What was the secret of her appeal? In a 1991 "American Masters" series on PBS, Jason Robards chalked it up to her "American-ness of character." She exuded decency, strength, conviction and warmth. Barrie's "Dear Brutus." She won her two Tonys for "Happy Birthday" in 1947 and "Time Remembered" in 1958. Her Broadway debut came at age 9 in a play called "Old Dutch," and by the time she was 18 she was a Broadway star, playing opposite William Gillette in James M. As she recounted in her 1990 autobiography, "My Life in Three Acts," that love affair began when she attended a production of "The Merry Widow" at Washington's National Theatre.Īfter the final curtain, she refused to leave her seat, screaming, "I won't leave the theater!" And, as she put it, "of course, I never did." She also was always in love with the theater. The author of eight books, she wrote that she never yearned to be an actress, but she always was one. Her most recent performance here was a one-night engagement of "A Program for Two Players," an evening of Shakespeare excerpts performed with Maurice Evans at the Lyric Opera House in 1963. The diminutive actress performed frequently at Baltimore's Ford's Theatre at the height of her stage career, perhaps most notably as Queen Victoria - one of her most beloved roles - in the pre-Broadway premiere of Laurence Housman's "Victoria Regina." We'd take shifts with her because there were so many things she wanted to do." "I think the biggest letdown for her in 1992 was that she couldn't be more mobile," said Paul Gamble, associate director of the awards.
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