Katharine Cornell

Katharine Cornell (1898-1974), American actor, who is considered one of the great ladies of the American stage. She was born in Berlin of American parents. She appeared with great success in London in 1910 in a dramatization of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. In 1921, after several years of playing in stock and touring companies, she made her Broadway debut in Nice People, won acclaim for her role in A Bill of Divorcement, and married the theatrical producer and director Guthrie McClintic, who directed most of the plays in which she acted after 1925. Among the plays in which Cornell had leading roles were Candida (1925), The Green Hat (1927), and The Letter (1928). Beginning in 1931 she appeared under her own management in a number of plays, including The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1931), Romeo and Juliet (1933), Saint Joan (1936), and The Three Sisters (1943). During World War II she toured overseas camps of the American armed forces in The Barretts of Wimpole Street. She later appeared in New York City in Antony and Cleopatra (1947), The Constant Wife (1951), The Dark Is Light Enough (1955), and Dear Liar (1960). Cornell retired in 1961 after her husband's death.