Eugenie Leontovich Russian-American Actress and 50 similar items

Authentic, Autographed Antique Black White Publicity Photograph. Depicting Russian-American theater and film actress Eugenie Leontovich. Photo by the famed Roger Parry. Inscription reads, "To Mr. J. L. Dickson with my best wishes for your happiness, Eugenie Leontovich." Reverse side is blank. Measures approximately 8 x 10 including white border. Condition: This is an original autographed photograph, not a copy or reproduction. It is guaranteed authentic. It has two pin holes, one at top center in white border and the other at bottom center in white border, from which a 1/8 tear extends to the bottom edge. Comments: Eugenie Leontovich (born Evgenia Konstantinovna Leontovich) on March 21 or April 3, ca. 1900, and died April 3, 1993, was a Russian-American actress with a distinguished career in theatre, film and television, as well as a dramatist and acting teacher. In an obituary, she was described as "one of the most colourful figures of the 20th-century theatre, a successful actress, producer, playwright and teacher." She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play for William Saroyan's The Cave Dwellers. The daughter of an officer in the Russian Imperial Army, she suffered greatly during the Revolution. Her three brothers (who were Army officers like their father) were murdered by the Bolsheviks. In 1922, she found her way to New York City and set about mastering the English language. That year, she joined a touring company of the musical Blossom Time in 1922 and traveled throughout much of the U.S. Her success led to Broadway stardom. After touring the country in Blossom Time, she was cast as Grusinskaia in the Broadway adaptation of Vicki Baum's novel Grand Hotel which was an enormous success. After Grand Hotel, Leontovich was given the role of Lily Garland (aka Mildred Plotka) in Twentieth Century, a comedy by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. She played the role from December 29, 1932, until May 20, 1933. She also played the Archduchess Tatiana in Tovarich, a comedy about a pair of Russian aristocrats who survive in Paris by going into domestic service. It was in this play that she made a highly successful London debut at the Lyric Theatre in 1935, with Cedric Hardwicke as her co-star. During World War II, she appeared on Broadway in Dark Eyes, a comedy she wrote with Elena Miramova about three Russian exiles in New York. The play was produced in London after the war with Eugenia Delarova and Irina Baronova. In 1936, she played Shakespeare's Cleopatra at the New Theatre, returning to London in 1947 as a female Russian general in a farce which she co-wrote, Caviar to the General, which temporarily displaced Phyllis Dixey at the Whitehall. A year later, she moved to Los Angeles, where for the next five years she had her own theatre, The Stage, where she both produced and performed. Leontovich made a handful of films, but for most of her long professional life, she was identified with the stage.