Richard Stoddard Aldrich

Richard Stoddard Aldrich (August 17, 1902 – March 31, 1986) was an American theatre producer, theatre manager, director, and diplomat. He was an officer with the United States Navy reserves during World War II and the Korean War, and a diplomat with the United States Foreign Operations Administration and International Cooperation Administration. He produced more than thirty plays on Broadway from 1933 through 1956, and also operated three summer theaters in Massachusetts. He was married to the actress Gertrude Lawrence until her death; their marriage was memorialized in his book Gertrude Lawrence as Mrs. A: An Intimate Biography of a Great Star and the Oscar nominated biographical musical film Star! (1968).

Life and career Aldrich was born in Boston, and graduated from Harvard University in 1925. At Harvard he served a term as president of the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club and was a founding member of The Jitney Players in 1923. In 1926 he became general manager of Richard Boleslawski's American Laboratory Theatre. A year later, in 1927, he married his first wife, Helen Beals, at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. They later divorced in 1936 after having two sons, Richard Stoddard Aldrich Jr. and David Beals Aldrich.

Aldrich began his career on Broadway as a stage manager for a production of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in 1930. In 1933 he opened up a Broadway producing business with Alfred De Liagre. He produced 34 plays on Broadway from 1933 through 1956; including the original productions of The Devil and Daniel Webster (1939), Margin for Error (1939), Goodbye, My Fancy (1948), The Moon Is Blue (1951), and Dear Charles (1954). This tour included Broadway revivals of Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, Uncle Vanya, The Critic, and Oedipus Rex.

Aldrich directed the 1937 and 1938 summer festivals for the Central City Opera.

In 1940, Aldrich married the actress Gertrude Lawrence and notably produced a celebrated revival of Pygmalion starring his wife in 1945. After her death from cancer in 1952, he wrote the book Gertrude Lawrence as Mrs. A: An Intimate Biography of a Great Star (published 1955, Greystone Press).

Aldrich served as an officer in the United States Navy reserves during World War II and the Korean War. They had two daughters, Susan Poythress Aldrich and Mary Joy Aldrich. At the time of his death in 1986 at the age of 83, Aldrich was residing with his wife in East Dennis, Massachusetts. He died in Williamsburg, Virginia while visiting relatives.