Katharine Cornell

Katharine Cornell
Born	February 16, 1893 Berlin, Germany
Died	June 9, 1974 (age 81) Tisbury, Massachusetts, USA
Spouse(s)	Guthrie McClintic (1921–1961)

Katharine Cornell (February 16, 1893 – June 9, 1974) was an American stage actress, writer, and theater owner and producer.

She was born on February 16, 1893 (although she later shaved five years off her age) in Berlin, Germany to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.

Acting and writing career

Cornell is known as the American greatest stage actress of the 20th century. She was nicked-named "First Lady of the Theater," a title also bestowed upon her friend Helen Hayes, though each demured to the other. Nonetheless, her contributions to acting and to the theater are unparalleled. Cornell is noted for her major Broadway roles in serious dramas, often directed by her husband, Guthrie McClintic.

Her most famous role was as English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the 1931 Broadway production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street. Other appearances on Broadway included: W. Somerset Maugham's The Letter (1927), Sidney Howard's The Alien Corn (1933), Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (1934), Maxwell Anderson's The Wingless Victory (1936), S. N. Behrman's No Time for Comedy (1939), a Tony Award-winning Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra (1947), and a revival of Maugham's The Constant Wife (1951).

She appeared in only one film, the World War II morale booster, Stage Door Canteen, in which she played herself and, along with one of the soldiers, recited a speech from Romeo and Juliet. However, she did appear in television adaptations of The Barretts of Wimpole Street (recreating her original role some twenty years later), and Robert E. Sherwood's There Shall Be No Night. She also narrated the Oscar-winning documentary Helen Keller in Her Story.

Primarily regarded as a tragedienne, she was admired for her refined, romantic presence. One reviewer observed, "Hers is not a robust romanticism, however. It tends toward dark but delicate tints, and the emotion she conveys most aptly is that of an aspiring girlishness which has always been subject to theatrical influences of a special sort."^[1]

Katharine Cornell in 1927

Her appearances in comedy were infrequent, and praised more widely for their warmth than their wit. When she appeared in The Constant Wife, critic Brooks Atkinson concluded that she had changed a "hard and metallic" comedy into a romantic drama. ^[2]

Death

Cornell died on June 9, 1974, in Tisbury, Massachusetts (on Martha's Vineyard), aged 81.

Family and Childhood

Cornell was born into a rich and prominent society family in Buffalo. Her grandfather, Samuel Garretson Cornell came to Buffalo in the 1850s and was the founder of Cornell Lead Works. One of his sons, Peter, married Alice Gardner Plimpton who gave birth to Katharine while living in Berlin, Germany. As a child, Katharine was not considered conventionally pretty and was called Kit because she looked like a boy, a nickname that stayed for the rest of her life. Her relationship with her parents was troubled, and her mother was an alcoholic, and Katharine would play act in her backyard with imaginary friends. As the Cornell family always liked being in plays, they encouraged Katharine. Soon she was playing in school pageants and plays, and in her grandfather's attic theater. At age 14, she received her first review in a local paper.

Early Career

In 1915, her mother died, leaving her enough money to be independent, and she left for New York. There she joined the Washington Square Players and was hailed as one of the most promising acresses of the season. After just two seasons, she then joined the Jessie Bonstelle Company, a leading New York stock company that divided its summers between Detroit and Buffalo. Now aged 25, she was consistently receiving glowing reviews.

Cornell joined with various theater companies, including the Bonstelle, that toured around the East Coast. In 1919, she went with the Bonstelle company to London to play Jo in a stage adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel "Little Women." Although the critics found the play disparaged the play itself, they specifically mentioned Cornell as the one bright spot of the evening. "The Englishwomen" wrote of Cornell: "London is unanimous in its praise, and London will flock to see her." Upon her return to New York, she met Guthrie McClintic, a young theater director, and they married in 1920. She finally made her Broadway debut in the play, "Nice People" by Rachel Crothers. She had a small part along with Tallulah Bankhead.

Her first real Broadway role came by playing the female role of Sydney Fairfield in "A Bill of Divorcement" in 1921. The New York Times wrote of her performance, "[she] has the central and sigificant role of the play and ... gives therein a performance of memorable understanding and beauty." It played for 173 performances, well enough to be considered a hit. Afterwards, Cornell played a succession of forgotten plays.

Stardom

In 1924, she and Guthrie were part of The Actor's Theatre, a group of actors that sought to be a democracy without any stars. As their first production, they selected Candida, by George Bernard Shaw. At the time, the play was considered perfect for the group, as none of the characters were played as outshining the others. Even though the leading protagonist is Candida, she doesn't really appear until the third act. However, Cornell essentially reinvisioned the role, making Candida the central part of the play. Reviews were ecstatic and audiences responded in kind. The Actor's Theatre thereafter realized that Cornell's name must appear above the play's title in all future productions of the troupe. Another acting troupe, The Theatre Guild, controlled the rights to all Shaw's plays, and thereafter only allowed Cornell to play the role of Candida, a role which she reprised several more times in her career. Shaw later wrote her note stating that she had created "an ideal British Candida in my imagination."

Legacy

The Tisbury Town Hall houses a theatre on its second floor. Originally known as Association Hall, it was re-named The Katharine Cornell Theater in her honor and later, her memory. A donation from her estate provided the funds for renovation (lighting, heating, elevator) as well as decoration of four large murals depicting Martha's Vineyard life and legend by local Vineyard artist Stan Murphy. The Katharine Cornell Theater is a popular venue for plays, music, movies and more.

There is another theater space at the State University of New York at Buffalo named in her honor. Many student productions are presented there year round. Additionally, the Artvoice, an alternative free weekly newspaper in Buffalo, NY, has named an award after her for outstanding acting in local theater.

Katharine Cornell won a Tony Award for Antony and Cleopatra (1947, award year 1948) along with Jessica Tandy in A Streetcar Named Desire and Judith Anderson in Medea.

The Artvoice, a weekly arts newspaper in Buffalo, each year awards the Katharine Cornell Award, given to visiting artists for outstanding contribution to the Buffalo theater season.

Sexuality

It has been suggested that Cornell's marriage to McClintic was a lavender marriage as he was a homosexual and she a lesbian. She conducted a long on-again off-again affair with Mercedes de Acosta, and had a relationship with actress Maude Adams, among other noted women of the time.^[3]

References

External links

• Katharine Cornell at the Internet Broadway Database
• Katharine Cornell at the Internet Movie Database
• Photographs from the George Eastman House:
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