Lucille Lortel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The headstone of Lucille Lortel in Westchester Hills Cemetery
Enlarge
The headstone of Lucille Lortel in Westchester Hills Cemetery

Lucille Lortel (December 16, 1900April 4, 1999) was an American actress and theater producer who is remembered as the namesake of an off-Broadway playhouse and theatrical award.

Born Lucille Wadler in New York City, Lucille Lortel was originally an actress during the 1920s (she once recollected comparing breast sizes with Helen Hayes), who went on to become an off-Broadway theater producer and impresario with the help of a wealthy husband. Her age was a well-kept mystery until nearly the end of her life.

It is for her that both the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village and the Lucille Lortel Awards for achievement in off-Broadway productions are named.

She died of natural causes in New York at the age of 98 and is interred at the Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

[edit] External links

Lucille Lortel at the Internet Movie Database