Le Gallienne, Eva (1899–1991), actress, manager, and director. Daughter of the famous novelist and poet Richard Le Gallienne, she was born in London and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, acting briefly in England before making her American debut as Rose in
Mrs. Boltay's Daughters (1915). Le Gallienne scored her first major success as Julie who loves the ne'er‐do‐well hero in
Liliom (1921), and consolidated her new‐found fame when she played Princess Alexandra in a second
Molnar play,
The Swan (1923). In the 1925–26 season she mounted her own productions of
The Master Builder and
John Gabriel Borkman, playing Hilda Wangel and Ella Rentheim, and later the same year established her
Civic Repertory Theatre in an attempt to offer low‐priced productions of classics. She directed and appeared in many of its productions over the next six years, playing, among others, Masha in
The Three Sisters, Viola in
Twelfth Night, Sister Joanna in
The Cradle Song, Elsa in
Alison's House, the White Queen in
Alice in Wonderland, and the title roles of
Hedda Gabler and
Peter Pan. In 1942 she won applause as the spiteful sister Lettie in
Uncle Harry. With Cheryl
Crawford and Margaret
Webster she made another attempt at forming a permanent ensemble in 1946, calling it the American Repertory Company, but its life was short. Many of Le Gallienne's subsequent appearances were in short‐lived failures, but years later she scored a major success as the theatrical dowager Fanny Cavendish in a 1975 revival of
The Royal Family. Her last appearances were in
To Grandmother's House We Go (1981) and
Alice in Wonderland (1982). A small woman, with a tiny, tight‐featured face, her acting struck many as too studiously mannered, but she brought an exceptional intelligence and dedication to all her work. Autobiographies:
At 33, 1934;
With a Quiet Heart, 1953; biography:
Eva Le Gallienne, Helen Sheehy, 1996.
