Jane Cowl
Encyclopedia
Jane Cowl was an American film
and stage
actress and playwright "notorious for playing lacrymose parts". Actress Jane Russell
was named in Cowl's honor.
in Brooklyn, New York.
She made her Broadway debut in New York City in Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall
in 1903, the play opened on the night of her twentieth birthday. Her first leading role was Fanny Perry in 1909 in Leo Ditrichstein
's Is Matrimony a Failure?, produced by David Belasco
, and then she played stock. This was followed by The Gamblers(1910), her first great success, and by Within the Law(1912), Common Clay, and other successes (New International Encyclopedia
). She was known for her interpretation of Shakespearean roles, playing Juliet, Cleopatra and Viola on Broadway. She made Broadway history by playing Juliet over 1000 consecutive performances in 1923; critic George Jean Nathan
declared her "not ... the best Juliet that I have seen, but she is by all odds the most charming". Cowl's affecting performances led her to be described as having a "voice with a tear." Biographer Charles Higham admired Cowl's "marvelous bovine eyes and exquisite genteel catch in the voice ..."
In 1930 Cowl appeared with a young Katharine Hepburn
in the Broadway production of Benn W. Levy's play Art and Mrs. Bottle, and in 1934 she created the role of Lael Wyngate in S. N. Behrman
's Rain from Heaven opposite actor John Halliday
. Noting the challenges posed by Behrman's heightened dialogue, critic Gilbert Gabriel noted approvingly that their scenes together were "models of aristocratic parlando." She also starred in Noel Coward's Easy Virtue.
Cowl was the lead in two silent films, Garden of Lies (1915) and The Spreading Dawn (1917). Then, after taking nearly 30 years off from films, she returned for several supporting roles in the 1940s. Her final film was Payment on Demand
(1951) with Bette Davis
.
in Santa Monica, California
on June 22, 1950, aged 66 and her ashes following cremation were buried at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery
.
, often using the pseudonym Allan Langdon Martin. Their works include:
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
actress and playwright "notorious for playing lacrymose parts". Actress Jane Russell
Jane Russell
Jane Russell was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s....
was named in Cowl's honor.
Biography
Cowl was born as Grace Bailey in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents were Charles A. Bailey and Grace Avery. She attended Erasmus Hall High SchoolErasmus Hall High School
Erasmus Hall Campus High School is a four-year public high school in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, United States operated by the New York City Department of Education....
in Brooklyn, New York.
She made her Broadway debut in New York City in Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall
Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall
Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall is a 1902 historical novel written by Charles Major. Following the life and romances of Dorothy Vernon in Elizabethan England, the novel became the year's third most successful novel according to the New York Times annual list of bestselling novels...
in 1903, the play opened on the night of her twentieth birthday. Her first leading role was Fanny Perry in 1909 in Leo Ditrichstein
Leo Ditrichstein
Leo Ditrichstein was an American actor and playwright of Austrian-Hungarian birth, born in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary. He was educated in Vienna and was naturalized as an American citizen in 1897. He made his New York début in Die Ehre, . This was followed by: Mr. Wilkinson's Widows, Trilby,...
's Is Matrimony a Failure?, produced by David Belasco
David Belasco
David Belasco was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director and playwright.-Biography:Born in San Francisco, California, where his Sephardic Jewish parents had moved from London, England, during the Gold Rush, he began working in a San Francisco theatre doing a variety of routine jobs,...
, and then she played stock. This was followed by The Gamblers(1910), her first great success, and by Within the Law(1912), Common Clay, and other successes (New International Encyclopedia
New International Encyclopedia
The New International Encyclopedia was an American encyclopedia first published in 1902 by Dodd, Mead and Company. It descended from the International Cyclopaedia and was updated in 1906, 1914 and 1926.-History:...
). She was known for her interpretation of Shakespearean roles, playing Juliet, Cleopatra and Viola on Broadway. She made Broadway history by playing Juliet over 1000 consecutive performances in 1923; critic George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan was an American drama critic and editor.-Early life:Nathan was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana...
declared her "not ... the best Juliet that I have seen, but she is by all odds the most charming". Cowl's affecting performances led her to be described as having a "voice with a tear." Biographer Charles Higham admired Cowl's "marvelous bovine eyes and exquisite genteel catch in the voice ..."
In 1930 Cowl appeared with a young Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
in the Broadway production of Benn W. Levy's play Art and Mrs. Bottle, and in 1934 she created the role of Lael Wyngate in S. N. Behrman
S. N. Behrman
Samuel Nathaniel Behrman was an American playwright and screenwriter, who also worked for the New York Times.-Early Years:...
's Rain from Heaven opposite actor John Halliday
John Halliday
John Halliday was an American actor of stage and screen, who often played suave aristocrats and foreigners....
. Noting the challenges posed by Behrman's heightened dialogue, critic Gilbert Gabriel noted approvingly that their scenes together were "models of aristocratic parlando." She also starred in Noel Coward's Easy Virtue.
Cowl was the lead in two silent films, Garden of Lies (1915) and The Spreading Dawn (1917). Then, after taking nearly 30 years off from films, she returned for several supporting roles in the 1940s. Her final film was Payment on Demand
Payment on Demand
Payment on Demand is a 1951 drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt. The screenplay by Bernhardt and Bruce Manning chronicles a marriage from its idealistic early days to its dissolution.-Plot synopsis:...
(1951) with Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
.
Family
On June 18, 1906, at her father's apartment on Riverside Drive and 95th Street in New York City, New York, Cowl married Adolphe Edward Klauber, the drama critic of The New York Times. A former actor and son of a prominent Jewish photographer in Louisville, Kentucky, Klauber left the Times in 1918 to become a theatrical producer and manager. He and Cowl separated in 1930, shortly after his health began to fail. Klauber returned to live "in strict seclusion" in Louisville, where he died in 1933. The couple had no children.Death
Jane Cowl died of cancerCancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
on June 22, 1950, aged 66 and her ashes following cremation were buried at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery
Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery
Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery is located at 10621 Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood, California.The cemetery has a special section called the Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation that is the final resting place for a number of aviation pioneers — barnstormers, daredevils and...
.
Works
Cowl wrote several plays in collaboration with Jane MurfinJane Murfin
Jane Murfin was an American playwright and screenwriter.Born in Quincy, Michigan, Murfin began her career with the play Lilac Time, which she co-wrote with Jane Cowl. The Broadway production opened on February 6, 1917 and ran for 176 performances...
, often using the pseudonym Allan Langdon Martin. Their works include:
- Lilac Time - 1917
- At Daybreak - 1917
- Information Please - 1918
- Smilin' Through - 1919
- The Jealous Moon - 1928
Filmography
- The Garden of Lies (1915)
- The Spreading DawnThe Spreading DawnThe Spreading Dawn is a 1917 silent film drama produced by Samuel Goldwyn in his first year of producing independently in his own studio and starring Broadway stage star Jane Cowl in her second and final silent. It was directed by Laurence Trimble, the then husband of Cowl's stage writing partner...
(1917) - Once More, My DarlingOnce More, My DarlingOnce More, My Darling is a 1949 American comedy film directed by and starring Robert Montgomery. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Recording .-Cast:* Robert Montgomery as Collier 'Collie' Laing...
(1949) - The Secret Fury (1950)
- No Man of Her OwnNo Man of Her OwnNo Man of Her Own is a 1950 drama starring Barbara Stanwyck.It was the second she made with director Mitchell Leisen. It was based on a Cornell Woolrich novel, I Married a Dead Man. Woolrich is credited as William Irish in the film's opening credits.The film was later remade in 1996 as Mrs....
(1950) - Payment on DemandPayment on DemandPayment on Demand is a 1951 drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt. The screenplay by Bernhardt and Bruce Manning chronicles a marriage from its idealistic early days to its dissolution.-Plot synopsis:...
(1951)
External links
- Jane Cowl at Women in American History website
- Jane Cowl portrait gallery at NYP Library
- first of three pages of photos shot by Nickolas Muray devoted to Jane Cowl
- Jane Cowl photo gallery at Corbis
- Jane Cowl University of Washington, Sayre collection