Born On This Day- January 11th... Acting Great Eva Le Gallienne

I was one of the lucky ones who saw her on Broadway in the hit revival of the Edna Ferber-George S. Kaufman comedy- The Royal Family based on the Barrymore family, that was the hit of the 1976 season & a major triumph for the amazing Eva Le Gallienne, who played the mother of the fabled family, skipping girlishly upstairs in Act I & descending like an elderly queen in Act 3. Her performance was one the most memorable in my theatre going history.

She had acted in or directed nearly 150 live theatre productions, given 16 film & television performances, made many of radio broadcasts. Le Gallienne translated many of the works of Ibsen & Chekov. She wrote 4 books, including the memoir With a Quiet Heart- a biography of Actress Eleanora Duse, & numerous articles for magazines. She graced the cover of Time magazine in 1929. A gifted actress who loved her craft, Eva Le Gallienne was one of the most successful & popular figures in American theatre for 6 decades.

 In 1918, Le Gallienne had an affair with the flamboyant Hollywood actress Alla Nazimova. When the relationship with Nazimova faded, she became involved with set designer & writer Mercedes de Acosta, a former lover of Nazimova's, reminding me of some of the lesbians in my life now, who have affairs with exe’s exes, it get's so complicated!). Although Le Gallienne had many lovers, she was never comfortable with her lesbianism & briefly considered a sham marriage to actor Basil Rathbone.

Le Gallienne founded the Civic Repertory Theatre in NYC, with the financial support of one of her lovers- Alice DeLamar, a wealthy Colorado gold mine heiress. In 1928 she earned a great success with her performance in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. The Civic Rep disbanded at the height of the Depression in 1935. Le Gallienne continued performing until the end of her life, but after the closure of the Civic Repertory Theater, she mostly lived quietly in the country with her partner of  50 years- Marion Evensen. In the late 1950s, she had a notable success as Queen Elizabeth in Mary Stewart & also appeared in several television specials, even winning an Emmy for a televised version of The Royal Family. In 1964, she received a Tony Award for her production of Chekhov's The Seagull.
 
At the age of 80, Le Gallienne was cast along with Ellen Burstyn in Daniel Petrie's film Resurrection. Le Gallienne's performance earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She died at her home in Conneticut in 1991; she was 92 years old.