Lynn Fontanne

<The Times, August 1, 1983>

<MISS LYNN FONTANNE>

Miss Lynn Fontanne, the British-born actress who, with her husband,
Alfred Lunt, formed a famous partnership in American theatre, died in
the United States on July 30. She was 90.

It might be said that the United States discovered her and made her a
star, and then by loaning her to the British theatre, allowed us on
many occasions to endorse its judgement of her.

Her talent found its ripe expression in her partnership with Alfred
Lunt in high comedy.

Lynn Fontanne was born at Woodford, Essex. Ellen Terry accepted her as
a pupil, and she walked on in the Drury Lane pantomime of 1905. She
got her first speaking part in London and paid a brief visit to New
York as a member of Weedon Grossmith's company in 1910; and she did
two plays for the management of Vedrenne and Eadie at the old Royalty
Theatre in Soho. Laurette Taylor, who was appearing in London in "Peg
o' My Heart", saw her there, and in 1916 sent for her to join her own
company in the United States.

Lynn Fontanne supported Laurette Taylor in four pieces in New York,
all written by the star's husband, Hartley Manners.

She accompanied Laurette Taylor to London in 1920, having meanwhile
played "Anna Christie" in the first version of O'Neill's drama, and
was called back to tackle the part which established her on Broadway,
the name part in Marc Connelly and George Kaufman's comedy "Dulcy".
The audience at the opening night in 1921 included Alfred Lunt, the
actor from Wisconsin.

She was married to Lunt on May 26, 1922, at the City Hall, New York.

The real starting point of their stage partnership was their
engagement by the Theatre Guild for Molnar's comedy "The Guardsman" in
1924. The Guild presented them jointly in three plays by Shaw and
Copeau's production of "The Brothers Karamazov", and singly in two
plays by O'Neill. The Guild also introduced them as a team to London
in 1929. London found the play, Sil-Vara's "Caprice", uninteresting,
and was somewhat taken aback by the speed and the close "interaction"
of these two players. They came back to the English stage in 1934,
having in the meantime appeared as Elizabeth I and Essex in a play by
Maxwell Anderson and together with Noel Coward in the latter's "Design
for Living". They also brought over to us Robert Sherwood's "Reunion
in Vienna", and Giraudoux's "Amphitryon 38."

At the outbreak of the Second World War they were in the middle of a
Coast-to-coast tour of "Amphitryon 38", "The Seagull", and Sherwood's
"Idiot's Delight". In 1943, deciding that her rightful place was now
in England, she returned in order to appear with her husband in
Sherwood's play about life in an occupied country "There Shall Be No
Night".

They played in the West End till the Aldwych Theatre was damaged by
flying bombs, in camps and hospitals, and again the West End during
the last months of the war in Europe in Terence Rattigan's "Love in
Idleness". Later they went on a European tour with this comedy,
playing to audiences of Allied troops before taking it to North
America.

They celebrated the jubilee of their partnership in 1949 and London
did not see them again until 1952, in the third Noel Coward play to be
written for them, "Quadrille". It proved to be an anticlimax for those
who remembered the excitement of the Lunts' war years. Next time they
came over, it was to break altogether fresh ground in an adaptation of
a play by Friedrich Durrenmatt. Their version of it, afterwards
entitled "The Visit", was admittedly not very like the original
spine-chilling comedy, but their performances, regarded simply as
such, added to their reputations.

Lynn Fontanne and her husband were together in one silent film and a
talking film of "The Guardsman". A contract for seven more films was
then offered to them by MGM, but they refused it. In 1943 they
appeared as themselves in Frank Borzage's film "The Stage Door
Canteen", and in 1957 they made their television debut in a production
of the stage play "The Great Sebastians."

Alfred Lunt died in 1977.

END