Biography

Legendary stage actress Eva Le Gallienne's life began just as grandly as the daughter of poet Richard Le Gallienne. Sarah Bernhardt was her idol growing up and, at age 18, was brought to New York by her mother. Making her London debut with "Monna Vanna" in 1914, she proved a star in every sense of the word. She appeared on Broadway first in "Liliom" in 1921 and lastly at the Biltmore Theatre in 1981 with "To Grandmother's House We Go," which won her a Tony nomination at age 82. Noted for her extreme boldness and idealism, she became a director and muse for theatre's top playwrights, a foremost translator of Henrik Ibsen, and a founder of the civic repertory movement in America. A respected stage coach, director, producer and manager over her six decades, Ms. Le Gallienne consciously devoted herself to the Art of the Theatre as opposed to the Show Business of Broadway and dedicated herself to upgrading the quality of the stage. She ran the Civic Repertory Theatre Company for 10 years (1926-1936), producing 37 plays during that time. She managed Broadway's 1100-seat Civic Repertory Theatre (more popularly known as The 14th Street Theatre) at 107 14th Street from 1926-32, which was home to her company whose actors included herself, J. Edward Bromberg, Paul Leyssac, Florida Friebus, and Leona Roberts. Her gallery of theatre portrayals would include everything from Peter Pan to Hamlet. Sadly, she almost completely avoided film and TV during her lengthy career. However, toward the end of her life, she did appear in a marvelous 1977 stage version of "The Royal Family" on TV and rendered a quietly touching performance as Ellen Burstyn's grandmother in Resurrection (1980), for which she received an Oscar nomination.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

One of the 20th century's most prominent and prolific theatre artists, Eva Le Gallienne was born in London in 1899 to poet Richard Le Gallienne and his wife Julie Norregaard. After a childhood spent largely in Paris-where she met legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt-Le Gallienne became an overnight success in the London theatre at the age of fifteen, playing the Cockney slavey Elizabeth in "The Laughter of Fools." At age sixteen, she moved to New York, where she worked her way up through the Broadway ranks to become one of its brightest stars. During that time, she met renowned actress Eleanora Duse, who became, along with Bernhardt, one of Le Gallienne's theatrical idols. After three major Broadway successes--"Not So Long Ago" (1920), "Liliom" (1921), and "The Swan" (1923)--Le Gallienne began pursuing her long-held dream of founding a classical repertory theatre that would present high-quality plays at popular prices. Her dream was realized in 1926, when she opened the Civic Repertory Theatre on 14th Street in Manhattan with a top ticket price of $1.50. Le Gallienne produced, directed, and performed in nearly all of the Civic Rep's productions, which were performed in true rotating repertory. When the financial crises of the Depression forced the theatre's closure in 1933, Le Gallienne went on to pursue a multifaceted, highly successful career that included more acting, directing, and producing, as well as writing (including two autobiographies, "At 33" and "With a Quiet Heart," and a biography of Duse, "The Mystic in the Theatre") and translating (including the plays of Henrik Ibsen and the stories of Hans Christian Anderson). While her TV and film appearances were few and far between, they featured some laudable highlights, including her Emmy-nominated performance in the 1977 TV adaptation of "The Royal Family," and an Oscar nomination for her role in the 1980 film "Resurrection." Her remarkable accomplishments with the Civic Repertory Theatre set the stage for the Off Broadway and regional nonprofit theatre movements of the mid-20th century. Le Gallienne was awarded a special Tony Award in 1964 and the National Medal of the Arts in 1986. She died on June 3, 1991 at her home in Weston, CT.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Barrie Kreinik