1. Lucille Lortel was an American actress, artistic director, and theatrical producer.
13 Facts About Lucille Lortel
1. 2.
Lucille Lortel's father was a manufacturer of women's clothes who frequently traveled to Europe to buy designs to copy.
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Lucille Lortel was raised in the Bronx and Manhattan, where she was homeschooled until attending Adelphi University in Brooklyn, New York.
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Lucille Lortel was remembered by her friends as vivacious, outgoing, and flirtatious, and was known to be found dancing at parties well into her 80s.
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In 1920, Lucille Lortel began to study acting and theatre at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
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Lucille Lortel made her Broadway debut in 1925 in the Theatre Guild's production of Caesar and Cleopatra alongside Helen Hayes.
7.
Lucille Lortel appeared in David Belasco's The Dove, with Judith Anderson, and as Poppy in the touring company of The Shanghai Gesture, with Florence Reed.
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In 1929, Lucille Lortel played the female lead in The Man Who Laughed Last with star Sessue Hayakawa.
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Lucille Lortel performed the role both on stage and on film in one of the first talking pictures.
10.
In 1931, Lucille Lortel married paper industrialist and philanthropist Louis Schweitzer.
11.
In 1955, eight years after Lucille Lortel founded the White Barn, Schweitzer purchased Theatre De Lys at 121 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village for Lucille Lortel as a 24th wedding anniversary present.
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Lucille Lortel served as the artistic director of the series and was committed to presenting a program free of commercial influence.
13.
Lucille Lortel is buried in Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.