George, Grace

(1879-1961)

   Born Grace Doughtery in New York, Grace George spent much of her childhood in a convent school. She then attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and made her New York debut playing a schoolgirl in The New Boy (1894). George's first significant role, in The Turtle (1898), capitalized on her beauty, vivacity, and the sharp intelligence that led to stardom in such plays as Pretty Peggy (1903), The Two Orphans (revived 1904), The Marriage of William Ashe (1905), and a major success as Cyprienne in a revival of Victorien Sardou's Divorçons (1907). This was followed by further successes in A Woman's Way (1909) and The School for Scandal (1909).

   George's husband, producer William A. Brady, built The Playhouse for her in 1911 and she established a repertory company there in 1915, presenting and starring in the first American production of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara (1915), as well as Shaw's Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1916). During the 1920s, George appeared in The Merry Wives of Gotham (1924), She Had to Know (1925), and The First Mrs. Fraser (1929), which she also directed to long-running success. George also appeared successfully in Kind Lady* (1935), The Velvet Glove (1949), and opposite Katharine Cornell in a revival of W. Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife in 1951, after which she retired. George appeared in two motion pictures, Tainted Money (1915) and Johnny Come Lately (1943), costarring with James Cagney* in the latter. Her career encompassed over 50 productions in which she figured as actor, director, manager, or translator.