Lucile Watson

Lucile Watson (May 27, 1879 – June 24, 1962) was a Canadian actress, long based in the United States. She was "famous for her roles of formidable dowagers."

Early years

Watson was born in Quebec and raised in Ottawa, the daughter of an officer in the British Army. Despite his wishes, she traveled to New York City and enrolled in a dramatic school.

Career

Watson began her career on the stage debuting on Broadway in the play ''Hearts Aflame'' in 1902. Her next play was ''The Girl with Green Eyes'', the first of several Clyde Fitch stories. At the end of 1903, Watson appeared in Fitch's ''Glad of It''. This play featured several young performers, including Watson who moved to major Broadway or motion picture prominence: Robert Warwick, John Barrymore, Thomas Meighan, and Grant Mitchell. For the rest of the decade, she appeared in several more Fitch stories into the 1910s. Fitch died in 1909.

Watson was primarily a stage actress, appearing in 39 Broadway plays. She starred in plays such as '' Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines'', ''Heartbreak House'', ''Ghosts'', ''The Importance of Being Earnest'', and '' Pride and Prejudice''.

Watson's first film role was in the 1916 silent film ''The Girl with Green Eyes'', a film version of the Clyde Fitch play she had performed on Broadway in 1902. She did not appear in another movie until 1930 when she had an uncredited role in ''The Royal Family of Broadway''. In 1939, she played a memorable role as Norma Shearer's wise mother in the cultural comedy/drama from the Clare Booth Luce play ''The Women''.

Watson reached the height of her adult acting career in playwright Lillian Hellman's anti-fascist dramatic stage play ''Watch on the Rhine'' on Broadway in 1941, starring Paul Lukas. Two years later in Hollywood, she and Lukas reprised their roles in the film adaptation. In perhaps her best known film role, Lucile Watson's performance as Fanny Farrelly received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Lucile Watson played Aunt March in the 1949 film version of ''Little Women'', whose stars included Elizabeth Taylor as Amy. The following year, she was cast along with her famous ''The Women'' co-star Joan Crawford in the melodrama '' Harriet Craig''.

Personal life

Watson's first name, Lucile, is often misspelled in her movie credits as Lucille. Sometime in the 1910s, she was briefly married to silent film star Rockliffe Fellowes; they had no children. Her second husband was playwright Louis E. Shipman, whom she married in 1928; he died five years later, in 1933.

Death

Watson died on June 25, 1962.

Broadway roles

* '' No More Ladies'' (1934) as Mrs. Fanny Townsend
* ''Watch on the Rhine'' (1941) as Fanny Farrelly

Partial filmography

* ''The Royal Family of Broadway'' (1930) as Actress Backstage (uncredited)
* '' What Every Woman Knows'' (1934) as La Contessa la Brierre
* '' The Bishop Misbehaves'' (1935) as Lady Emily
* '' The Garden of Allah'' (1936) as Mother Superior Josephine
* ''A Woman Rebels'' (1936) as Betty Bumble
* ''Three Smart Girls'' (1936) as Martha
* ''The Young in Heart'' (1938) as Mrs. Jennings
* '' Sweethearts'' (1938) as Mrs. Marlowe
* '' Made for Each Other'' (1939) as Mrs. Harriet Mason
* '' The Women'' (1939) as Mrs. Morehead
* ''Waterloo Bridge'' (1940) as Lady Margaret Cronin
* '' Florian'' (1940) as Countess
* '' Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' (1941) as Mrs. Custer
* ''Rage in Heaven'' (1941) as Mrs. Monrell
* '' Footsteps in the Dark'' (1941) as Mrs. Archer
* ''The Great Lie'' (1941) as Aunt Ada
* '' Model Wife'' (1941) as J.J. Benson
* ''Watch on the Rhine'' (1943) as Fanny Farrelly
* '' Uncertain Glory'' (1944) as Mme. Maret
* '' Till We Meet Again'' (1944) as Mother Superior
* ''The Thin Man Goes Home'' (1945) as Mrs. Charles
* '' Tomorrow Is Forever'' (1946) as Aunt Jessica Hamilton
* ''My Reputation'' (1946) as Mrs. Mary Kimball
* '' Never Say Goodbye'' (1946) as Mrs. Hamilton
* ''Song of the South'' (1946) as Grandmother
* ''The Razor's Edge'' (1946) as Louisa Bradley
* '' Ivy'' (1947) as Mrs. Gretorex
* ''The Emperor Waltz'' (1948) as Princess Bitotska
* ''Julia Misbehaves'' (1948) as Mrs. Packett
* '' That Wonderful Urge'' (1948) as Aunt Cornelia Farley
* ''Little Women'' (1949) as Aunt March
* ''Everybody Does It'' (1949) as Mrs. Blair
* '' Let's Dance'' (1950) as Serena Everett
* '' Harriet Craig'' (1950) as Celia Fenwick
* ''My Forbidden Past'' (1951) as Aunt Eula Beaurevel

Sources

Lucile Watson biography by Film historian T. R. Bourgeois

References

Further reading

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External links

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Lucile Watson
portraits Broadway 1910s or 20s NYP Library
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Lucile Watson
posing for '' Vanity Fair'' August 1921 portrait by Nickolas Muray
Lucile Watson - Aveleyman

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Lucile
1879 births
1962 deaths
Actresses from New York City
Actresses from Quebec City
Canadian film actresses
Canadian television actresses
Canadian stage actresses
Canadian expatriate actresses in the United States
20th-century American actresses