Rosamond Pinchot

Rosamond Pinchot (October 26, 1904 – January 24, 1938) was a New York-born socialite and actress who worked in both stage and film. Her father, Amos Pinchot, was a wealthy lawyer and prominent figure in the Progressive Party, and her mother, Gertrude Minturn Pinchot, was the daughter of shipping magnate Robert Bowne Minturn, Jr. Her uncle was Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot, and her cousin was Edie Sedgwick. The family split their time between New York City and Grey Towers, the Pinchot family estate in Milford, Pennsylvania. Pinchot attended Miss Chapin's School, and following her parents' 1918 divorce, she and her younger brother Gifford resided with their mother in a New York City townhouse.

Pinchot's entry into the theater came at nineteen, when director Max Reinhardt encountered her aboard an ocean liner she was traveling on with her mother. Reinhardt cast her in the Broadway production of Karl Vollmoller's The Miracle, in which she played a nun who flees a convent. The role generated significant press attention, and Pinchot was widely referred to in the press as "the loveliest woman in America." Reinhardt subsequently cast her in two additional productions: William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Franz Werfel's The Eternal Road.

Pinchot's Broadway career spanned from 1924 to 1937 and included credits such as Jederman, Danton's Death, and St. Helena, in addition to her work with Reinhardt. Her sole film appearance came in 1935, when she played Queen Anne in an adaptation of The Three Musketeers.

On January 26, 1928, Pinchot married William "Big Bill" Gaston, who had previously been married to Kay Francis. The couple had two sons, William Alexander Gaston and James Pinchot Gaston. Pinchot and Gaston separated in 1933, though they remained legally married and were estranged at the time of her death.

On January 24, 1938, Pinchot was found by a cook in the front seat of her car inside the garage of a rented estate in Old Brookville, New York. Her death was determined to have resulted from carbon monoxide poisoning and was ruled a suicide. She left two notes, the contents of which were never disclosed publicly. Her funeral took place on January 26, 1938, her tenth wedding anniversary, at her mother's townhouse in New York City. She was buried in the Pinchot family plot at Milford Cemetery in Milford, Pennsylvania.