Ernita Lascelles Ranson (May 1, 1890 – June 23, 1972) was an English actress, novelist, and playwright.

Early life and education

Lascelles was born to English parents in Chile. She studied acting with Richard Boleslavski in 1923.

Career

Lascelles was a stage actress in New York City and London. Her stage credits included roles in '' Much Ado About Nothing'' (1904), '' Doctor Faustus'' (1904), '' The Comedy of Errors'' (1904), ''Love and a Half-Pence'' (1906), '' When Knights Were Bold'' (1907), '' Lady Windemere's Fan'' (1911), ''The Miniature'' (1911), ''The Double Game'' (1912), ''A Gauntlet'' (1913), ''The Son and Heir'' (1913) '' Disraeli'' (1914), ''

The Philanderer ''The Philanderer'' is a play by George Bernard Shaw. It was written in 1893 but the strict British censorship laws at the time meant that it was not produced on stage until 1902. It is one of the three plays Shaw published as ''Plays Unpleasa ...

'' (1914), ''Plaster Saints'' (1914), ''When the Young Vine Blooms'' (1915), ''Gamblers All'' (1917), ''The Tragedy of Nan'' (1919), ''Polly with a Past'' (1919),''The Madras House'' (1921), ''From Morn til Midnight'' (1922), '' Back to Methuselah'' (1922), ''The Dice of the Gods'' (1923), ''The Living Mask'' (1924), ''The Mongrel'' (1924), ''Adam Solitaire'' (1925), ''

Fanny's First Play ''Fanny's First Play'' is a 1911 play by George Bernard Shaw. It was first performed as an anonymous piece, the authorship of which was to be kept secret. However, critics soon recognised it as the work of Shaw. It opened at the Little Theatre in ...

'' (1932), ''One Wife or Another'' (1933), ''The Silver Box'' (1935), and ''Murder with Pen and Ink'' (1935). She later starred in a 1944 production of '' Medea'' at Columbia University, but a reviewer found her performance "appalling, though admirably consistent in its misreading". Her first novel, ''The Sacrificial Goat'' (1923), was set in the London theatre world, with a working actress as the main character, and another character based on George Bernard Shaw. Plays by Lascelles included a farce, ''Listen to Me'' (1926), ''The Bride Confesses'' (1932), ''Oh Youth!'' (1934) and historical plays ''Fire'' (1942), about Thomas Cranmer, and ''Lucretia'' (1927)'','' about

Lucrezia Borgia Lucrezia Borgia (; ca-valencia, Lucrècia Borja, links=no ; 18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519) was a Spanish-Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia who was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. She reigned as the Govern ...

. In 1953, Lascelles was on the staff of a girls' camp in Vermont.

Personal life

Lascelles married fellow English actor Herbert Walter Ranson in 1908. They had daughters Joan and Naomi. Her husband died in 1970, and Lascelles died in 1972, aged 82, in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lascelles, Ernita 1890 births 1972 deaths British actresses British dramatists and playwrights British women writers British expatriates in Chile British expatriate actresses in the United States