Laura Hope Crews (December 12, 1879 – November 12, 1942) was an American actress who is best remembered today for her later work as a

character actress A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to be ...

in motion pictures of the 1930s. Her best-known film role was Aunt Pittypat in ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind may also refer to: Music * ''Gone with the Wind'' ...

''.

Early life

Crews was the daughter of stage actress Angelena Lockwood and backstage carpenter John Thomas Crews. She had three older siblings. Crews started acting at age four. Her first stage appearance was at

Woodward's Gardens Woodward's Gardens, commonly referred to as The Gardens, was a combination amusement park, museum, art gallery, zoo, and aquarium operating from 1866 to 1891 in the Mission District of San Francisco, California. The Gardens covered two city bloc ...

. She stopped acting to finish school and then returned to acting in 1898. As she was a native San Franciscan, the records pertaining to her early life were destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906. Most of Crews' formal education came in San Jose, as the family had moved there following the remarriage of Crews' mother.

Career

In 1898, Crews performed in San Francisco as an ingenue with the Alcazar Stock Company. Two years later, she and her mother moved to New York City, where Crews began to act with the Henry V. Donnelly Stock Company. Crews appeared in plays written by A.A. Milne, who was particularly impressed by her work in his '' Mr. Pim Passes By'' (1921). The play was a big success and ran for 232 performances on Broadway. Crews also starred as Judith Bliss in the original Broadway production of Noël Coward's '' Hay Fever'' (1925), which she co-directed with Coward. She also appeared in ''The Silver Cord'', written by

Sidney Howard Sidney Coe Howard (June 26, 1891 – August 23, 1939) was an American playwright, dramatist and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for ''Gone with the Wind''. ...

, which was produced by the New York Theater Guild in 1926 and ran for 212 performances. When ''The Silver Cord'' was not being presented, there were matinee performances of ''Right You Are If You Think You Are'' by

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his almost magical power ...

. ''The Silver Cord'' was later made into a 1933 RKO movie with Crews reprising her onstage role of the mother. The film co-starred

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...

Frances Dee Frances Marion Dee (November 26, 1909 – March 6, 2004) was an American actress. Her first film was the musical ''Playboy of Paris'' (1930). She starred in the film '' An American Tragedy'' (1931). She is also known for starring in the 1943 ...

, and

Irene Dunne Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn; December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American actress who appeared in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other gen ...

. In the late 1920s, and because of her years as a stage actress, Crews had been hired as a voice coach by

Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...

to help with her transition to talking pictures.

George Cukor George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head ...

, who had directed her in '' Camille'' (1936), recommended her for the role of Aunt Pittypat in ''

Gone With the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind may also refer to: Music * ''Gone with the Wind'' ...

'' (1939) after

Billie Burke Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke (August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970) was an American actress who was famous on Broadway and radio, and in silent and sound films. She is best known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North ...

declined it. Cukor wanted Crews to play the role "in a Billie Burke-ish manner" with "the same zany feeling". Her final stage appearance came in 1942, in the original Broadway run of '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' in which she replaced one of the original cast members. She stayed with the production for more than a year and a half on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and in a touring company before she was forced to leave because of illness.

Death

Crews died in the

LeRoy Sanitarium The LeRoy Sanitarium, later called the LeRoy Hospital, was a medical facility in New York, New York. It was founded in 1928 by Alice Fuller LeRoy and closed in 1980. Notable patients *actress Marguerite Clark entered as a patient and then died th ...

in New York City in 1942, following an illness of four months. Some sources say that the illness in which she suffered from was

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

. She was laid to rest at

Cypress Lawn Memorial Park Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, established by Hamden Holmes Noble in 1892, is a rural cemetery located in Colma, California, a place known as the "City of the Silent". History Cypress Lawn Memorial Park is the final resting site for several memb ...

in Colma, California. Crews has a star at 6251 Hollywood Boulevard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Crews was also the first credited cast member of

Gone With The Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind may also refer to: Music * ''Gone with the Wind'' ...

to die.

Filmography

References

External links

Laura Hope Crews
photo gallery at NYP Library * *
Laura Hope Crews
as a young stage actress
Laura Hope Crews
page with rare stage photographs *
Laura Hope Crews
stills Univ. of Washington Sayre Collection
Laura_Hope_Crews_and_Leo_Ditrichstein
_in_"The_Phantom_Rival"_(1915).html" ;"title="Leo Ditrichstein">Laura Hope Crews and Leo Ditrichstein
in "The Phantom Rival" (1915)">Leo Ditrichstein">Laura Hope Crews and Leo Ditrichstein
in "The Phantom Rival" (1915)br>Laura Hope Crews in ''The Havoc'' (1911)
(Univ. of Washington Sayre Collection)
Crews on the cover of The Theatre magazine, August 1913 ''Tears: In Which Silent Pictures Actresses Tell Us How They Weep''
article on crying in silent movies {{DEFAULTSORT:Crews, Laura Hope 1879 births 1942 deaths American film actresses American stage actresses Deaths from kidney failure Actresses from San Francisco 20th-century American actresses American child actresses 19th-century American actresses Burials at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park