Hale, Louise Closser

(1872-1933)

   A Chicago native trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA), Louise Closser Hale made her first stage appearance in In Old Kentucky in an 1894 production in Detroit. She toured in Arizona (1900) and with William H. Crane before making her first New York appearance in actor-producer Arnold Daly's 1905 production of George Bernard Shaw's Candida, playing Prossy. From her earliest performances, Hale was a character actress often cast in maternal or "old maid" roles. She was also a successful novelist and appeared in several important Broadway productions, including the American premiere of Maurice Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird (1910), Ruggles of Red Gap (1915), and two Pulitzer PRizE-winning dramas, Eugene O'Neill's Beyond the Horizon (1920) and Zona Gale's Miss Lulu Bett (1920). She also appeared as Ase in a 1923 production of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt and in Rachel Crothers's comedy Expressing Willie (1924), as well as many motion pictures in the early "talkie" era, including Big Boy (1930) with Al Jolson, The Man Who Played God (1932) with George Arliss, and the all-star comedy-drama Dinner at Eight* (1933).