Katharine Cornell
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| Katharine Cornell | |
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| Born | February 16, 1893 Berlin, Germany |
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| Died | June 9, 1974 (age 81) Tisbury, Massachusetts, USA |
| Spouse(s) | Guthrie McClintic (1921–1961) |
Katharine Cornell (February 16, 1893 – June 9, 1974) was an American stage actress, writer, and theater owner and producer.
She was born on February 16, 1893 (although she later shaved five years off her age) in Berlin, Germany to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.
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[edit] Acting and writing career
Cornell is noted for her major Broadway roles in serious dramas, often directed by her husband, Guthrie McClintic.
Her most famous role was as English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the 1931 Broadway production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street. Other appearances on Broadway included: W. Somerset Maugham's The Letter (1927), Sidney Howard's The Alien Corn (1933), Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (1934), Maxwell Anderson's The Wingless Victory (1936), S. N. Behrman's No Time for Comedy (1939), a Tony Award-winning Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra (1947), and a revival of Maugham's The Constant Wife (1951).
She appeared in only one film, the World War II morale booster, Stage Door Canteen, in which she played herself and, along with one of the soldiers, recited a speech from Romeo and Juliet. However, she did appear in television adaptations of The Barretts of Wimpole Street (recreating her original role some twenty years later), and Robert E. Sherwood's There Shall Be No Night. She also narrated the Oscar-winning documentary Helen Keller in Her Story.
Primarily regarded as a tragedienne, she was admired for her refined, romantic presence. One reviewer observed, "Hers is not a robust romanticism, however. It tends toward dark but delicate tints, and the emotion she conveys most aptly is that of an aspiring girlishness which has always been subject to theatrical influences of a special sort."[1]
Her appearances in comedy were infrequent, and praised more widely for their warmth than their wit. When she appeared in The Constant Wife, critic Brooks Atkinson concluded that she had changed a "hard and metallic" comedy into a romantic drama. [2]
[edit] Death
Cornell died on June 9, 1974, in Tisbury, Massachusetts (on Martha's Vineyard), aged 81.
[edit] Legacy
The Tisbury Town Hall houses a theatre on its second floor. Originally known as Association Hall, it was re-named The Katharine Cornell Theater in her honor and later, her memory. A donation from her estate provided the funds for renovation (lighting, heating, elevator) as well as decoration of four large murals depicting Martha's Vineyard life and legend by local Vineyard artist Stan Murphy. The Katharine Cornell Theater is a popular venue for plays, music, movies and more.
There is another theater space at the State University of New York at Buffalo named in her honor. Many student productions are presented there year round.
Katharine Cornell won a Tony Award for Antony and Cleopatra (1947, award year 1948) along with Jessica Tandy in A Streetcar Named Desire and Judith Anderson in Medea.
[edit] Sexuality
It has been suggested that Cornell's marriage to McClintic was a lavender marriage as he was a homosexual and she a lesbian. She conducted a long on-again off-again affair with Mercedes de Acosta, and had a relationship with actress Maude Adams, among other noted women of the time.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Anon. "That Lady". Theatre Arts Monthly February 1950.
- ^ Brooks Atkinson. Review of The Constant Wife. The New York Times: December 10, 1951.
- ^ GLBTQ Encyclopedia
[edit] External links
- Katharine Cornell at the Internet Broadway Database
- Katharine Cornell at the Internet Movie Database
- Photographs from the George Eastman House:
