Gertrude Lawrence

Gertrude Lawrence (4 July 1898 – 6 September 1952) was an English actress, singer, dancer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End of London and on Broadway in New York.

Gertrude was the first international superstar, a cockney who conquered adoring audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. She was the first to sing George Gershwin’s timeless hits Someone To Watch Over Me and Do-Do-Do, in his musical, Oh, Kay! Her incandescent star quality created the leading roles in Noel Coward’s Private Lives, Cole Porter’s Nymph Errant and Kurt Weill’s Lady In The Dark.

Gertrude Lawrence had come into theatre in a roundabout way. She was born Gertrud Alexandra Dagmar Klasen in 1898. She became friends with another famous Clapham resident Noel  Coward and starred in plays such as London Calling and Private Lives.

‘When the curtain went up, a strange metamorphosis occurred. Sometimes, in Private Lives, I would look at her across the stage and she would simply take my breath away,’ wrote Coward. Coward and Lawrence would work together throughout their respective careers.

Gertrude Lawrance died relatively young at the age of 54. According to the New York Times, 5,000 people crowded the intersection of East 55th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, while 1,800 others filled Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church for Lawrence’s funeral.

A biography of her life titled ‘Gertrude Lawrence as Mrs. A: An Intimate Biography of a Great Star’ was published in 1954 and Julie Andrews portrayed Lawrence in the musical biographical film Star!, released to cinemas in 1968.

The Glass Menagerie was Gertrude Lawrence’s only film that was a box-office success, which also starred Kirk Douglas. She starred in only nine films, with the most successful part of her career coming before television had begun to immortalise artists.  She was also portrayed in ‘Daphne’, a fictionalized television movie that was first broadcast by the BBC in 2007.