George, Grace

George, Grace (1879–1961), actress. The fair‐haired, blue‐eyed beauty was born in New York and educated at a convent, later studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before making her debut as a schoolgirl in The New Boy (1894). Her first important role was the innkeeper's daughter Juliette in The Turtle (1898). George quickly mastered a style that her husband, producer William A. Brady, would later describe as “the fast‐building, vivacious, chin up and tongue‐sparkling sort of thing, with wit and tears mingled.” She demonstrated these skills in over fifty subsequent plays. Among her notable roles were Peg Woffington in Pretty Peggy (1903); Louise in an all‐star revival of The Two Orphans (1904); the flighty Lady Kitty in The Marriage of William Ashe (1905); Cyprienne in a revival of Divorçons (1907); the sly Marion Stanton in A Woman's Way (1909); Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal (1909); Lady Cicely in Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1916); the socialite Anne De Rhonde in The Merry Wives of Gotham (1924); Janet Fraser, who is courted by her former husband, in The First Mrs. Fraser (1929); the gentle spinster Mary Herries in Kind Lady (1935); and school mistress Mother Hildebrand in The Velvet Glove (1949). George's last appearance was as Mrs. Culver opposite Katharine Cornell in a revival of The Constant Wife (1951). She also adapted several plays, some of which she acted in.