English actress (1888?1982)
Cathleen Nesbitt
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Nesbitt in 1913
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Born
| Kathleen Mary Nesbitt
(
1888-11-24
)
24 November 1888
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Died
| 2 August 1982
(1982-08-02)
(aged 93)
London, England
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Occupation
| Actress
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Years active
| 1910?1981
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Cathleen Nesbitt
CBE
(born
Kathleen Mary Nesbitt
; 24 November 1888 – 2 August 1982) was an English actress.
Biography
[
edit
]
Cathleen Nesbitt was born in
Birkenhead
,
Cheshire
, England, as Kathleen Mary Nesbitt in 1888. She was of Welsh and Irish descent.
[1]
Her parents were Thomas and Mary Catherine (nee Parry) Nesbitt. She was educated in
Lisieux
, France, and at the
Queen's University of Belfast
and the
Sorbonne
. Her younger brother, Thomas Nesbitt, Jr., acted in one film in 1925, before his death in South Africa in 1927 from an apparent heart attack.
She made her debut in London in the stage revival of
Arthur Wing Pinero
's
The Cabinet Minister
(1910). She acted in many plays after that. In 1911, she joined the Irish Players, went to the United States and debuted on Broadway in
The Well of the Saints
. She also was in the cast of
John Millington Synge
's
The Playboy of the Western World
with the Irish Players when the whole cast was pelted with fruits and vegetables by the offended Irish American Catholic audience.
Nesbitt returned to the US and appeared on Broadway in
Quinneys
(1915) and
John Galsworthy
's
Justice
(1916) as
John Barrymore
's leading lady in his first dramatic stage role. After five other plays there, she returned to England. For the rest of the decade she performed in London; her roles included the title role in a revival of
John Webster
's
The Duchess of Malfi
. Her film debut was in the
silent
A Star Over Night
(1919). She then performed in
The Faithful Heart
(1922). She did not appear in a film again until 1930, when she played the role of Anne Lymes in
Canaries Sometimes Sing
, which was an early
talkie
. In 1932, she appeared in
The Frightened Lady
. She appeared in the 1938 film version of
Pygmalion
as "a lady" who attends the Embassy ball. In the opening credits her first name was spelled as "Kathleen", but as "Cathleen" at the end of the film. She played the part of Mother in the 1949 BBC TV remake of the drama film
Elizabeth of Ladymead
.
Nesbitt's first
Hollywood
film was
Three Coins in the Fountain
(1954), in which she played the character role of La Principessa. This was followed that same year by
Black Widow
, in which she played Lucia Colletti. She was
Cary Grant
's Grandmother Janou in 1957's
An Affair to Remember
(though she was only 16 years older than Grant) and, the following year, was part of the ensemble cast of
Separate Tables
. She also appeared in
The Parent Trap
(1961), and
Promise Her Anything
(1965).
Other Broadway appearances included Aunt Alicia in the original
Anita Loos
adaptation of
Gigi
(1951),
Sabrina Fair
(1953), and
Anastasia
(1954). In 1956, she played Mrs. Higgins in
My Fair Lady
starring
Rex Harrison
. Nesbitt reprised the role in 1981, in her 90s, in a Broadway revival, opposite Harrison, who was in his 70s.
She played Agatha Morley, the mother of a Congressman (played by
William Windom
) and mother-in-law to his former governess (played by
Inger Stevens
), in the TV series
The Farmer's Daughter
from 1963 to 1966. She guest starred on such shows as
The United States Steel Hour
;
Wagon Train
;
Naked City
,
Dr. Kildare
and
Upstairs, Downstairs
(as
Rachel Gurney
's mother, Mabel, Countess of Southwold).
In 1969 she played
Richard Burton
's mother in the film
Staircase
and again in
Villain
two years later. She had a small but memorable role as an elderly drug addict in
French Connection II
(1975) alongside
Gene Hackman
. Her next film was
Alfred Hitchcock
's
Family Plot
(1976), in which she played Julia Rainbird. She then appeared as the grandmother in
Julia
(1977). Her final film was
Never Never Land
(1980) as Edith Forbes.
Personal life
[
edit
]
In 1912, Nesbitt became the love of English poet
Rupert Brooke
, who wrote love sonnets to her. They were engaged to be married, but he died in 1915 at age 27 of
blood poisoning
, the result of a bite from an infected mosquito while he served in the Royal Navy during
World War I
.
[2]
Nesbitt lived for many years in the United States, but returned to the United Kingdom, where she was appointed a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire
(CBE) in 1978.
[3]
Her autobiography,
A Little Love and Good Company
, was published in 1973.
After a career spanning over 80 years, Nesbitt died of natural causes at age 93 in London on 2 August 1982.
[
citation needed
]
Partial filmography
[
edit
]
Selected stage credits
[
edit
]
References
[
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]
External links
[
edit
]
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