Nancy Hamilton

Nancy Hamilton (July 27, 1908 – February 18, 1985) was an American actress, playwright, lyricist, director, and producer whose Broadway career spanned from 1932 to 1939. Born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, to Charles Lee Hamilton and Margaret Miller Marshall, she received her early education at Miss Dickinson's School in Sewickley and later studied at the Sorbonne before earning a B.A. from Smith College in 1930.

At Smith, Hamilton served as president of the Dramatic Association during her senior year and wrote and directed a topical revue titled And So On. The production generated controversy when audiences discovered that Hamilton, having obtained special permission from the college president to hire men for the orchestra, had incorporated those men into onstage scenes as well.

Following a period of amateur acting and producing in Pittsburgh and Montclair, New Jersey, Hamilton relocated to New York City in 1932. She briefly held positions at Stern's Department Store and at RKO Pictures, where she assessed audience reactions to vaudeville acts. Her entry into New York theater came as an understudy to Katharine Hepburn in The Warrior's Husband. She made her Broadway debut in 1934 in New Faces, for which she also wrote lyrics. After that production closed, she collaborated with Rosemary Casey and James Shute on the play Return Engagement, which was later adapted into the film Fools for Scandal. During the following two years, she wrote radio scripts for Beatrice Lillie, Fred Astaire, and Lois Long, and contributed articles and poems to Stage Magazine and Harper's Bazaar.

Hamilton went on to write lyrics for three Broadway revues: One for the Money, which ran for 132 performances beginning in 1939; Two for the Show, which ran for 124 performances in 1940; and Three to Make Ready, which ran for 323 performances in 1946. These productions helped launch the careers of Alfred Drake, Keenan Wynn, Gene Kelly, Betty Hutton, Eve Arden, and Ray Bolger. Her Broadway credits also include Pride and Prejudice and New Faces of 1943. Hamilton is additionally recognized as the lyricist for the song "How High the Moon."

In 1945, Hamilton spent six months touring battle areas in France, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands with the American Theater Wing War Players. In the mid-1950s, she produced the documentary Helen Keller in Her Story, also known as The Unconquered, which chronicled the life of Helen Keller and was narrated by Katharine Cornell. In 1955, the film earned Hamilton the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, making her the first woman to receive that award. The film was later restored by the Academy Film Archive in 2006.

Hamilton was the lifelong partner of actress Katharine Cornell. She died in New York City on February 18, 1985, following a long illness. Her papers are held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and by the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College Special Collections.