Constance Collier

Constance Collier (born Laura Constance Hardie; 22 January 1878 – 25 April 1955) was an English stage and film actress and acting coach. She wrote plays and films with Ivor Novello and she was the first person to be treated with insulin in Europe.

Early life and stage career Born Laura Constance Hardie in Windsor, Berkshire to Auguste Cheetham Hardie and Eliza Georgina Collier, Constance Collier made her stage debut at the age of three, when she played Fairy Peasblossom in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1893, at the age of 15, she joined the Gaiety Girls, the famous dance troupe based at the Gaiety Theatre in London. In 1905, Collier married English actor Julian Boyle (stage name Julian L'Estrange). She was known to be very tall with a big personality. On 27 December 1906, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree's extravagant revival of Antony and Cleopatra opened at His Majesty's Theatre, with Tree as Mark Antony and Collier as Cleopatra.

Famed for his realistic productions, Tree and his designer, Percy Macquoid, dressed Collier in elaborate costumes. Later, Collier commented: "There is only a mention in the play of Cleopatra appearing as the goddess Isis. Tree elaborated this into a great tableau... Cleopatra, robed in silver, crowned in silver, carrying a golden scepter and the symbol of the sacred golden calf in her hand, went in procession through the streets of Alexandria, the ragged, screaming populace acclaiming the Queen, half in hate, half in superstitious fear and joy as she made her sacrilegious ascent to her high throne in the market-place." Fully recovered, she played the Duchesse de Surennes in Somerset Maugham's comedy Our Betters, and in the following year, collaborated with Ivor Novello on a play called The Rat.

Collier's writing career is notable for her collaboration with Deems Taylor on the libretto of the opera Peter Ibbetson, which was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in February 1931 and which received mixed reviews. In 1935, upon her arrival in Hollywood, Luise Rainer hired Collier to improve Rainer's theatre acting and English, and to learn the basics of film acting.

Hollywood

In the late 1920s Collier relocated to Hollywood where she became a voice coach and teacher in diction. This was during the tumultuous changeover from silent films to sound and many silent actors with no theatre training were scrambling for lessons.

Her most famous pupil was arguably Colleen Moore, which was documented in an interview by film historian Kevin Brownlow for the series Hollywood (1980) about the silent film era. Collier nevertheless maintained ties to Broadway and appeared in several plays in the 1930s. In 1932 Collier starred as Carlotta Vance in the original production of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's comedy Dinner at Eight. The role was played in the 1933 film version by Marie Dressler.

She appeared in the films Stage Door (1937), Mitchell Leisen's Kitty (1945, a comedic performance as Lady Susan, the drunken aunt of Ray Milland), Perils of Pauline with Betty Hutton, Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948) and Otto Preminger's Whirlpool (1949). She coached Katharine Hepburn during Hepburn's world tour performing Shakespeare in the 1950s. Upon Collier's death in 1955, Hepburn "inherited" Collier's secretary Phyllis Wilbourn, who remained with Hepburn as her secretary for 40 years.

Collier has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Collier died of a heart attack in Manhattan on 25 April 1955 at the age of 77.

Filmography Silent

Sound Year Title Role Notes1935 Shadow of Doubt Aunt Melissa Pilson Anna Karenina Countess Lidia Uncredited Professional Soldier Lady Augusta 1936 Little Lord Fauntleroy Lady Lorridaile Girls' Dormitory Professor Augusta Wimmer 1937 Thunder in the CityThe Duchess Wee Willie Winkie Mrs. Allardyce Clothes and the Woman Eugenia Stage Door Miss Luther A Damsel in Distress Lady Caroline 1939 Zaza Nathalie 1940 Half a Sinner Mrs. Jefferson Breckenbridge Susan and God Lady Wigstaff 1945 Kitty Lady Susan Dowitt 1946 The Dark Corner Mrs. Kingsley Monsieur Beaucaire The Queen of France 1947 The Perils of Pauline Julia Gibbs An Ideal Husband Lady Markby 1948 Rope Mrs. Anita Atwater The Girl from Manhattan Mrs. Brooke 1950 Whirlpool Tina Cosgrove Final film role