Evelyn Varden

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evelyn Varden
Born (1893-06-12)June 12, 1893
Adair, Oklahoma, U.S.
Died July 11, 1958(1958-07-11) (aged 65)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation Stage, film, television actress
Years active 1949-1960

Evelyn Varden (June 12, 1893, Adair, Oklahoma – July 11, 1958, New York) was an American character actress. She began her career as a teenager in the first decade of the 20th century and was on Broadway by age sixteen in 1910. It was not until the 1930s and into her forties that her stage career took off in the theater, notably playing Mrs. Gibbs, the small town matron who dreams of Paris, in the original production of Our Town. The role was played by Fay Bainter in the 1940 motion picture.

Varden's stage work mainly consisted of showy supporting roles although she did star in the ill-fated Return Engagement by Lawrence Riley. The 1950 melodrama Hilda Crane was a personal success for Varden although the play itself ran only two months. The following year she played the Nurse in a production of Romeo and Juliet toplining Olivia De Havilland. Her final Broadway appearance in The Bad Seed was one of her acclaimed performances. She occasionally appeared on radio from the early 1940s and well into the 1950s. She starred in radio productions of Hay Fever, The Silver Cord, and The Glass Menagerie among several other programs. She would later appear in a number of television productions during the 1950s, including an adaptation of Cradle Song, opposite Judith Anderson.

Varden did not make her first film appearance until 1949 at age 56 with the film Pinky. She then went on to make over a dozen more films, including recreating her stage roles in the motion picture adaptations of "Hilda Crane" and "The Bad Seed". Her best known motion picture performance was as the gregarious storekeeper Icy Spoon in the 1955 film Night of the Hunter. She was still going strong in her career at the time of her sudden death in 1958 at age 65.

Broadway Appearances

  • The Nest Egg (Nov 22, 1910 - Jan 1911)
  • Seven Days' Leave (Jan 17, 1918 - Jun 1918)
  • Allegiance (Aug 1, 1918 - Sep 1918)
  • The Honor of the Family (Mar 17, 1919 - May 1919)
  • Alley Cat (Sep 17, 1934 - Sep 1934)
  • A Woman of the Soil (Mar 25, 1935 - Apr 1935)
  • Life's Too Short (Sep 20, 1935 - Sep 1935)
  • Weep for the Virgins (Nov 30, 1935 - Dec 1935)
  • Russet Mantle (Jan 16, 1936 - Apr 1936)
  • Prelude to Exile (Nov 30, 1936 - Jan 1937)
  • Now You've Done It (Mar 5, 1937 - Apr 1937)
  • To Quito and Back (Oct 6, 1937 - Dec 1937)
  • Our Town (Feb 4, 1938 - Nov 19, 1938)
  • Family Portrait (Mar 8, 1939 - Jun 1939)
  • Ladies and Gentlemen (Oct 17, 1939 - Jan 13, 1940)
  • Grey Farm (May 3, 1940 - Jun 1, 1940)
  • Return Engagement (Nov 1, 1940 - Nov 7, 1940)
  • The Lady Who Came to Stay (Jan 2, 1941 - Jan 4, 1941)
  • Candle in the Wind (Oct 22, 1941 - Jan 10, 1942)
  • The Family (Mar 30, 1943 - Apr 3, 1943)
  • Our Town (revival) (Jan 10, 1944 - Jan 29, 1944)
  • Dream Girl (Dec 14, 1945 - Dec 14, 1946)
  • Present Laughter (Oct 29, 1946 - Mar 15, 1947)
  • She Stoops to Conquer (Dec 28, 1949 - Jan 8, 1950)
  • Hilda Crane (Nov 1, 1950 - Dec 31, 1950)
  • Romeo and Juliet (Mar 10, 1951 - Apr 21, 1951)
  • A Date With April (Apr 15, 1953 - Apr 25, 1953)
  • The Bad Seed (Dec 8, 1954 - Sep 27, 1955)

Filmography

External links

Authority control
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.