{{short description|American stage and film actress (1879–1942)}} {{Use American English|date=July 2020}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Laura Hope Crews | image = Laura Hope Crews.jpg | image_size = | caption = Crews in 1910 | birth_date = {{birth date|1879|12|12}} | birth_place = [[San Francisco]], [[California]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1942|11|12|1879|12|12}} | death_place = New York City, U.S. | resting_place = [[Cypress Lawn Memorial Park]] | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1884–1942 }}
'''Laura Hope Crews''' (December 12, 1879 – November 12, 1942) was an American actress. Although she is best remembered today for her later work as a [[character actress]] in motion pictures of the 1930s, she also was prolific on stage; among her films roles was the role of Aunt Pittypat in ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]''.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://neptsdepths.blogspot.com/2011/07/oh-what-character-part-seven-crews.html| website=Poseidon's Underworld| title=Oh What a Character! Part Seven: Crews Control| date=July 18, 2011}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=February 2020}}
==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]].<ref name="naw">{{cite book |last1=James |first1=Edward T. |last2=James |first2=Janet Wilson |last3=Boyer |first3=Paul S. |title=Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary |year=1971 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-62734-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/notableamericanw02jame_0/page/405 405-406] |url=https://archive.org/details/notableamericanw02jame_0 |url-access=registration |quote=Angelena Lockwood. |access-date=February 23, 2020 |language=en}}</ref> 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 [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|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.<ref name="naw" />
==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.<ref name=naw/> {{multiple image <!-- Essential parameters --> | align = left | direction = vertical | width = 220 <!-- Image 1 --> | image1 = A scene from "Merely Mary Ann" (SAYRE 12334).jpg | alt1 = | caption1 = ''[[Merely Mary Ann (play)|Merely Mary Ann]]'' (1903): l to r [[Ada Dwyer Russell|Ada Dwyer]], [[Eleanor Robson Belmont|Eleanor Robson]], Laura H. Crews <!-- Image 2 --> | image2 = Much ado photo.jpg | alt2 = | caption2 = Crews and [[John Drew Jr.]] in ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'' (1913) <!-- Image 3 --> | image3 =Mr-Pim-Passes-By-1921.jpg | alt3 = | caption3 = [[Erskine Sanford]], [[Dudley Digges (actor)|Dudley Digges]] and Crews in the [[Theatre Guild]] production of [[A. A. Milne]]'s ''[[Mr. Pim Passes By]]'' (1921) }} Crews appeared in plays written by [[A.A. Milne]], who was particularly impressed by her work{{Citation needed |date=February 2020}} in his ''[[Mr. Pim Passes By]]'' (1921).<ref name="ibdb">{{cite web |title=Laura Hope Crews |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/laura-hope-crews-14526 |website=Internet Broadway Database |accessdate=February 23, 2020 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200223030105/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/laura-hope-crews-14526 |archivedate=February 23, 2020}}</ref> The play was a big success and ran for 232 performances on Broadway. In 1924 she starred in ''[[The Werewolf (play)|The Werewolf]]'' for a run of 112 Broadway performances.<ref>{{cite book |title=Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than 14,000 Shows through 2007 |url=https://archive.org/details/broadwayplaysmus0000hisc |url-access=registration |first=Thomas S. |last=Hischak |publisher=McFarland |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7864-5309-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/broadwayplaysmus0000hisc/page/501 501]}}</ref>
Crews also starred as Judith Bliss in the original Broadway production of [[Noël Coward]]'s ''[[Hay Fever (play)|Hay Fever]]'' (1925), which she co-directed<ref name=ibdb/> with Coward. She also appeared in ''The Silver Cord'',<ref name=ibdb/> 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 [[The Silver Cord (film)|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 film)|Camille]]'' (1936), recommended her for the role of Aunt Pittypat in ''[[Gone With the Wind (film)|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".<ref name="GWTW">{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Steve |title=The Making of Gone with the Wind |date=September 1, 2014 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-76126-1 |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lyXNBAAAQBAJ&q=laura+hope |access-date=August 23, 2020}}</ref>
Her final stage appearance came in 1942, in the original Broadway run of ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace (play)|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 theatre|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.<ref>{{cite news| newspaper=[[Oakland Tribune]]| title=Laura H. Crews of Stage Dies| page=D9| date=November 13, 1942}}</ref> 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 |date=September 2021}}
Crews has a star at 6251 Hollywood Boulevard on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web| title=Laura Hope Crews| website=Walkoffame.com| url=http://www.walkoffame.com/laura-hope-crews| accessdate=August 3, 2017}}</ref>
Crews was also the first credited cast member of ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' to die. {{clear}}
==Filmography== [[File:Blackbirds poster.jpg|right|thumb|''Blackbirds'', a 1915 [[silent film]] produced by [[Jesse Lasky]]]]
{| class="wikitable sortable" |+ Silent |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | rowspan=2 | 1915 | ''[[The Fighting Hope]]'' | Anna Granger | Famous Players–Lasky / Paramount, Extant; incomplete, BFI London |- | ''[[Blackbirds (1915 film)|Blackbirds]]'' | Leonie Sobatsky | Famous Players–Lasky / Paramount, Extant; Library of Congress |- |}
{| class="wikitable sortable" |+ Sound |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1929 | ''[[Charming Sinners]]'' | Mrs. Carr | |- | 1932 | ''[[New Morals for Old]]'' | Mrs. Thomas | |- | rowspan=7 | 1933 | ''[[Out All Night (1933 film)|Out All Night]]'' | Mrs. Jane Colgate | |- | ''[[The Silver Cord (1933 film)|The Silver Cord]]'' | Mrs. Phelps | |- | ''[[I Loved You Wednesday]]'' | Doc Mary Hanson | |- | ''[[Blind Adventure]]'' | Lady Rockingham | |- | ''[[Rafter Romance]]'' | Elise | |- | ''[[Ever in My Heart]]'' | Grandma Caroline Archer | |- | ''[[If I Were Free]]'' | Dame Evers | |- | rowspan=3 | 1934 | ''[[The Age of Innocence (1934 film)|The Age of Innocence]]'' | Mrs. Welland | |- | ''[[Lightning Strikes Twice (1934 film)|Lightning Strikes Twice]]'' | Aunt Jane Madison | |- | ''[[Behold My Wife! (1934 film)|Behold My Wife]]'' | Mrs. Hubert Carter | |- | rowspan=2 | 1935 | ''[[Escapade (1935 film)|Escapade]]'' | Countess | |- | ''[[The Melody Lingers On (film)|The Melody Lingers On]]'' | Mother Superior | |- | rowspan=2 | 1936 | ''[[Her Master's Voice]]'' | Aunt Minnie Stickney | |- | ''[[Camille (1936 film)|Camille]]'' | Prudence Duvernoy | |- | rowspan=3 | 1937 | ''[[The Road Back (film)|The Road Back]]'' | Ernst's Aunt | |- | ''[[Confession (1937 film)|Confession]]'' | Stella | |- | ''[[Angel (1937 film)|Angel]]'' | Grand Duchess Anna Dmitrievna | |- | rowspan=3 | 1938 | ''Dr. Rhythm'' | Mrs. Minerva Twombling | |- | ''[[The Sisters (1938 film)|The Sisters]]'' | Flora's Mother | |- | ''[[Thanks for the Memory (film)|Thanks for the Memory]]'' | Mrs. Kent | |- | rowspan=7 | 1939 | ''[[Idiot's Delight (film)|Idiot's Delight]]'' | Madame Zuleika | |- | ''[[The Star Maker (1939 film)|The Star Maker]]'' | Carlotta Salvini | |- | ''[[The Rains Came]]'' | Lily Hoggett-Egburry | |- | ''[[Reno (1939 film)|Reno]]'' | Mrs. Gardner | |- | ''[[Remember? (1939 film)|Remember?]]'' | Lettie Carruthers | |- | ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' | Aunt Pittypat Hamilton | |- | ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' | Minor Role (uncredited) | |- | rowspan=4 | 1940 | ''[[The Blue Bird (1940 film)|The Blue Bird]]'' | Mrs. Luxury | |- | ''[[Girl from Avenue A]]'' | Mrs. Forrester | |- | ''[[I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now]]'' | Mrs. Lowell | |- | ''[[Lady with Red Hair]]'' | Mrs. Dudley | |- | rowspan=3 | 1941 | ''[[The Flame of New Orleans]]'' | Auntie | |- | ''[[One Foot in Heaven]]'' | Mrs. Preston Thurston | |- | ''[[New York Town]]'' | Apple Annie (uncredited) | |}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category}} * [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=laura+hope+crews Laura Hope Crews] photo gallery at NYP Library *{{IMDb name|0187711}} *{{TCMDb name | 41090%7C95987 }} *{{IBDB name}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20100611205949/http://shakespeare.emory.edu/actordisplay.cfm?actorid=135 Laura Hope Crews] as a young stage actress *[https://broadway.library.sc.edu/content/laura-hope-crews.html Laura Hope Crews] page with rare stage photographs (Univ. of South Carolina) *{{Find a Grave|5304}} *[http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/collection/sayre/searchterm/laura%20hope%20crews/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/cosuppress/ Laura Hope Crews] stills Univ. of Washington Sayre Collection *[http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYWPUCNXP Laura Hope Crews and Leo Ditrichstein in "The Phantom Rival" (1915)] *[https://archive.today/20130710194402/http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/sayre&CISOPTR=13215&CISOBOX=1&REC=1 Laura Hope Crews in ''The Havoc'' (1911)] (Univ. of Washington Sayre Collection) *[https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c6EogN4jmNQ/TiRnAKjp_7I/AAAAAAAAKkQ/qoZKD9cAJTM/s1600/LHC00c.JPG Crews on the cover of The Theatre magazine, August 1913] *[http://wordsfrom.us/2016/05/tears-screen-stars-tell-weep-camera/ ''Tears: In Which Silent Pictures Actresses Tell Us How They Weep''], article on crying in silent movies
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Crews, Laura Hope}} [[Category:1879 births]] [[Category:1942 deaths]] [[Category:American film actresses]] [[Category:American stage actresses]] [[Category:Deaths from kidney failure in New York (state)]] [[Category:Actresses from San Francisco]] [[Category:20th-century American actresses]] [[Category:American child actresses]] [[Category:19th-century American actresses]] [[Category:Burials at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park]]