Cooper, Dame Gladys

Cooper, Dame Gladys (1888–1971), English actress, who excelled in drawing-room comedy but was by no means limited to this style. She made her first appearance in London in 1906 in The Belle of Mayfair, and was subsequently seen in both musical comedy and straight plays with equal success. In 1916 she became joint manager of the Playhouse (sole manager from 1928), presenting and often playing in a varied programme of old and new plays. She was particularly admired in revivals of Pinero's The Second Mrs Tanqueray in 1922 and Sudermann's Magda in 1923 and starred in Maugham's Home and Beauty (1919), The Letter (1927), The Sacred Flame (1929), and The Painted Veil (1931). She occasionally appeared for other managements, playing opposite Gerald Du Maurier at the St James's Theatre in Lonsdale's The Last of Mrs Cheyney (1925). After remaining at the Playhouse until 1933 she made her first appearance in New York in 1934. Her later stage career was divided between London and New York in roles ranging from Desdemona and Lady Macbeth to Fran Dodsworth in Sidney Howard's Dodsworth (London, 1938). She was also seen in London in Coward's Relative Values (1951) and on Broadway as Mrs St Maugham in Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden (1955; London, 1956).