Lawrence, Gertrude

Related Category: Theater: Biographies

1902?–1952, English actress and singer. Her original name was Gertrud Alexandra Dagmar Lawrence-Klasen. Performing on the musical stage from childhood, Lawrence made her New York debut (1924) in Charlot's Revue, together with Beatrice Lillie. A childhood friend of Noel Coward, she appeared with him in his Private Lives (1931) and Tonight at 8:30 (1936). Her charm and magnetic personality in Susan and God (1937) and in such musicals as Lady in the Dark (1941) and The King and I (1951) endeared her to the public. In 1950 she played Amanda in a film version of The Glass Menagerie.

See her memoirs, A Star Danced (1945); biography by her husband, R. S. Aldrich (1955).