Pauline Lord (August 13, 1890 – October 11, 1950) was an American stage and film actress.

Early years

Lord was born in

Hanford Hanford may refer to: Places *Hanford (constituency), a constituency in Tuen Mun, People's Republic of China *Hanford, Dorset, a village and parish in England *Hanford, Staffordshire, England *Hanford, California, United States *Hanford, Iowa, ...

, California, to Edward Lord and Sara Foster. When the family moved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

she attended Holy Rosary Academy, where she discovered her vocation from participating in a school play. As a youngster, she used her weekly allowance to attend Saturday productions at the Alcazar Theatre in San Francisco and eventually gained small parts in some of those plays. She graduated from the Jennie Morrow Long College of Voice and Action.

Career

At age 13, she debuted professionally with the Belasco Stock Company in the play '' Are You a Mason?'' where her first role was that of a maid. The comedian

Nat Goodwin Nathaniel Carl Goodwin (July 25, 1857 – January 31, 1919) was an American male actor born in Boston. In his early career he was chiefly known for his performances in musical theatre and light opera; making his Broadway theatre, Broadway debut ...

saw her act and invited her to look him up if she ever got to New York City. Three years later, after the

San Francisco Fire At 05:12 AM Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity ...

, at the age of 16, she made the trip, and true to his words, Goodwin put her to work with several tour engagements. Fired from her first tour, she returned to New York and acted in some plays there before returning to California. Anna-Christie-1921-1

Her first Broadway role was in January 1912 as Ruth Lenox in ''

The Talker ''The Talker'' is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Anna Q. Nilsson, Lewis Stone Lewis Shepard Stone (November 15, 1879 – September 12, 1953) was an American film actor. He spent 29 years as a con ...

'' followed by more tours and vaudeville parts. Her next hit was in August 1917 as Sadie in ''The Deluge'', directed by

Arthur Hopkins Arthur Hopkins (October 4, 1878 – March 22, 1950) was an American Broadway theatre producer in the early twentieth century. Between 1912 and 1948, he produced and staged more than 80 plays – an average of more than two per year – occasiona ...

. It was not until November 2, 1921, that she again scored another hit where she starred in the title role of

Eugene O’Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier associated with Chekhov, Ibsen, a ...

's ''

Anna Christie ''Anna Christie'' is a Play (theatre), play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It made its Broadway theatre, Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. O'Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this work. According ...

'' at the

Vaudeville Theatre The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. Opening in 1870, the theatre staged mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. The theatre was rebuilt twice, although each new buildin ...

on Broadway. This turned out to be her greatest success; the play was taken to London, and at the Strand Theatre on April 10, 1923, she received a half-hour ovation. In 1924, she starred as Amy in

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'' ...

's '' They Knew What They Wanted'' and later in 1928 as Nina Leeds in O’Neill's ''

Strange Interlude ''Strange Interlude'' is an experimental play in nine acts by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. ''Strange Interlude'' is one of the few modern plays to make extensive use of a soliloquy technique, in ...

''.

Mary Pickford Gladys Louise Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer. A Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood, pioneer in the American film industry with a Hollywood care ...

listed her as one of her favorite stars. Lord returned to the stage in 1932 playing Abby in Sidney Howard's ''

The Late Christopher Bean ''The Late Christopher Bean'' is a comedy drama adapted from ''Prenez garde à la peinture'' by René Fauchois. It exists in two versions: an American adaptation by Sidney Howard (1932) and an English version by Emlyn Williams (1933). Williams's i ...

''. She made her film debut in 1934 as ''

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' is a 1901 novel by American author Alice Hegan Rice, about a southern family humorously coping with poverty. It was highly popular on its release,Lowell Hayes Harrison, ''A New History of Kentucky'' (1997), p ...

'', followed by ''

A Feather in Her Hat ''A Feather in Her Hat'' is a 1935 melodrama film starring Pauline Lord as a working-class woman with ambitions for her son. It is based on the 1934 novel of the same name by I. A. R. Wylie. Plot In 1925 London, middle-aged, widowed shopkeeper C ...

'', released the following year. She found she was not interested in cinema and returned to the stage. In January 1936, she played Zenobia in Owen and Donald Davis’ dramatization of

Edith Wharton Edith Newbold Wharton (; ; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gil ...

's ''

Ethan Frome ''Ethan Frome'' is a 1911 novella by American author Edith Wharton. It details the story of a man who falls in love with his wife's cousin and the tragedies that result from the ensuing love triangle. The novel has been adapted into a film o ...

''. Her last appearance on stage was in 1946 as Amanda in a touring company's production of

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...

' ''

The Glass Menagerie ''The Glass Menagerie'' is a memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on its author, his histrionic mo ...

''.

Personal life and death

Lord married advertising executive Owen B. Winters on April 27, 1929. They divorced on October 26, 1931. She died on October 11, 1950 of chronic asthma and heart disease at Champion Memorial Hospital in

Alamogordo Alamogordo () is a city in and the county seat of Otero County, New Mexico, Otero County, New Mexico, United States. A city in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan Desert, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains (New Mexico), Sac ...

, New Mexico."Actress Pauline Lord, 60, Succumbs at Almogordo," ''Albuquerque Journal'', p. 19, Thursday, October 12, 1950. https://www.newspapers.com/image/158205495/?terms=%22Pauline%20Lord%22&match=2

References

* Behringer, Clara M. "Lord, Pauline" ''Notable American Women.'' Vol. 2, 4th ed., The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1975 .

External links

* *
Pauline Lord
portrait at NYP Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Lord, Pauline 1890 births 1950 deaths 20th-century American actresses American stage actresses American film actresses Actresses from California People from Hanford, California Deaths from asthma