Lilian Bond

Lilian Bond (January 18, 1908 – January 25, 1991) was an English-American actress born in London who built a career spanning stage, film, and television across several decades. She made her first professional stage appearance at age 14 in the pantomime Dick Whittington and His Cat, subsequently joining the chorus of Piccadilly Revels before relocating to the United States.

Once in America, Bond established herself as a stage performer with credits that included The Earl Carroll Vanities, a lengthy run in Follow Thru, and appearances in various productions of the Ziegfeld Follies. Her Broadway career extended from 1914 to 1941 and encompassed a range of genres, including the musicals Fioretta and Free For All, the farce All Men Are Alike, and the plays Little Shot and Three and One, among other productions.

Bond transitioned into film work in 1929, beginning with the drama No More Children for Cliff Broughton Productions. Between 1929 and 1931 she appeared in eight additional films, among them the 1931 Western Rider of the Plains alongside Tom Tyler. In 1932 she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star, a distinction she shared that year with Gloria Stuart, Ginger Rogers, and other actresses gaining prominence at the time. That same year she appeared in James Whale's comedic thriller The Old Dark House, starring Boris Karloff, in which she portrayed Gladys DuCane, a chorus girl who falls in love with the character Roger Penderel, played by Melvyn Douglas. From 1932 to 1953, Bond took on roles in 39 additional films, ranging from leads to uncredited parts. Among the most prominent was the 1940 Western The Westerner, starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan, in which she portrayed the British-American actress and socialite Lillie Langtry. By the 1950s her film work had diminished, giving way largely to television appearances, and she retired from acting at age 50 in 1958.

In her personal life, Bond married four times, including two ceremonies with the same man. On June 28, 1935, she married Sidney Smith, a New York broker and big-game hunter; a legal complication required the couple to remarry on September 3, 1936. They separated in 1943, with each party citing cruelty, and their divorce was finalized the following year. In 1950 Bond married Morton Lowry, a union that lasted six years. Her final marriage, in 1961, was to Michael Fessier, a screenwriter, film producer, and novelist; the two remained together until his death in 1988. Bond had two children. She died three years after Fessier's death, suffering a heart attack at age 83 at a convalescent hospital in Reseda, California, on January 25, 1991.