Occupation: actress, producer, director
Known for: founding and directing the Civil Repertory Company, New York, which sought to make classic theater to general audiences at low ticket prices
About Eva Le Gallienne:
Born in London, her father was the journalist and poet Richard Le Galliene, her mother the Danish journalist Julie Norregaard. She moved with her mother to Paris in 1903 after her parents divorced, where she studied at the Collège Sévigné.
Eva Le Gallienne said later that she decided to become an actress after seeing Sarah Bernhardt. She began acting first in London in 1914, after returning to England with her mother. They moved to New York the next year.
Eva Le Gallienne first became a star with her 1921 portrayal of Julie in Liliom by Ferenc Molnár.
She founded the Civic Repertory Company in 1926, but it failed in the Depression after 37 productions, most of which she directed and in most of which she had an acting role. Such figures as May Sarton, John Garfield, and Burgess Meredith studied as apprentices at this company.
In 1946, she founded the American Repertory Company with Cheryl Crawford and Margaret Webster, only to have that effort fail within a year. Webster and Crawford were among those in the acting community charged with communist connections, and that hurt sales.
Eva Le Gallienne appeared in and produced plays around the United States, with her last major role in the 1970s.
Eva Le Gallienne wrote several translations of Chekhov and Ibsen, and two autobiographical books (1934 and 1953). She also wrote stories for children and a biography of Eleanora Duse.
More About Eva Le Gallienne:
In 1930 when she was named in a divorce suit, it became widely known that she was a lesbian. She was linked with many actresses and other women. Her companion from 1937 to 1951 was Margaret Webster, one of the partners in the American Repertory Theatre. Her companion in her later years was Marion Evenson, with whom she lived in Connecticut.
Eva Le Gallienne was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Resurrectionand an Emmy for her role in the television production of The Royal Family, and she received many awards for her work in theatre including a special Tony in 1964 for her production of Seagull (Chekhov). She was awarded a National Medal of the Arts by Ronald Reagan in 1986.
Eva Le Gallienne Quotes:
- I would rather play Ibsen than eat, and that's often just what it amounts to.
- [T]he theater has fallen into the hands of real estate men and syndicates and those who have no love or interest in the stage.
