Everything about Cathleen Nesbitt totally explained
Cathleen Nesbitt,
CBE (
November 24,
1888 –
August 2,
1982) was an
English actress of
Welsh and
Irish extraction.
Born in
Cheshire,
England, she was educated in
Lisieux,
France and attended the
Queen's University of Belfast, and studied at the
Sorbonne in
Paris,
France. Her younger brother, Thomas Nesbitt, Jr., acted in one film in 1925, before his death in
South Africa in 1927 from an apparent heart attack.
Her debut on the
London stage was in the revival of
Pinero's
The Cabinet Minister (1910). She acted in countless
plays after that.
In 1911, Nesbitt joined the Irish Players, went to the
United States and debuted on
Broadway in
The Well of the Saints. She also was in the cast of
John Millington Synge's
The Playboy of the Western World with the Irish Players when the whole cast was pelted with fruits and vegetables by the offended Irish American Catholic audience.
She became the love of
English poet Rupert Brooke in 1912, who wrote great love sonnets to her. They were engaged to be married when he died during
World War I. Nesbitt returned to the U.S. and appeared on Broadway in
Quinneys (1915). After five other plays there, she returned to England. For the rest of the decade she performed in London; her roles included the title role in a revival of
John Webster's
The Duchess of Malfi.
Her
film debut was in the
silent A Star Over Night (1919). She then performed in
The Faithful Heart (1922). She didn't appear in a film again until 1930, when she played the role of Anne Lymes in
Canaries Sometimes Sing, which was an early
talkie. She appeared in the 1938 film version of
Pygmalion as "a lady" who attends the Embassy ball. In the opening credits her name is spelled with a "K" but the correct spelling comes at the end of the film.
She had one husband, the actor Cecil Ramage. They married in 1920 and remained legally married until Nesbitt's death in 1982 but were separated for many years. They had two children.
Nesbitt's first
Hollywood film was
Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), in which she played the character role of La Principessa. This was followed that same year by
Black Widow, in which she played a maid named Lucia Colletti. She was also part of the 1958 ensemble cast of
Separate Tables.
Her other Broadway productions included
Gigi (1951),
Sabrina Fair (1953), and
Anastasia (1954). In 1956, she played Mrs. Higgins in
My Fair Lady starring
Julie Andrews and
Rex Harrison. Nesbitt reprised the role in 1981, when in her in 90s, in a Broadway revival also starring
Rex Harrison, who had also appeared in the original Broadway show (and
the 1964 film).
She is probably best-remembered by Americans for her role as Agatha Morley on the
TV series
The Farmer's Daughter from 1963 to 1966, playing the mother of a Congressman (played by
William Windom). She guest starred on such shows as
The United States Steel Hour;
Wagon Train;
Naked City,
Dr. Kildare and
Upstairs, Downstairs. She was also memorable as the kindly grandmother in the film
An Affair to Remember.
Nesbitt won an
Emmy Award for her work in the TV drama
The Mask of Love (1974).
Nesbitt lived for many years in the United States, and considered taking out U.S. citizenship, but ultimately returned to the
United Kingdom, where she was appointed a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire (CBE). Her
autobiography,
A Little Love and Good Company, was published in 1973.
In 1969 she portrayed the mother of a
homosexual in
Staircase. She played the film role of an elderly drug addict in
French Connection II (1975). Her next film was
Hitchcock's
Family Plot (1976), in which she played Julia Rainbird. She then appeared as the grandmother in
Julia (1977). Her final film was
Never, Never Land (1980), in which she played Edith Forbes.
She also wrote an engaging autobiography entitled
A Little Love and Good Company, which was published in England. Scheduled for an American release by Stemmer House, the manuscript was lost for a year but finally arrived in the U.S. and the book was published there.
After a career spanning over eighty years, one of the longest in show business history, Cathleen Nesbitt died at age 93 in London, on
2 August 1982.
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