Biography for
Eva Le Gallienne More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

11 January 1899, London, England, UK

Date of Death

3 June 1991, Weston, Connecticut, USA (heart attack)

Nickname

LeG or Miss LeG

Mini Biography

Legendary stage actress Eva Le Gallienne's life began just as grandly as the daughter of poet Richard Le Gallienne. Sarah Bernhardt was her idol growing up and, at age 18, was brought to New York by her mother. Making her London debut with "Monna Vanna" in 1914, she proved a star in every sense of the word. She appeared on Broadway first in "Liliom" in 1921 and lastly at the Biltmore Theatre in 1981 with "To Grandmother's House We Go," which won her a Tony nomination at age 82. Noted for her extreme boldness and idealism, she became a director and muse for theatre's top playwrights, a foremost translater of Henrik Ibsen, and a founder of the civic repertory movement in America. A respected stage coach, director, producer and manager over her six decades, Ms. Le Gallienne consciously devoted herself to the Art of the Theatre as opposed to the Show Business of Broadway and dedicated herself to upgrading the quality of the stage. She ran the Civic Repertory Theatre for 10 years (1926-1936), producing 37 plays during that time. Her gallery of theatre portrayals would include everything from Peter Pan to Hamlet. Sadly, she almost completely avoided film and TV during her lengthy career. However, toward the end of her life, she did appear in a marvelous 1977 stage version of "The Royal Family" on TV and rendered a quietly touching performance as Ellen Burstyn's grandmother in Resurrection (1980), for which she received an Oscar nomination.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Trivia

Special Tony in 1964 for body of work.

Naturalized U.S. citizen.

Among her many awards: Won a Pulitzer Prize for her production of "Alison's House" by Susan Glaspell; the National Medal of Arts from President Reagan, and the Norwegian Grand Cross for her furthering the presentation of plays by Ibsen.

Received a Special Tony Award in 1964 "celebrating her 50th year as an actress, honored for her work with the National Repertory Theatre.for body of work." She was also nominated as Best Actress (Play) in 1981 for "To Grandmother's House We Go."

She was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1986 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.

Personal Quotes

"Innovators are inevitably controversial."

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