19 Facts About Margaret Webster

Margaret Webster was an American-British theater actress, producer and director.

Margaret Webster was their second child, her older brother died in infancy.

Margaret Webster's birth was announced on stage at the theatre her father was performing in during a Shakespeare play.

Margaret Webster spent the early part of her career in England, where she became well known in the theatre.

Margaret Webster returned to the US in 1937 and began an impressive run directing the Shakespeare play, Richard II with Maurice Evans in the title role.

Margaret Webster was believed to have had a brief off or on relationship with the actress Mady Christians during this same time frame.

Margaret Webster was said to be devastated by Christians' death from a stroke in 1951.

Margaret Webster was part of a small but influential group of lesbian producers, directors, and actors in theater.

When Evans joined the army, Margaret Webster continued to have success directing classical plays on Broadway, notably The Cherry Orchard, starring Le Gallienne, and her greatest triumph Othello, starring Paul Robeson in the title role and Jose Ferrer as Iago, which ran for 296 performances, by far the longest run of a Shakespearean production on Broadway, a record that has not been remotely approached since.

Margaret Webster played Emilia in the production's initial year.

The theater operated until 1948, staging such plays as John Gabriel Borkman, Ghosts, and a legendary production of Alice in Wonderland in which Margaret Webster played the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen.

The tour lasted until 1951, but Margaret Webster left in 1950 to become the first woman to direct a production at the Metropolitan Opera.

Margaret Webster directed Macbeth at the New York City Opera.

Frankau and Margaret Webster frequently moved between London and Margaret Webster's home in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard.

Margaret Webster dedicated her first autobiography, titled The Same, Only Different: Five Generations of a Great Theatre Family, to Frankau.

In 1968, Margaret Webster began a whirlwind romance with a married but separated American woman named Jane Brundred.

Margaret Webster moved into Webster's Aquinnah home but within a few months was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The remainder of the money helped Margaret Webster permanently move to London after her own cancer diagnosis two years after Brundred's death.

Margaret Webster died from colon cancer at St Christopher's Hospice, 51 Lawrie Park Road, Sydenham, England in 1972, aged 67.