24 Facts About Lynn Fontanne

The Lunts retired from the stage in 1960, and lived at their home in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, where, after outliving her husband by six years, Lynn Fontanne died at the age of 95.

Lynn Fontanne was born Lillie Louise Lynn Fontanne in Woodford, Essex, on 6 December 1887.

Lynn Fontanne was the youngest of the three daughters of Jules Pierre Antoine Fontanne and his wife Frances Ellen, nee Thornley.

Lynn Fontanne was educated in London, after which a family friend introduced her to the leading actress Ellen Terry, who sometimes gave lessons to promising young players.

Partly as a result of Terry's training and influence, Lynn Fontanne was given roles in plays in London and on tour throughout England from 1905 to 1916.

Lynn Fontanne then made her first visit to America, making her debut in New York at Nazimova's 39th Street Theatre in November 1910 as Harriet Budgeon in Mr Preedy and the Countess with Weedon Grossmith.

At the Royalty Theatre in April 1914 Lynn Fontanne scored a success as Liza and Mrs Collison in Knoblock's My Lady's Dress.

Lynn Fontanne became engaged to marry a young lawyer, Teddy Byrne, but he was killed in action in 1916 during the First World War.

Shortly before Byrne's death, Lynn Fontanne accepted an offer to join Laurette Taylor's company in New York.

In mid-1920 Lynn Fontanne appeared in the West End, appearing with Taylor in a play by Manners, One Night in Rome.

Lynn Fontanne had little chance to shine in what The Stage called "a one-part play" written as a vehicle for Taylor.

Lynn Fontanne did not return to the West End for nine years.

In May 1922 Lynn Fontanne married Lunt, and in 1923 they made their first appearance together in a Broadway production, a revival of Paul Kester's 1900 costume drama Sweet Nell of Old Drury.

In 1924, the Lunts joined the company of the Theatre Guild, which, in the words of Lynn Fontanne's biographer Jared Brown, "staged plays on Broadway but defied Broadway conventions by offering serious and innovative plays that were regularly rejected by commercial managements".

Lynn Fontanne had the chance to demonstrate her versatility by switching from comedy to demanding experimental drama in Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude, described by Woolcott as "the Abie's Irish Rose of the pseudo-intelligentsia".

In 1928, Lynn Fontanne and Lunt co-starred in what for the Guild was an untypically frothy comedy, Caprice.

The Lunts' marriage was the subject of much conjecture in theatrical circles: although they were clearly devoted to each other, there were unsubstantiated but persistent rumours that Lunt was bisexual and had gay liaisons; there was speculation that Lynn Fontanne had extramarital interests.

The immense success of Design for Living led Coward to write another play for his friends, but his Point Valaine, in which Lynn Fontanne and Lunt starred in 1934, was a failure.

Lynn Fontanne felt she should share the hardships of her family and friends there, and from 1943 to 1945 the Lunts appeared in the West End, and in performances for the troops, including a tour of army camps in France and Germany in 1945.

Lynn Fontanne died at Genesee Depot on 30 July 1983, aged 95, from pneumonia, and was interred next to her husband at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Lynn Fontanne appeared in the silent films Second Youth and The Man Who Found Himself.

Lynn Fontanne narrated a 1960 television production of Peter Pan starring Mary Martin and received a second Emmy nomination for playing Grand Duchess Marie in the Hallmark Hall of Fame telecast of Anastasia in 1967, two of the few productions in which she appeared without her husband.

In September 1964 Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon Johnson at a White House ceremony.

Lynn Fontanne received a Kennedy Center Honor for the Performing Arts in 1980.