Laura Hope Crews

Laura Hope Crews
Laura Hope Crews circa 1915 in silent films
Born	December 12, 1879(1879-12-12) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	November 12, 1942 (aged 62) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1915–1942

Laura Hope Crews (December 12, 1879 – November 12, 1942) was a character actress of movies and stage. The daughter of a stage actress and a backstage carpenter, Crews started acting at age four. Her first stage appearance was at Woodward's Garden. She stopped acting to finish school and then returned to acting in 1898.

Crews is known for her portrayal of Aunt Pittypat in the Gone with the Wind. Other screen credits include Camille, The Sisters, Idiot's Delight, The Rains Came, and The Blue Bird.

Career on Broadway

She was featured in theatrical productions of plays written by A.A. Milne, the English playwright. Milne was particularly impressed by Miss Crews' work in his Mr. Pim Passes By. The play was a big success and ran for 232 performances. Afterward the actress began to work in productions staged by the New York Theater Guild, which had just opened.

Crews's final stage appearance came in Arsenic and Old Lace. She participated for more than a year and a half on Broadway and on the road. She was forced to leave because of illness. She starred as Judith Bliss in the original broadway production of Noel Coward's Hay Fever . She was proudest of her work in The Silver Cord by Sidney Howard. It was produced by the New York Theater Guild in 1926 and ran for 212 performances. When The Silver Cord was not being presented there were matinee performances of Right You Are If You Think You Are by Luigi Pirandello. The Silver Cord was later made into a 1933 RKO movie with Crews in her original mother role and costarring alongside Joel McCrea, Frances Dee and Irene Dunne.

Crews died in the Le Roy Sanitorium in Manhattan, NY in 1942, following an illness of four months. She had been admitted on October 15, suffering from a kidney ailment and was in serious condition for most of her time there.

Laura Hope Crews was laid to rest at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California. Plot: Rose Mound, Lot 65.

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was the cousin of actor Earle Larimore who had co-starred with her in the Silver Cord on the stage.

In addition to her parents, Crews had a brother named William who was married to a Lucy Williams. Crews herself appears to have never married or had any children.

References

• Oakland Tribune, "'Laura H. Crews of Stage Dies", Friday, November 13, 1942, Page D9.

External links

• Laura Hope Crews photo gallery at NYP Library
• Laura Hope Crews at the Internet Movie Database
• Laura Hope Crews at the Internet Broadway Database
• Laura Hope Crews as a young Shakespearean stage actress
• Laura Hope Crews page with rare stage photographs
• Laura Hope Crews at Find a Grave