Lynn Fontanne

Lynn Fontanne was an English actress born Lillie Louise Fontanne on 6 December 1887 in Woodford, Essex, then part of the county of Essex and now a suburb of London. She died on 30 July 1983 at the age of 95 in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin. Her Broadway career spanned from 1910 to 1958, and she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play in 1959.

Fontanne's earliest theatrical training came from the celebrated actress Ellen Terry, who occasionally instructed promising young performers. Through Terry's influence and guidance, Fontanne secured roles in London productions and on tour throughout England beginning in 1905. Her first stage appearance was in the chorus of the pantomime Cinderella at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, at Christmas 1905. She subsequently appeared in non-speaking roles alongside performers including Lewis Waller and Sir Herbert Tree. In 1909 she toured as Rose in Lady Frederick, and in December of that year appeared at the Garrick Theatre in Where Children Rule, followed by Billy's Bargain at the same venue in June 1910, in which she played Lady Mulberry.

Fontanne made her American debut in November 1910 at Nazimova's 39th Street Theatre in New York, playing Harriet Budgeon in Mr Preedy and the Countess alongside Weedon Grossmith. After returning to London in 1911, she performed at the Criterion Theatre and the Vaudeville Theatre, then toured the provinces in 1912 and 1913 as Gertrude Rhead in Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblock's Milestones, a role requiring her to portray the same character across youth, middle age, and old age. The American actress Laurette Taylor saw her in that role and was sufficiently impressed to later invite Fontanne to join her company in New York. At the Royalty Theatre in April 1914, Fontanne appeared as Liza and Mrs Collison in Knoblock's My Lady's Dress. She also appeared in the premiere of The Starlight Express during her London years. Her fiancé, a young lawyer named Teddy Byrne, was killed in action in 1916 during the First World War.

Shortly before Byrne's death, Fontanne accepted Taylor's offer to join her New York company. Taylor and her husband, playwright Hartley Manners, actively supported Fontanne's development during this period. Taylor later remarked that while acting with Fontanne she forgot they were actresses. After five productions with the Taylor company, Fontanne moved into leading roles with other managements. Between 1918 and 1920 she succeeded Laura Hope Crews as Mrs Rockingham in A Pair of Petticoats in New York and took on female leads in new Broadway productions as well as engagements in Chicago and Philadelphia. It was during summer stock work in Washington, D.C., that she met the actor Alfred Lunt. In 1921, Fontanne achieved her first major American success in the lead role of George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly's comedy Dulcy.

Fontanne married Lunt in May 1922, and the following year the two made their first joint Broadway appearance in a revival of Paul Kester's costume drama Sweet Nell of Old Drury. In 1924 they joined the Theatre Guild, an organization that, in the words of Fontanne's biographer Jared Brown, staged plays on Broadway while defying commercial conventions by presenting serious and innovative work. Their first Guild production was Ferenc Molnár's The Guardsman, which established their reputation in light comedy. The couple subsequently appeared together in three Bernard Shaw productions for the Guild: Arms and the Man in 1925, with Fontanne as Raina and Lunt as Bluntschli; Pygmalion in 1926, with Fontanne as Eliza and Lunt as Higgins; and The Doctor's Dilemma in 1927, in which they played the Dubedats. In 1928 Fontanne demonstrated her range by moving from comedy to Eugene O'Neill's experimental drama Strange Interlude. That same year the pair starred in the Guild production Caprice, which biographer Margot Peters identifies as a turning point in their careers: it was the first production in which they, rather than the play itself, were the primary attraction, and it marked the beginning of their inseparable theatrical partnership. From that point forward they always appeared on stage together.

Fontanne and Lunt took Caprice to London in 1930, marking Lunt's first appearance there, and earned the admiration of audiences, critics, and writers including Shaw and J. B. Priestley. In November 1931 they opened in Robert Sherwood's romantic comedy Reunion in Vienna for the Guild, a production that ran throughout the season and was followed by a nationwide tour. The Lunts were committed to touring, bringing their Broadway productions to both major American cities and more remote locations, motivated by a belief that playwrights deserved the widest possible audiences and that audiences outside New York deserved access to Broadway-caliber work.

Fontanne had been a close friend of the English actor and playwright Noël Coward since they met in New York in 1921, before any of the three had achieved prominence. The three had agreed at that time that when they were famous, Coward would write a play for all of them to appear in together. That project was realized in 1932 with Design for Living, in which Fontanne's character moves between the two men, who then form a bond with each other. The Lunts became known collectively as "The Lunts" and were celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic for their stylish performances in light comedies by writers including Coward, S. N. Behrman, and Terence Rattigan, as well as in romantic plays by writers such as Sherwood. They also appeared in classical works including The Taming of the Shrew and The Seagull, and in dark comedy by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Among Fontanne's Broadway credits are O Mistress Mine, I Know My Love, Quadrille, The Great Sebastians, and The Visit. Her performance in The Visit earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play in 1959. The Lunts retired from the stage in 1960 and lived at their home in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin. Lunt died in 1977, and Fontanne survived him by six years, dying in 1983.