Laurette Taylor (1884-1946), actress, p N2298.O98T39, Cadbury Research Library
Born in America to Irish immigrant parents, Laurette Taylor (born Loretta Cooney), began her stage career performing in vaudeville as 'La Belle Laurette'. She successfully made the transition to adult actor achieving great popularity and acclaim. After divorcing Charles A. Taylor, Laurette married British playwright and actor, J. Hartley Manners (1870-1928) in 1912. She acted in several of her husband's plays and is best known for her lead role in 'Peg o' My Heart' which Manners wrote in 1912. When a silent film version of Peg was released by Metro Pictures Corporation in 1922, Laurette again played the lead. The couple moved in the heart of New York's artistic circle and their friends included Noel Coward (1899-1973), the British actor, playwright, composer and lyricist, whom they met in 1921 when he first visited New York. Suffering with depression and alcoholism, Laurette performed very little after Manners’ untimely death in 1928, but went on to give one of the performances of her career as Amanda Wingfield in the New York premiere of 'The Glass Menagerie' by Tennesse Williams in 1945. She died 7 December 1946. Image from L. Taylor 'The greatest of these' New York: G. H. Doran, [c 1918]. Text by Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham
Laurette Taylor (1884-1946), actress, p N2298.O98T39, Cadbury Research Library
Born in America to Irish immigrant parents, Laurette Taylor (born Loretta Cooney), began her stage career performing in vaudeville as 'La Belle Laurette'. She successfully made the transition to adult actor achieving great popularity and acclaim. After divorcing Charles A. Taylor, Laurette married British playwright and actor, J. Hartley Manners (1870-1928) in 1912. She acted in several of her husband's plays and is best known for her lead role in 'Peg o' My Heart' which Manners wrote in 1912. When a silent film version of Peg was released by Metro Pictures Corporation in 1922, Laurette again played the lead. The couple moved in the heart of New York's artistic circle and their friends included Noel Coward (1899-1973), the British actor, playwright, composer and lyricist, whom they met in 1921 when he first visited New York. Suffering with depression and alcoholism, Laurette performed very little after Manners’ untimely death in 1928, but went on to give one of the performances of her career as Amanda Wingfield in the New York premiere of 'The Glass Menagerie' by Tennesse Williams in 1945. She died 7 December 1946. Image from L. Taylor 'The greatest of these' New York: G. H. Doran, [c 1918]. Text by Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham