Browne, Coral (1913–1991)

Australian-born actress. Born Coral Edith Brown in Melbourne, Australia, on July 23, 1913; died of breast cancer on May 29, 1991, in Los Angeles, California; daughter of Leslie Clarence and Victoria Elizabeth (Bennett) Brown; attended Claremont Ladies' College, Melbourne; studied painting at the Working Men's College, Melbourne; married Philip Westrope Pearman, June 26, 1950 (died); married Vincent Price (an actor), 1974.

Selected films:

The Amateur Gentleman (1936); Black Limelight (1938); Let George Do It (1940); Piccadilly Incident (1946); Auntie Mame (US, 1958); The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (US/UK, 1961); Dr. Crippen (1964); The Night of the Generals (1967); The Legend of Lylah Clare (US, 1968); The Killing of Sister George (US, 1968); The Ruling Class (1972); Theater of Blood (1973); The Drowning Pool (US, 1975); American Dreamer (US, 1984); Dream Child (1985).

An accomplished tragic actress as well as an acclaimed comedienne, Coral Browne was as comfortable in the role of Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth as she was cavorting as Vera Charles, the delightfully cynical actress in Auntie Mame. In her 50-year career, Browne was seen on stages in Australia, England, and the United States, as well as in a number of films.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Browne studied to be a painter before taking up the theater. She made her professional debut in 1931, as Margaret Orme in the Melbourne Comedy Theatre production of Loyalties, and had 28 plays to her credit before leaving Australia for England, where she hoped to find character roles suited to her statuesque bearing and deep resonant voice. Her first engagement in London, as an understudy to Nora Swinburne in Lover's Leap (1934), became an actor's dream come true when Swinburne took ill the night after the play opened. Browne stepped in, and her success led to a series of substantial roles. Between 1935 and 1950, she played in such London hits as Mated (1935), Death Asks a Verdict (1936), and The Taming of the Shrew (1937). She portrayed Maggie Cutler in The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941), Ruth Sherwood in My Sister Eileen (1943), Mrs. Cheyney in The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1944), and Lady Frederick Berolles in Somerset Maugham's Lady Frederick (1946).

Browne's long association with the Old Vic Company began in 1951, when she made her debut as Emilia in Othello. She went on to play numerous Shakespearean roles, including Lady Macbeth in 1956, which entailed months of study. She told New York World-Telegram and Sun reporter William Peper, "I find Shakespeare very difficult to learn. I mumbled lines everywhere I went and even started to rub the blood off my hands on a bus." After a successful run in London, Browne brought her performance to New York. Critic Brooks Atkinson was ecstatic, calling her work "an extraordinary piece of acting." The following year, in the comic role of Helen of Troy in the Old Vic production of Troilus and Cressida, Browne delighted WashingtonPost and Times Herald critic Richard L. Coe, who wrote: "Helen, a busty middle-aged bawd, tinkles on a white piano to her boyish young Paris. … Coral Browne's all-too-brief Helen of Troy is a hilarious spoof."

Browne's Broadway debut in Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great, opposite Anthony Quayle, was a critical success but closed after only three weeks. Throughout the 1960s, Browne continued to delight audiences in new plays such as Toys in the Attic, as well as in countless classic roles, many played on tour with the Old Vic. Comparing English audiences to those in America, she noted that the British tended to be noisier, while New Yorkers were inexcusably late getting to the theater.

Browne was married to actors' agent Philip Westrope Pearman in 1950. After his death, she married actor Vincent Price. The actress seems to have left the stage around 1970, although she later made the films American Dreamer (1984) and Dream Child (1985). Coral Browne died of breast cancer in 1991.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts