Alison Skipworth
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Alison Skipworth (July 25, 1863-July 5, 1952) was an English stage and screen actress from London, England.
Skipworth made her first stage appearance at Daly's Theater in London in 1894, in A Gaiety Girl. Her first American performance came the following year at the Broadway Theater in New York City. She sang in light opera in The Artist's Model. In this production she served as understudy to Marie Tempest. After performing in two London plays, Skipworth returned to the United States, and made it her home. She joined the company of Daniel Frohman at the Lyceum. There she made her debut as Mrs. Ware in The Princess and the Butterfly in 1897.
In 1905-06 Skipworth toured with Viola Allen in Cymbelline, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It. In the following years she played with James K. Hackett and John Drew, among other theater celebrities. Productions in which she was featured are The Swan, The Enchanted April, The Grand Duchess and the Waiter, Mrs. Dane's Defense, and Marseilles.
Skipworth appeared in her first motion picture in 1912, A Mardi Gras Mix-Up]]. The same year she performed in The Pilgrimage, Into The Jungle, and A Political Kidnapping. She was suited to excel in the new sound medium in films which arrived at the close of the 1920s. In 1930 she made her first talkie, Strictly Unconventional. Her motion picture career continued until 1938. Her final screen credits are roles in King of the Newsboys, Wide Open Faces, and Ladies In Distress.
Skipworth exhibited a wide range of acting skills, being talented in various roles. Her stage and screen parts enabled her to give fine renditions of a marchisa in Tonight or Never and an aristocratic operator of a prohibition speakeasy in A Lady's Profession.
Nicknamed Skippy, Skipworth resided in an ordinary Hollywood apartment, drove a Ford, and drank tea daily in her own garden each afternoon when she was not working.
Alison Skipworth died in 1952 at her home on Riverside Drive in Los Angeles, California. She was eighty-eight years old.
[edit] References
- Burlington, North Carolina Daily Times-News, Hollywood Gossip, December 19, 1933, Page 7.
- New York Times, Alison Skipworth, Actress, Dies At 88, July 7, 1952, Page 21.
- Winnipeg Free Press, Lyceum, January 23, 1936, Page 24.
