Laura Hope Crews

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Laura Hope Crews

Born 12 December 1879
San Francisco, California
Died 21 November 1942
New York, New York

Laura Hope Crews (San Francisco, December 12, 1879 – November 12, 1942 in New York City) was a character actress of movies and stage. The daughter of a stage actress and a backstage carpenter, Crews started acting at age four. Her first stage appearance was at Woodward's Garden. She stopped acting to finish school and then returned to acting in 1898.

Her most widely seen film performance was as "Aunt Pittypat" in the movie Gone with the Wind (1939).

[edit] Career on Broadway

She was featured in theatrical productions of plays written by A.A. Milne, the English playwright. Milne was particularly impressed by Miss Crews' work in his Mr. Pim Passes By. The play was a big success and ran for 232 performances. Afterward the actress began to work in productions staged by the New York Theater Guild, which had just opened.

Crews's final stage appearance came in Arsenic and Old Lace. She participated for more than a year and a half on Broadway and on the road. She was forced to leave because of illness. She was proudest of her work in The Silver Cord by Sidney Howard. It 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.

Crews died in the Le Roy Sanitorium in Manhattan, NY in 1942, following an illness of four months. She had been admitted on October 15, suffering from a kidney ailment and was in serious condition for most of her time there.

Laura Hope Crews was laid to rest at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California. Plot: Rose Mound, Lot 65.

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was the cousin of actor Earle Larrimore.

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