Eva Le Gallienne(1899-1991)
- Actress
- Writer
- Additional Crew
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 translator 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 Company for 10 years
(1926-1936), producing 37 plays during that time. She managed
Broadway's 1100-seat Civic Repertory Theatre (more popularly known as
The 14th Street Theatre) at 107 14th Street from 1926-32, which was
home to her company whose actors included herself,
J. Edward Bromberg,
Paul Leyssac,
Florida Friebus, and
Leona Roberts. 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.
