Laura Hope Crews (December 12, 1879 – November 12, 1942) was an American actress. Although she is best remembered today for her later work as a

character actress A character actor is an actor known for playing unusual, eccentric, or interesting characters in supporting roles, rather than leading ones.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014 ...

in motion pictures of the 1930s, she also was prolific on stage; among her films roles was the role of Aunt Pittypat in ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind ...

''.

Early life

Crews was the daughter of stage actress Angelena Lockwood and backstage carpenter John Thomas Crews. She had three older siblings. Crews started acting at age four. Her first stage appearance was at Woodward's Gardens. She stopped acting to finish school and then returned to acting in 1898. As she was a native San Franciscan, the records pertaining to her early life were destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906. Most of Crews' formal education came in San Jose, as the family had moved there following the remarriage of Crews' mother.

Career

In 1898, Crews performed in San Francisco as an ingenue with the Alcazar Stock Company. Two years later, she and her mother moved to New York City, where Crews began to act with the Henry V. Donnelly Stock Company. Crews appeared in plays written by A.A. Milne, who was particularly impressed by her work in his '' Mr. Pim Passes By'' (1921). The play was a big success and ran for 232 performances on Broadway. In 1924 she starred in '' The Werewolf'' for a run of 112 Broadway performances. Crews also starred as Judith Bliss in the original Broadway production of

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

's ''

Hay Fever Allergic rhinitis, of which the seasonal type is called hay fever, is a type of rhinitis, inflammation in the nose that occurs when the immune system overreacts to allergens in the air. It is classified as a Allergy, type I hypersensitivity re ...

'' (1925), which she co-directed with Coward. She also appeared in ''The Silver Cord'', written by

Sidney Howard Sidney Coe Howard (June 26, 1891 – August 23, 1939) was an American playwright, dramatist and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for '' Gone with the Wind'' ...

, which was produced by the New York Theater Guild in 1926 and ran for 212 performances. When ''The Silver Cord'' was not being presented, there were matinee performances of ''Right You Are If You Think You Are'' by

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; ; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italians, Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ...

. ''The Silver Cord'' was later made into a 1933 RKO movie with Crews reprising her onstage role of the mother. The film co-starred

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...

Frances Dee Frances Marion Dee (November 26, 1909 – March 6, 2004) was an American actress. Her first film was the musical ''Playboy of Paris'' (1930). She starred in the film ''An American Tragedy (film), An American Tragedy'' (1931). She is also known ...

, and

Irene Dunne Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn; December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American actress who appeared in films during Classical Hollywood cinema, the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she perf ...

. In the late 1920s, and because of her years as a stage actress, Crews had been hired as a voice coach by

Gloria Swanson Gloria Mae Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most famously for h ...

to help with her transition to talking pictures.

George Cukor George Dewey Cukor ( ; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer, producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO Pictures, RKO when David O. Selzn ...

, who had directed her in '' Camille'' (1936), recommended her for the role of Aunt Pittypat in ''

'' (1939) after

Billie Burke Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke (August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970) was an American actress who was famous on Broadway and radio, and in silent and sound films. She is best known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of t ...

declined it. Cukor wanted Crews to play the role "in a Billie Burke-ish manner" with "the same zany feeling". Her final stage appearance came in 1942, in the original Broadway run of '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' in which she replaced one of the original cast members. She stayed with the production for more than a year and a half on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

and in a touring company before she was forced to leave because of illness.

Death

Crews died in the

LeRoy Sanitarium The LeRoy Sanitarium, later called the LeRoy Hospital, was a medical facility in Lenox Hill, New York. It was founded in 1928 by Alice Fuller LeRoy and closed in 1980. Notable patients *actress Marguerite Clark entered as a patient and then di ...

in New York City in 1942, following an illness of four months. Some sources say that the illness in which she suffered from was

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney fa ...

. She was laid to rest at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California. Crews has a star at 6251 Hollywood Boulevard on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...

. Crews was also the first credited cast member of ''

'' to die.

Filmography

References

External links

Laura Hope Crews
photo gallery at NYP Library * * *
Laura Hope Crews
as a young stage actress
Laura Hope Crews
page with rare stage photographs *
Laura Hope Crews
stills Univ. of Washington Sayre Collection
Laura Hope Crews and Leo Ditrichstein in "The Phantom Rival" (1915)Laura Hope Crews in ''The Havoc'' (1911)
(Univ. of Washington Sayre Collection)
Crews on the cover of The Theatre magazine, August 1913 ''Tears: In Which Silent Pictures Actresses Tell Us How They Weep''
article on crying in silent movies {{DEFAULTSORT:Crews, Laura Hope 1879 births 1942 deaths American film actresses American stage actresses Deaths from kidney failure in New York (state) Actresses from San Francisco 20th-century American actresses American child actresses 19th-century American actresses Burials at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park