From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American actress
Iva Wills Coburn
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Coburn in 1920
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Born
| Ivah Myrtel Wills
August 19, 1878
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Died
| April 27, 1937 (age 58)
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Occupation
| Actress
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Spouse
| Charles Coburn
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Ivah Myrtle Wills
(August 19, 1878
[1]
[2]
? April 27, 1937) was an American actress and Broadway producer.
Early life
[
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]
Ivah Myrtle Wills was from
Appleton City, Missouri
, the daughter of George Browning Wills and Anna Kunz Wills.
[3]
She was raised in
Brookston, Indiana
.
[4]
She studied drama at the
Chicago Musical College
.
[5]
Career
[
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]
She began her acting career in touring companies run by
E. H. Sothern
and
Amelia Bingham
.
[5]
Ivah Wills Coburn's Broadway performing and producing credits included
The Yellow Jacket
(1916),
The Imaginary Invalid
(1917),
The Better 'Ole
(1918-1919),
Three Showers
(1920),
French Leave
(1920),
[6]
The Bronx Express
(1922),
The Farmer's Wife
(1924-1925),
The Right Age to Marry
(1926),
The Yellow Jacket
(1928-1929),
Falstaff
(1928-1929),
The Plutocrat
(1930),
[7]
and
Troilus and Cressida
(1932).
Coburn and her husband had a touring repertory company that presented Shakespeare, French and Greek dramas and comedies at college campuses throughout the United States.
[8]
They directed the Mohawk Drama Festival in
Schenectady, New York
in 1935 and 1936.
[5]
Personal life
[
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]
Ivah Wills met
Charles Coburn
when he was playing Orlando to her Rosalind in
As You Like It
. They married in 1906, in
Baltimore
.
[9]
She died in 1937, at
Lenox Hill Hospital
, from "intestinal influenza". Among the honorary pallbearers at her funeral were
George M. Cohan
,
Theodore E. Steinway
,
Walter Hampden
,
Dixon Ryan Fox
,
Augustin Duncan
, and
Edgar Lee Masters
.
[10]
After her death, Charles Coburn left the stage and found success in films, winning the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
in 1944 for
The More the Merrier
.
[11]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925
- ^
Birthdate listed as August 1878;
1900 United States Federal Census
- ^
"Mrs. Coburn, Famed Stage Actress, Called by Death"
Los Angeles Times
(April 28, 1937): 7.
- ^
"Romantic Stage Career of Mr. and Mrs. Coburn"
Boston Daily Globe
(February 18, 1934): 43.
- ^
a
b
c
"Mrs. C. D. Coburn, Actress, is Dead"
New York Times
(April 28, 1937): 28.
- ^
"Mrs. Coburn, in 'French Leave', is Brilliantly Clothed by Paul Iribe"
La France
(November 1920): 77.
- ^
"'The Plutocrat' Seen as Comic Strip Play"
New York Times
(February 21, 1930): 26.
- ^
"Mrs. Ivah Coburn, Known for College Drama Tours, is Dead"
Chicago Daily Tribune
(April 28, 1937): 14.
- ^
"'Strip' Acts Less Harmful to Morals than Censorship"
Boston Daily Globe
(February 25, 1934): 42.
- ^
"Hundreds at Services for Mrs. I. W. Coburn"
New York Times
(April 30, 1937): 21.
- ^
"Actor Charles Coburn, 84, Dies After Minor Surgery"
Janesville Daily Gazette
(August 31, 1961): 24. via
Newspapers.com
External links
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]