Eames, Clare (1896–1930)

American actress. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, on August 5, 1896; died on November 8, 1930, at age 34; daughter of Hayden Eames and Clare (Hamilton) Eames; educated in Cleveland, Ohio, and Paris, France; niece of famous opera singer Emma Eames; studied for the stage under Sarah Cowell Le Moyne and at the Academy of Dramatic Art; married Sidney Howard (1891–1939, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright), in 1922 (separated 1928, divorced March 1930); children: daughter Clare Jenness Howard .

Clare Eames, the niece of opera star Emma Eames , first appeared on stage at the Greenwich Village Theater in The Big Scene on April 18, 1918. In March 1921, Eames attracted considerable attention when she performed at the Ritz Theater in the title role of John Drinkwater's Mary Stuart . That September, she was given the lead in Sidney Howard's first play, Swords, a poetic melodrama of the Italian Renaissance, at the National Theater in New York. Soon after, Eames married Howard and starred in several of his plays, most notably Neb McCobb's Daughter.

In 1924, at the 48th Street Theater in New York, Eames co-starred with James K. Hackett in Macbeth, portrayed Hedda Tesman in Hedda Gabler, and Proserpine Garnett in Candida. In 1926, she appeared as the Empress Carlota (1840–1927) in Juarez and Maximilian. Eames made her London debut in September 13, 1927, playing Christina in The Silver Cord at the St. Martin's Theater. After returning to New York in 1928, she appeared as Nurse Wayland in The Sacred Flame at the Henry Miller Theater, the same role she would play at the Playhouse in London (February 1929) in her last performance. Eames divorced Howard in March 1930 and died in November of that year in a nursing home in London at age 34.