A legendary stage actress and character player in early films, Lucille La Verne is one of those forgotten legends that seem to fade as the years go on. But at the time, she was one of the most acclaimed actresses of her generation. Lucille La Verne Mitchum was born in Memphis, Tennessee on November 8, 1872. Little is known about her family. She made her stage debut at the local summer stock theat ...
show all A legendary stage actress and character player in early films, Lucille La Verne is one of those forgotten legends that seem to fade as the years go on. But at the time, she was one of the most acclaimed actresses of her generation. Lucille La Verne Mitchum was born in Memphis, Tennessee on November 8, 1872. Little is known about her family. She made her stage debut at the local summer stock theater in 1876. The production was called "Centennial" is honor of America's 100th birthday, and the three year old Lucille was among a handful of children extras in the play. In 1878 she returned to play another child part. She continued to return every summer, sort of becoming the playhouse's resident child star. She quickly proved herself a talented actress, and as she got older, she was given better parts. She won great acclaim, when during the summer of 1887 she played both Juliet and Lady Macbeth at only fourteen years old. After that summer, she was given an apprenticeship with Fanny Ellser's company for the 1887-1888 season, where she played minor roles and understudied lead ones, while honing her craft. She stayed with Ellser, and on the night of her 16th birthday in 1888, made her Broadway debut with a supporting role in "La Tosca." The play closed after four weeks and La Verne spent the remainder of the season touring again with Elser. In the fall of 1889 she performed with a stock company in Washington DC where she played May in "May Blossom" and Chrissy Rogers in "The Governess." She also toured as Ethel in "Judge Not." Her breakthrough performance was a limited run Broadway revival of "As you Like It" with an all female cast in March, 1894. La Verne won much acclaim for her performance as Corin. In the 1894-1895 season, she played Patsy in Frank Mayo's Broadway production of Mark Twain's "Pudd'nhead Wilson." She then scored great success by playing the female lead roles in three different acclaimed touring productions over the next three years: "Notre Dame" (1895-1896), "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1897-1898) and "Lady Windermere's Fan" (1897-1898). In 1898, La Verne was made manager and director of the newly built Empire Theater in Richmond, Virginia. She staged five shows every season, and received mostly rave reviews. Among her portrayals ranged from leading roles in "Hedda Gabbler" and "Antigone" to character parts in such productions as the role of Ma Frochard in "The Two Orphans." She also wrote an adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" which she first staged in 1900. Her version was used by several other theaters in the early 1900s. La Verne received much acclaim for her work at the Empire, and was even received the Woman of the Year Award for the Virginia Women's Society in 1901. She stepped down for the Empire Theater at the end of the 1903-1904 season to make her Londond debut in a comic supporting role in the play "Clairce." She again received acclaim and repeated her success in the Broadway production three months later. La Verne remained a staple of the Broadway stage for the next several years, where she specialized in character parts. She also returned on occasion to stock theaters to act and direct. She made her film debut in 1914 in the silent film "Butterflies and Orange Blossoms." From then on she would divide her time between film and the stage. She was used in film frequently by DW Griffith for various character parts. While she was a versatile actress, her most memorable parts in film were always those of vengeful women. Her greatest stage triumph was the creation of the Widow Caggle role in the original Broadway production of "Sun Up." After the Broadway engagement, La Verne directed, as well as continued to perform, in the National and European tours of the play. She also recreated her role for the film version. In 1927, Broadway's Princess Theater was renamed the Lucille La Verne Theater, and La Verne was named manager and director. For her first outing as a Broadway producer and director, she chose an original play called "Hot Water" giving herself the role of Jessica Dale. The play received mixed reviews and closed rather quickly. Later that same season, she launched a revival of "Sun Up" repeating her Widow Caggle role, but it too closed quickly. Since the theater had lost money, La Verne was let go as manager and it went back to being the Princess Theater. Upset, she moved to California for the time being to make more movies. By 1928 she had already established herself as a good character actress in silent films, and made the transition easily to talkies. As with before, she tended to get typecast as unlikable women, despite her acclaim on Broadway for being able to play almost any character type. She didn't abandon the stage entirely though, and appeared frequently in regional productions in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1936, she returned to Broadway in the lead role of the thriller "Black Widow." Despite the rave reviews she received, the play received mixed reviews and it closed after just a few performances. It would be her last stage production. La Verne quickly returned to Hollywood to take on her most famous role. She voiced both the Wicked Queen and her alter ego, the Old Hag in Walt Disney's first animated feature film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." She also worked as a live action model for the artists. After working on Snow White, La Verne retired from acting, and became co-owner of a successful nightclub. She died in 1945.
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