Selena Royle
Selena Royle ( November 6, 1904 in New York City; † April 23, 1983 in Guadalajara, Mexico) was an American stage and film actress.
Life
Selena Royle was the daughter of the writer and screenwriter Edward Milton Royle ( 1862-1942 ). Her stage career began against the resistance of parents and made his debut in a letter written by her father piece, Launcelot and Elaine. In prominent roles she performed, inter alia, on the pieces Peery Gynt (1923 ), She Stoops to Conquer (1924 ), Paradise (1927) and Napoleon ( 1928). During the Great Depression of 1929 she operated in the theater district of New York City together with Elizabeth Beatty Actors a Free Dinner Club, where unemployed actors were given free food, which was sponsored by colleagues who were under contract and had income.
As the film industry in Hollywood desperate for talented performers looked for the introduction of sound, that had a good speaking voice, sat Paramount Royle in a supporting role in the comedy Miss Leading Lady (1932 ) which will, however, did not succeed at the box office, so Royle the film initially made no further attempt and returned to the theater. There she appeared inter alia in the plays The Roof (1931 ), When Ladies Meet (1932 ), Days Without End (1934 ), Meet the Prince ( 1935) and The Prodigal Father ( 1937). In parallel, she began a career in radio and appeared there in popular series such as Hilda Hope, MD and Kate Hopkins on.
During the Second World War Royle created the State Door Canteen, a facility located in the Broadway neighborhood canteen, were fed free of charge by traveling American soldiers. This institution was so popular that Frank Borzage them in his - portrayed feature film Stage Door Canteen (1943 ) - later nominated for two Oscars.
Metro -Goldwyn -Mayer took Royle then under a multi-year contract, but put them mostly in supporting roles. Since she was already too old by the standards of Hollywood as a leading lady, it was mostly used in the mother compartment, where they soon could be set on caring, selfless, self-sacrificing mother types. Your greatest performances had Royle in the war movie The Sullivans (1944 ), in the family drama Main Street After Dark (1945 ) and in the family film Lassie - Held on four paws ( 1946).
In 1947, she left MGM and worked from now on changing production companies, continue, usually in small roles. In William Wyler's remarkable Henry James adaptation The Heiress (1949 ) she played, for example, the intelligent and compassionate, but little influential aunt a rich young woman ( Olivia de Havilland ), whose father keeps all her admirers for fortune hunter. Something bigger roles played Royle only in the movies The Romance of Rosy Ridge ( 1947), He Ran All the Way (1951 ) and the very dubious science fiction film Robot Monster ( 1953).
In the McCarthy era Royles film career ended abruptly when she was branded a sympathizer of Communism, but refused to testify before the Committee on Un-American Activities. Instead, they brought an action in court against the veterans organization American Legion, in their infamous magazine Red Channels her name had been published. Although she won the case, their image was so damaged that she was then only committed two more times for movie roles.
Selena Royle was from 1932, first marriage to actor Earle Larrimore, from whom she was divorced in 1942. In 1948 she married the actor Georges Renavent with which they left the U.S. after the end of their film career, and moved to Mexico. There they began to running a salon, in which painters, writers and composers met. She wrote and self- published several books and cookbooks about Mexico. 1969 her husband died.
After a short illness Selena Royle died in 1983 with 78 years in Mexico.