(February 16, 1893 - June 9, 1974)
Born in Berlin, Germany in 1893 to American parents who were studying abroad, Katharine Cornell, over the span of her career, became one of the most regarded dramatic actresses of her day. She began working in the theatre when her father gave up his practice in medicine to become a small theatre owner in Buffalo, New York. 1 Her big break came when the noted director of the Washington Square Players, Eddie Goodman, visited her school and, after seeing her perform, offered her a job in a future play. She made her Broadway debut in the role of Eileen Baxter-Jones in the comedy Nice People (1921). During her audition, she met Guthrie McClintic, a future prominent stage director, and married him later that year. 2 They collaborated on future projects until McClintic's death in 1961.
Cornell's first starring role was in 1925 with a production of The Green Hat, in which she played Iris Fenwick. She continued acting in leading roles on Broadway, repeating her success with The Green Hat in productions of The Letter (1927), The Age of Innocence (1928), and Dishonored Lady (1930). In 1931, she portrayed one of the roles that would make her famous, Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett, in the original stage production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street (which ran for nearly eleven months on Broadway). After the production closed, Cornell took the play across the country and performed it in over seventy cities, in repertory with productions of Romeo and Juliet and Candida. 3 The production was revived twice on Broadway, with her cast in the leading role. In 1948, she won the Best Actress Oscar (dramatic role) for her performance in Antony and Cleopatra, along with Jessica Tandy and Judith Anderson.
According to the critics of her day, Cornell's greatest ability was in the creation of her character, despite the weakness of a play script. 4 In high praise of her abilities, New York critic Alexander Woolcott stated that Katharine Cornell was the "First Lady of the American Theatre." 5 In 1961, after her husband's death, she retired from the stage. 6 She died at the age of eighty-one, in her home on Martha's Vineyard, due to pneumonia.
1. Variety, June 12, 1974.
2. Whitmore.
3. Whitmore.
4. Whitmore.
5. Variety, June 12, 1974.
6. Variety, June 12, 1974.
Resources
Bartelt, Chuck and Barbara Bergeron (ed.). Variety Obituaries. June 12, 1974. New York : Garland Pub., 1988-1989.
Cornell, Katharine. I Wanted to Be an Actress: The Autobiography of Katharine Cornell. New York: Random House, 1941.
"Katharine Cornell." IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0180263/bio 6 December 2007.
"Katharine Cornell Credits on Broadway." Internet Broadway Database. http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=9732 6 December 2007.
"Katharine Cornell in the Age of Innocence (1929)." New York Public Library Digital Gallery. http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?strucID=309870 8 December 2007.
"Katharine Cornell as the Countess Ellen." New York Public Library Digital Gallery. http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=303388 8 December 2007.
"Katharine Cornell." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Cornell 6 December 2007.
Mosel, Tad. Leading Lady: the World and Theatre of Katharine Cornell. Boston: Little, Brown, 1978.
Whitman, Alden. "On This Day: Obituary, Katharine Cornell is Dead." New York Times. June 10, 1974. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0216.html 8 December 2007.