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Laura Hope Crews (December 12, 1879 – November 12, 1942) was an American actress who is best remembered today for her later work as a character actress in motion pictures of the 1930s. Her best-known film role was Aunt Pittypat in Gone with the Wind.[1]^{[better source needed]}

Laura Hope Crews
Crews in 1910
Born	(1879-12-12)December 12, 1879 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	November 12, 1942(1942-11-12) (aged 62) New York City, U.S.
Resting place	Cypress Lawn Memorial Park
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1884–1942

Early life

Crews was the daughter of stage actress Angelena Lockwood and backstage carpenter John Thomas Crews. She had three older siblings. Crews started acting at age four. Her first stage appearance was at Woodward's Gardens.[2] She stopped acting to finish school and then returned to acting in 1898. As she was a native San Franciscan, the records pertaining to her early life were destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906.

Most of Crews' formal education came in San Jose, as the family had moved there following the remarriage of Crews' mother.[2]

Career

In 1898, Crews performed in San Francisco as an ingenue with the Alcazar Stock Company. Two years later, she and her mother moved to New York City, where Crews began to act with the Henry V. Donnelly Stock Company.[2]

Crews appeared in plays written by A.A. Milne, who was particularly impressed by her work^{[citation needed]} in his Mr. Pim Passes By (1921).[3] The play was a big success and ran for 232 performances on Broadway.

Crews also starred as Judith Bliss in the original Broadway production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever (1925), which she co-directed[3] with Coward. She also appeared in The Silver Cord,[3] written by Sidney Howard, which was produced by the New York Theater Guild in 1926 and ran for 212 performances. When The Silver Cord was not being presented, there were matinee performances of Right You Are If You Think You Are by Luigi Pirandello.

The Silver Cord was later made into a 1933 RKO movie with Crews reprising her onstage role of the mother. The film co-starred Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, and Irene Dunne. In the late 1920s, and because of her years as a stage actress, Crews had been hired as a voice coach by Gloria Swanson to help with her transition to talking pictures.

George Cukor, who had directed her in Camille (1936), recommended her for the role of Aunt Pittypat in Gone With the Wind (1939) after Billie Burke declined it. Cukor wanted Crews to play the role "in a Billie Burke-ish manner" with "the same zany feeling".[4]

Her final stage appearance came in 1942, in the original Broadway run of Arsenic and Old Lace in which she replaced one of the original cast members. She stayed with the production for more than a year and a half on Broadway and in a touring company before she was forced to leave because of illness.

Death

Crews died in the LeRoy Sanitarium in New York City in 1942, following an illness of four months.[5] Some sources say that the illness in which she suffered from was kidney failure. She was laid to rest at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.^{[citation needed]}

Crews has a star at 6251 Hollywood Boulevard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[6]

Crews was also the first credited cast member of Gone With The Wind to die.

Filmography

Silent

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1915	The Fighting Hope	Anna Granger	Famous Players-Lasky / Paramount, Extant; incomplete, BFI London
1915	Blackbirds	Leonie Sobatsky	Famous Players-Lasky / Paramount, Extant; Library of Congress

Sound

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1929	Charming Sinners	Mrs. Carr
1932	New Morals for Old	Mrs. Thomas
1933	Out All Night	Mrs. Jane Colgate
1933	The Silver Cord	Mrs. Phelps
1933	I Loved You Wednesday	Doc Mary Hanson
1933	Blind Adventure	Lady Rockingham
1933	Rafter Romance	Elise
1933	Ever in My Heart	Grandma Caroline Archer
1933	If I Were Free	Dame Evers
1934	The Age of Innocence	Mrs. Welland
1934	Lightning Strikes Twice	Aunt Jane Madison
1934	Behold My Wife	Mrs. Hubert Carter
1935	Escapade	Countess
1935	The Melody Lingers On	Mother Superior
1936	Her Master's Voice	Aunt Minnie Stickney
1936	Camille	Prudence Duvernoy
1937	The Road Back	Ernst's Aunt
1937	Confession	Stella
1937	Angel	Grand Duchess Anna Dmitrievna
1938	Dr. Rhythm	Mrs. Minerva Twombling
1938	The Sisters	Flora's Mother
1938	Thanks for the Memory	Mrs. Kent
1939	Idiot's Delight	Madame Zuleika
1939	The Star Maker	Carlotta Salvini
1939	The Rains Came	Lily Hoggett-Egburry
1939	Reno	Mrs. Gardner
1939	Remember?	Lettie Carruthers
1939	Gone with the Wind	Aunt Pittypat Hamilton
1939	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	Minor Role (uncredited)
1940	The Blue Bird	Mrs. Luxury
1940	Girl from Avenue A	Mrs. Forrester
1940	I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now	Mrs. Lowell
1940	Lady with Red Hair	Mrs. Dudley
1941	The Flame of New Orleans	Auntie
1941	One Foot in Heaven	Mrs. Preston Thurston
1941	New York Town	Apple Annie (uncredited)	final film role

References

External links

• Laura Hope Crews photo gallery at NYP Library
• Laura Hope Crews at IMDb
• Laura Hope Crews at the Internet Broadway Database
• Laura Hope Crews as a young stage actress
• Laura Hope Crews page with rare stage photographs
• Laura Hope Crews at Find a Grave
• Laura Hope Crews stills Univ. of Washington Sayre Collection
• Laura Hope Crews and Leo Ditrichstein in "The Phantom Rival" (1915)
• Laura Hope Crews in The Havoc (1911) (Univ. of Washington Sayre Collection)
• Crews on the cover of The Theatre magazine, August 1913
• Tears: In Which Silent Pictures Actresses Tell Us How They Weep, article on crying in silent movies

На других языках

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- [en] Laura Hope Crews

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[ru] Крюс, Лора Хоуп

Лора Хоуп Крюс (англ. Laura Hope Crews, 12 декабря 1879 (1879-12-12) — 12 ноября 1942) — американская актриса.

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