared in Virginia Reel and on Broadway in a comedic role as Mabel in the original production of The Pajama Game in 1954, as well as in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Picnic, and Annie Get Your Gun, the last on tour with Mary Martin.

She had featured roles in several motion pictures, including Picnic, The Pajama Game, Mary Poppins, Pollyanna, The Ghost And Mr. Chicken, Bachelor in Paradise and Escape to Witch Mountain.

In the 1966 feature film The Ghost and Mr. Chicken Shaw portrays the banker's wife and leader of the "Psychic Occult Society", Mrs.

Her final performance came in the 1975 film Escape to Witch Mountain in the role of Mrs. Grindley, owner of the orphanage where Tia and Tony are sent after the death of their foster parents.