Laurette Taylor

Laurette Taylor (born Loretta Helen Cooney; April 1, 1883 – December 7, 1946) was an American stage and silent film star who is particularly well known for originating the role of Amanda Wingfield in the first production of Tennessee Williams's play The Glass Menagerie.

Personal life

Taylor was born of Irish heritage as Loretta Helen Cooney in New York City on April 1, 1883, to James and Elizabeth (née Dorsey) Cooney. She married her first husband, Charles Alonzo Taylor (born South Hadley, Massachusetts – died Glendale, California), on May 1, 1901, at age 18. He was almost two decades her senior. They had two children, Dwight Oliver Taylor and Marguerite Courtney, but divorced .

According to New York Times theatre critic Brooks Atkinson, it was The Girl in Waiting (1910) that "made her a star." Of her acting, he wrote,<blockquote>By the time she was in her late teens, she had created a highly individual technique of acting that was spontaneous and eloquent; it consisted of variations in tempo, tentative movements that were not quite completed, quizzical glances, absorption in what other actors were saying, and, of course, a warm, expressive voice that always seemed to be addressed directly to the individual theatergoer. 'Luminous' was the word most frequently used about her performances.

Her biggest hit was Peg o' My Heart, a simple Cinderella-formula vehicle written for her by her husband Manners, it ran on Broadway from December 20, 1912, to May 1914, setting a new Broadway dramatic-play run record of 607 performances. The play earned her and her husband about a week, made Taylor "the most generally worshiped [theatrical] star of her time", and cemented her reputation as a skilled actress. After it closed on Broadway, Taylor starred in the London production until German zeppelin bombing closed it in 1915.

However, by the 1920s, public taste had become more sophisticated. Taylor always starred in the kind of simple, formulaic plays which had delighted pre-World War I middle-class audiences, and her popularity waned. New York Times theatre critic John Corbin wrote that she "had probably the greatest talent, the highest spirit of our times", but that her dated material held her back.

Movies

thumb|Peg o' My Heart (1923)

Taylor planned to make her film debut in Peg o' My Heart, but the film version of the hit play was coveted by nearly every screen actress, including Mary Pickford, who made an offer considerably in excess of the highest amount ever paid for the picture rights to a play or story. The rights to the film were coveted because of the production's established popularity. Almost any actress in the famous role was assured of a resounding success; however, Taylor clung to the movie rights if she decided to appear in a film. It took years for the play to be filmed and released. King Vidor remembered in his autobiography A Tree Is a Tree:<blockquote>"I soon landed a job at the old Metro studio on Romaine Street—the assignment: to direct Laurette Taylor in Peg O' My Heart. Although I had never seen Miss Taylor, her name carried with it a certain magic to my young ears."</blockquote>The play was considerably expanded for the film version, and the final production was an immediate success with audiences. Taylor made Happiness, and then One Night in Rome.

She never appeared in another film, but David O. Selznick did invite her to film a sound test for a role in his 1938 film The Young in Heart, which Taylor did, but she declined the part and actress Minnie Dupree was cast. (The test exists and has been shown on TV from time to time). In preparing interviews for what became Broadway: The Golden Age, Rick McKay asked each person who had influenced him or her the most", and Laurette Taylor's name often was mentioned. McKay devoted an entire section to Taylor, and it includes a section on her 1938 screen test.

Approach to acting

Taylor wrote an essay on acting titled "The Quality Most Needed", which was included in some of the early editions of the text Actors on Acting. In it, Taylor muses on the importance of imagination over physical beauty for the actress wishing to truly create art. She sharply criticizes performances where you can "see the acting" and warns against paying too much attention to the traditions of acting, saying it "cramps creative instinct". To Taylor, the imaginative actress will leave you with a feeling that you can imagine her character's conduct "[i]n any position, aside from the situations involved in the actions of the play". Taylor applauded the imaginative actress who "builds a picture, using all her heart and soul and brain", not for the audience but for herself.

Death

Taylor died from a coronary thrombosis on December 7, 1946, at age 63. Her ashes were interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

Legacy

Writing after Taylor's death, Tennessee Williams paid tribute to "the great warmth of her heart", stating "There was a radiance about her art which I can compare only to the greatest lines of poetry, and which gave me the same shock of revelation as if the air about us had been momentarily broken through by light from some clear space beyond us."

In 1960, the play Laurette, starring Judy Holliday and directed by José Quintero, closed out of town in Philadelphia owing to Holliday's battle with breast cancer. For years, film director George Cukor tried unsuccessfully to launch a film version of Taylor's life. In 1963, a musical adaptation of Laurette opened on Broadway. The musical, titled Jennie, starred Mary Martin in the title role. Its book by Arnold Schulman is credited as having been suggested by Marguerite Courtney's Laurette, and its score was by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz. It ran for 82 performances, receiving mediocre reviews. The one-act play Opening Night appeared briefly off-Broadway in October 1963. Peggy Wood portrayed Fanny Ellis, a once-famous star who is in her dressing room preparing for a performance. Many thought Fanny was actually Taylor. Wood appeared with Ruth Gates. The play ran for 47 performances.

In the 2004 documentary Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There, numerous Broadway veterans cited Taylor's performance in Glass Menagerie and Outward Bound as the most memorable stage performances they had seen. A rare sound film clip of Taylor in a screen test made for David O. Selznick's studio is included in the documentary. The test, for a role in the film The Young in Heart, reportedly did not meet the approval of studio executives.

Notable fans

Actor/teacher Uta Hagen's highly regarded 1991 acting text A Challenge for the Actor describes Taylor as her "idol" and "an inspiration", seeing her as the ultimate example of an actor working from the inside out. Hagen praised Taylor for saying that her identification with a character wasn't complete until she was "wearing the underpants of the character". Hagen's description of Taylor's acting was that she subjectively developed her actions and words, which "always sprang from her as though for the very first time".
Actor Charles Durning described seeing Taylor's acting: "I thought they pulled her off the street. She was...so natural".
Actor Martin Landau said Taylor "was almost like this woman had found her way into the theatre, through the stage door, and was sort of wandering around the kitchen".

References

External links

Laurette Taylor Papers at the Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
Laurette Taylor Award
Laurette Taylor's photo gallery at New York Public Library
1924: Ethel Barrymore visits friend Laurette Taylor during the filming of One Night in Rome (photo)...older archived version
Laurette Taylor portrait gallery at the University of Washington's Sayre collection
portrait of Charles A. Taylor, Laurette's first husband(Univ. of Washington, Sayre collection)