Langtry, Lillie

views updated

Lillie Langtry, 1853–1929, English actress, b. Jersey, Channel Islands; known as the Jersey Lily. One of the first English women of elevated social rank to go on the stage, she made her debut at the Haymarket theater in 1881 after her husband, a diplomat, failed financially. Never considered a great actress, Langtry was noted for her great beauty and for her affair with Edward VII. Oscar Wilde wrote Lady Windermere's Fan for her. In 1899 she married Sir Hugo Gerald de Bathe.

See her memoirs, The Days I Knew (1925); P. Sichel, The Jersey Lily (1958).