Thais Lawton

Thais Lawton (June 18, 1879 — December 18, 1956) was an American actress.

Thais Lawton
Thais Lawton, from the George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress
Born
Eugenia (or Eugenie) Thais Lawton

June 18, 1879
Louisville, Kentucky
DiedDecember 18, 1956
NationalityAmerican
Occupationactress

Early life

Eugenia (or Eugenie) Thais Lawton was raised and educated in Louisville, Kentucky,[1][2] the daughter of Joseph Eugene Lawton and Caroline Thais Magrane; her father was English and her mother was French.[3] Fellow actress Thais Magrane was her cousin.[4] She used both her first and middle name professionally until about 1906, when she began preferring "Thais Lawton".[5]

Career
Sheet music cover from 1915, featuring Thais Lawton as "Columbia"

Lawton was active on the New York stage from 1900 to 1940, best known for playing "adventuresses" and "villainesses".[6] "Just playing nice heroines would become rather tiresome, I am afraid," she explained to a reporter in 1923.[7]

She appeared in shows including Lost River (1900), The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (1907),[8] The Revellers (1909), Strife (1909), The School for Scandal (1909), Don (1909), Liz the Mother, The Witch (1910), Brand (1910),[9] The Thunderbolt (1910), Vanity Fair (1911), The Piper (1911), The Blue Bird (1911), The Winter's Tale (1911),[10] A Single Man (1911),[11] John Gabriel Borkman (1915), The Chief (1915),[12] Caliban by the Yellow Sands (1916),[13] The Guilty Man (1916), The Masquerader (1917), The Crimson Alibi (1919), The Blue Flame (1920), The Wandering Jew (1921), The Exciters (1922), Jitta's Atonement (1923), Thumbs Down (1923), Two Strangers from Nowhere (1924), The Red Falcon (1924), Cain (1924), Mister Romeo (1927), Napoleon (1928), The Novice and the Duke (1929), The Royal Virgin (1930), The Ninth Guest (1930), Philip Goes Forth (1931), Going Gay (1933), Birthright (1933), Times Have Changed (1935), Love in my Fashion (1937), and Romantic Mr. Dickens (1940).[14] She was also a frequent and popular performer in San Francisco.[15]

Lawton appeared in two silent films, The Battle Cry of Peace (1915), and The Pardon (1915).[16] Later in life she taught acting; among her students was actress Marie Wallace.[17]

Personal life

In 1922, Lawton was driving when her car struck and killed a child who ran into the street; she was not found to be at fault.[18] Thais Lawton married Percy McDermott; they soon divorced. She died in 1956, aged 78 years.[19]

References
  1. Harry Prescott Hanaford and Dixie Hines, eds., Who's Who in Music and Drama (Hanaford 1914): 191.
  2. "Thais Lawton Welcomed by her Home Folk" The Courier-Journal (February 19, 1909): 8. via Newspapers.com
  3. "Thais Lawton Discusses Art" Boston Post (April 8, 1917): 40. via Newspapers.com
  4. "Obituary: Joseph Lawton" New York Times (March 2, 1931): 19. via ProQuest
  5. "Becomes Star in Boston and Drops Name Eugenie" The San Francisco Call (August 19, 1906): 30. via Newspapers.com
  6. Nixola Greeley-Smith, "Stage Villainess Wails that it's the Coy Maiden who Always Gets the Man" Quad-City Times (December 26, 1915): 15. via Newspapers.com
  7. "'Thumbs Down' Star is an Adventuress only on the Stage" Washington Post (September 16, 1923): 58. via ProQuest
  8. "A Puritanical Roar" The Green Book Album (October 1911): 842.
  9. "Modern Plays", "Classical Comedy", "A Double Bill", "The Witch", and "Some Foreign Dramas" The Green Book Album (August 1911): 437-440.
  10. "The Thunderbolt", "Vanity Fair", "The Piper", "The Blue Bird Again" and "Shakespeare to Pinero" The Green Book Album (August 1911): 443-448.
  11. "A Single Man" The Green Book Album (November 1911): 965.
  12. "Empire: The Chief" The Theatre (January 1916): 9.
  13. "The Shakespeare Masque" The Theatre (June 1916): 386.
  14. Thais Lawton, Performer, Playbill.
  15. "Favorites Return to Alcazar" Town Talk (September 14, 1907): 27.
  16. David W. Menefee, The First Female Stars of the Silent Era (Greenwood Publishing 2004): 213. ISBN 9780275982591
  17. Marie Wallace, On Stage & in Shadows: A Career Memoir (iUniverse 2005): 11. ISBN 9780595358779
  18. "Thais Lawton's Car Kills Little Girl" New York Times (May 5, 1922): 14. via ProQuest
  19. "Thais Lawton, Stage Actress, Dies at 78; Played in Classical and Modern Works" New York Times (December 9, 1956): 31. via ProQuest
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