Dame Edith Evans DBE |
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Born | Edith Mary Evans 8 February 1888 London, England |
Died | 14 October 1976 Kent, England |
(aged 88)
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1910–1976 |
Spouse | George Booth (1925-1935) |
Dame Edith Mary Evans, DBE (8 February 1888 – 14 October 1976) was a British actress.[1] She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.
Evans was particularly well known at portraying haughty aristocratic ladies, as in two of her most famous roles: Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (both on stage and in the 1952 film), and Miss Western in the 1963 film of Tom Jones. By contrast, she played a poverty-stricken old woman in one of her most acclaimed film roles, in The Whisperers (1967).
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Theatre
Edith Evans was born in London, the daughter of Edward Evans, a civil servant, and his wife, Caroline Ellen Foster. She was educated at St Michael's Church of England School, Pimlico, before being apprenticed at the age of 15 in 1903 as a milliner.
Her first stage appearance was with Miss Massey's Shakespeare Players in the role of Viola in Twelfth Night in October 1910. In 1912 she was discovered by the noted producer William Poel and made her first professional appearance for Poel in August of that year, playing the role of Gautami in a sixth-century Hindu classic, Sakuntala. She received much attention with her performance as Cressida in Troilus and Cressida in London and subsequently at Stratford-upon-Avon.
Her career spanned sixty years during which she played over 150 different roles, in works by Shakespeare, Congreve, Ibsen, Wycherley, Wilde and dramatists of her era including George Bernard Shaw, Enid Bagnold, Christopher Fry, and Noël Coward. She created six of Shaw's characters: the Serpent, the Oracle, the She-Ancient, and the Ghost of the Serpent in Back to Methuselah (1923); Orinthia in The Apple Cart (1929); and Epifania in The Millionairess (1940). Other performances which many considered definitive were as Millamant in The Way of the World (1924), Rosalind in As You Like It (1926 and 1936), the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet (1932, 1934, 1935, and 1961), and, most notably, as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (1939), a role with which she became identified in the public's mind (in particular for her drippingly sarcastic delivery of the line: "A handbag?"). In 1964 she appeared as Judith Bliss in a revival of Hay Fever by Noël Coward, directed by the playwright himself, for the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic.
Film
Edith Evans had begun her film career in 1915, but was noted mostly for her stage work until she appeared in the 1949 films The Queen of Spades and The Last Days of Dolwyn. She was the Ghost of Christmas Past in the 1970 musical version of Scrooge starring Albert Finney. Edith Evans made her American television debut in 1961 in Jean Anouilh's comedy, Time Remembered with Christopher Plummer.
In 1925, Edith Evans married George (Guy) Booth. He died a decade later from a brain tumor. There were no children of this marriage, and Evans never remarried.
Portraits
Walter Sickert painted Edith Evans as Katharina, the lead character in Shakespeare's romantic comedy, The Taming of the Shrew. Henry Glintenkamp painted Edith Evans in 1922; the portrait was sold as part of her estate at Sotheby's in 1977. A sculpted head of her was for many years on display at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
Edith Evans was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1946. She also received four honorary degrees from the universities of London (1950), Cambridge (1951), Oxford (1954) and Hull (1968).
Her ashes rest at St Paul's, Covent Garden, London. There is a blue plaque outside her house at 109 Ebury Street, London.
Theatre
- 1909-10: Bad Girl of the Family, The Grand Theatre, Southampton
- 1912-13: Elizabeth Cooper, Haymarket
- 1917-18: Manfred, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
- 1919: Merchant of Venice, Royal Court Theatre
- 1920-21: Mother Eve, Ambassadors Theatre
- 1920-21: Witch of Edmonton,The Lyric, Hammersmith
- 1922-23: Rumour, The Globe Theatre
- 1923-24: Way of the World, The Lyric, Hammersmith
- 1923-24: Adding Machine, The Strand Theatre
- 1924: Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
- 1924-25: Midsummer Night's Dream, Drury Lane
- 1925: The Painted Swan, The Everyman Theatre
- 1925-26: Much Ado About Nothing, Old Vic
- 1925-26: She Stoops To Conquer Old Vic
- 1925-26: Julius Caesar, Old Vic
- 1925-26: As You Like It, Old Vic
- 1925-26: Romeo and Juliet, Old Vic
- 1925-26: Shoemaker's Holiday, Old Vic
- 1925-26: Taming of the Shrew,Old Vic
- 1925-26: Antony and Cleopatra, Old Vic
- 1925-26: Measure for Measure, Old Vic
- 1925-26: Child in Flanders,Old Vic
- 1925-26: Everyman, Old Vic
- 1925-26: Merchant of Venice,Old Vic
- 1925-26: Richard III, Old Vic
- 1925-26: Merry Wives of Windsor,Old Vic
- 1925-26: Shakespeare Birthday Festival, Old Vic
- 1926-27: Rosmersholm, Kingsway Theatre
- 1927: The Way of The World, Wyndham's Theatre
- 1927-28: Shakespeare Birthday Festival, Old Vic
- 1928-29: Apple Cart, The Malvern Theatre, Worcestershire
- 1929-30: Shakespeare Birthday Festival, Old Vic
- 1931: O.H.M.S., Arts Theatre, New Theatre
- 1931-32: Twelfth Night, Old Vic
- 1931-32: Shakespeare Birthday Festival, Old Vic
- 1931-32: Othello, Old Vic
- 1933: The Late Christopher Bean, St.James's Theatre
- 1935-36: Romeo and Juliet, New Theatre
- 1936-37: Taming of The Shrew, New Theatre
- 1936-37: Witch of Edmonton, Old Vic
- 1936-37: As You Like It, Old Vic; New Theatre
- 1936-37: Country Wife, Old Vic
- 1937: The Taming of The Shrew, New Theatre
- 1937-38: Robert's Wife, Globe Theatre
- 1938-39: Importance of Being Earnest, The Globe Theatre
- 1939-40: Importance of Being Earnest, The Prince's Theatre, Bristol
- 1946: Anthony and Cleopatra, Theatre Royal, Newcastle upon Tyne; Piccadilly Theatre
- 1949: Daphne Loreola, Wyndham's Theatre
- 1951: Waters of The Moon, Theatre Royal, Haymarket
- 1954: The Dark is Light Enough, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Opera House, Manchester; Aldwych Theatre
- 1957: The Chalk Garden, Theatre Royal, Haymarket
- 1962 (4 March): Programme of Poetry and music, Aldwych
- 1963: Gentle Jack, Queen's Theatre
- 1964: Hay Fever, Old Vic National Theatre
- 1965: The Chinese Prime Minister by Enid Bagnold,Globe
- 1968 (Feb):Aerial Football and The Black Girl in Search of God, Mermaid Theatre
- 1974: Edith Evans …and Friends, Theatre Royal Haymarket
Filmography
Notes
- 1977 - Ned's Girl by Bryan Forbes, Elm Tree Books
References
- ^ Obituary Variety, 20 October 1976, page 205.
- ^ "Berlinale 1967: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1967/03_preistr_ger_1967/03_Preistraeger_1967.html. Retrieved 2010-02-28.
External links
- Edith Evans at the Internet Movie Database
- Edith Evans at the Internet Broadway Database
- Edith Evans biography and credits at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
- Performances by Edith Evans listed in The Theatre Collection, University of Bristol
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