Eva Le Gallienne

Legendary stage actress Eva Le Gallienne's life began just as grandly as the daughter of poet Richard Le Gallienne. Sarah Bernhardt was her idol growing up and, at age 18, was brought to New York by her mother. Making her London debut with "Monna Vanna" in 1914, she proved a star in every sense of the word.

She appeared on Broadway first in "Liliom" in 1921 and lastly at the Biltmore Theatre in 1981 with "To Grandmother's House We Go," which won her a Tony nomination at age 82. Noted for her extreme boldness and idealism, she became a director and muse for theatre's top playwrights, a foremost translator of Henrik Ibsen, and a founder of the civic repertory movement in America. A respected stage coach, director, producer and manager over her six decades, Ms. Le Gallienne consciously devoted herself to the Art of the Theatre as opposed to the Show Business of Broadway and dedicated herself to upgrading the quality of the stage.

She ran the Civic Repertory Theatre Company for 10 years (1926-1936), producing 37 plays during that time. She managed Broadway's 1100-seat Civic Repertory Theatre (more popularly known as The 14th Street Theatre) at 107 14th Street from 1926-32, which was home to her company whose actors included herself, J. Edward Bromberg, Paul Leyssac, Florida Friebus, and Leona Roberts. Her gallery of theatre portrayals would include everything from Peter Pan to Hamlet. Sadly, she almost completely avoided film and TV during her lengthy career.

Received a Special Tony Award in 1964 "celebrating her 50th year as an actress, honored for her work with the National Repertory Theatre.for body of work." She was also nominated as Best Actress (Play) in 1981 for "To Grandmother's House We Go."

She was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1986 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.

Shares some similarities with actress Jessica Tandy. Both were born in England but made their career in U.S. and their first Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category came at the age 82 (but Tandy already have won one in 1990 while Eva was only nominated once).