Lynn Fontanne
Lynn Fontanne ( born: Lillie Louise Fontanne; * December 6, 1887 in London Borough of Redbridge, England; † 30 July 1983 in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, United States) was a British film and stage actress.
Life
Lynn Fontanne was born as the daughter of the printer Jules Fontanne, a native Frenchman, and the Irish Frances Ellen Thornley. Called From childhood to Lynn, she already enthusiastic about at a young age for acting. Through a friend of the family, she became acquainted with the actress Ellen Terry, from which she received acting lessons. Her London stage debut in 1905, she celebrated with a small role as a pantomime at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, the more minor roles in theaters or on tour in England followed. 1910, she visited the United States, where she made her Broadway debut in the play Mr. Preedy and the Countess for the first time. Although she then lived in the U.S. over six decades, she never applied for their citizenship. Lynn Fontanne was best known as a stage actress. She has appeared in some 35 plays. In 1959 she was nominated for the Tony Award, but in 1970 this award.
In 1919 Fontanne learned five years younger actor Alfred Lunt know. Her first big success was the title role in George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly's Dulcy ( 1921). In May 1922 married Fontanne and Lunt. The couple was from 1924 to 1929 member of the American theater company Theatre Guild and appeared there in pieces like Ferenc Molnár's divorce from Margit Veszi (The Guardsmen 1924 /25), George Bernard Shaw's Heroes (1925 /26) and Pygmalion (1926 /27) or Franz Werfel goat song ( The Goat song, 1926). Even today, they are considered to be one of the first actresses married couples in history, which occurred mostly together. Also they shared joint film projects.
Fontanne, in Second Youth for the first time was in 1924 before the camera, looked like her husband with only a few films. Their most successful film was the theater adaptation of Werfel's goat song, The Guardsman (1931 ), was nominated for the Fontanne in 1932 for an Oscar as Best Actress.
Fontanne and Lunt founded the Lunt - Fontanne Theatre in New York City, with the Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Visit of the Old Lady started the operation on 5 May 1958.
After Alfred Lunt's death on August 3, 1977 Fontanne retired to her estate in Waukesha County. Here she died six years later, at the age of 95 years, a severe pneumonia.
Others
- On that farm a theater museum was established by Fontannes death.