Cornell, Katharine (1893–1974), actress and manager. The daughter of a onetime theatre manager, she was born in Berlin where her father had gone to study medicine, and made her stage debut with the
Washington Square Players in 1916. She afterward continued her apprenticeship in her hometown of Buffalo and in Detroit with Jessie
Bonstelle's stock company before calling attention to herself as the determined flapper Eileen Baxter‐Jones in
Nice People (1921). Further accolades came when she portrayed Sydney Fairfield, the daughter who stands by her mentally disturbed father, in
A Bill of Divorcement (1921); as the lively Mary Fitton in
Will Shakespeare (1923); and as the shy, homely Laura Pennington in
The Enchanted Cottage (1923). Cornell's performance as Candida in 1924 consolidated her reputation, and was followed by two of her most sensational roles: the carnal, doomed Iris March in
The Green Hat (1925) and Leslie Crosbie, who kills her lover, in
The Letter (1927). Other successes at that time included Ellen Olenska in
The Age of Innocence (1928) and Madeline Carey in
Dishonored Lady (1930). With Guthrie
McClintic, whom she had married in 1921, Cornell embarked on a career as actress‐manager, and scored her greatest triumph in her very first offering when she played Elizabeth Barrett in
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1931). “By the crescendo of her playing,” Brooks
Atkinson observed, “by the wild sensitivity that lurks behind her ardent gestures and her piercing stares across the footlights she charges the drama with a meaning beyond the facts it records.” In 1934 she reprised her Elizabeth Barrett on tour, playing in seventy‐seven cities in seven months. Among her subsequent roles were St. Joan in Shaw's play, the tragic princess Oparre in
Wingless Victory (1936), the playwright's wife Linda Esterbrook in
No Time for Comedy (1939), Jennifer Dubedat in a 1941 revival of
The Doctor's Dilemma, and her Masha in a 1942 revival of
The Three Sisters. She then spent much of the war years playing Candida and Elizabeth Barrett for soldiers, followed by
Antigone (1946), Shakespeare's Cleopatra (1947), Constance Middleton in
The Constant Wife (1951), U. N. delegate Mary Prescott in
The Prescott Proposals (1953), and the Countess in Christopher
Fry's
The Dark Is Light Enough (1955). Her last appearance was as Mrs. Patrick
Campbell in
Dear Liar (1960). Although Cornell seemed tall and regal on stage, she was not quite five feet seven inches, with dark hair, a dark complexion and broad features that were called Oriental and even negroid. With Lynn
Fontanne and Helen
Hayes, she was one of the great actresses of her era, and even though she hated performing, she was far more willing than either of her rivals to extend her range and attempt classics from the entire history of the theatre. Biography:
Leading Lady: The World and Theatre of Katharine Cornell, Tad
Mosel with Gertrude Macy, 1978.
