Frances Goodrich (December 21, 1890 – January 29, 1984) was an American actress, dramatist, and screenwriter, best known for her collaborations with her partner and husband Albert Hackett. She received both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play with her husband for The Diary of Anne Frank which had premiered in 1955.
Early life
Goodrich was born in Belleville, New Jersey, the second daughter of five children, of Madeleine Christy (née Lloyd) and Henry Wickes Goodrich. The family moved to nearby Nutley, New Jersey when Goodrich was two. She attended Collegiate School in Passaic, New Jersey, and graduated from Vassar College in 1912, and attended the New York School of Social Work from 1912 to 1913, but left to become an actress in Henry Miller's productions. In 1924 she appeared in George Kelly's play, The Show Off.
Career
Soon after she left the New York School of Social Work, Goodrich began the acting portion of her career at the Players Club in New York City. From there she went to Northampton, Massachusetts, where she acted in stock theater. Her acting credits on Broadway included Perkins (1918), Daddy Long Legs (1918), Fashions for Men (1922), Queen Victoria (1923), A Good Bad Woman (1925), Skin Deep (1927), and Excess Baggage (1927).
For the summer of 1928, Goodrich joined the summer stock cast at Denver's Elitch Theatre. Goodrich showed Hackett a script she had written, entitled Such A Lady, and they rewrote it together. This was the beginning of their collaboration.
Muckraking writer Henry Demarest Lloyd was Goodrich's uncle.