Lehmann, Beatrix

Lehmann, Beatrix (1903–79), English actress of great power and intensity. She made her first appearance in 1924, and in 1929 attracted attention as Ella Downey in O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings. Other notable roles were as Susie Monican in O'Casey's The Silver Tassie (also 1929), Emily Brontë in Clemence Dane's Wild Decembers (1933), and Stella Kirby in Priestley's Eden End (1934). In 1936 she consolidated her position as one of London's major actresses with her Winifred in the Old Vic production of William Rowley's The Witch of Edmonton, which was followed by a number of important productions including O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra (1937) and Desire under the Elms (1940), Ibsen's Ghosts (1943), and Thomas Job's Uncle Harry (1944). In 1947 she was at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, where she gave one of her finest performances as Isabella in Measure for Measure, also playing Viola in Twelfth Night. Returning to contemporary plays, she was seen in Ted Willis's No Trees in the Street (1948), Ustinov's No Sign of the Dove (1953), and Anouilh's The Waltz of the Toreadors (1956). She was in Harold Pinter's first play The Birthday Party, played Lady Macbeth at the Old Vic (both 1958), and gave a remarkable performance as the 100-year-old Miss Bordereau in Michael Redgrave's The Aspern Papers (1959), based on a story by Henry James; but she was thereafter seen less frequently and mostly in supporting roles. Her last appearance on the stage was in T. S. Eliot's The Family Reunion at the Royal Exchange Theatre in 1979.