Evelyn Varden facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Evelyn Varden
Varden in the mid 1950s.
Born	Mae Evelyn Hall (1893-06-12)June 12, 1893 Adair, Oklahoma, U.S.
Died	July 11, 1958(1958-07-11) (aged 65) Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Stage, film, television actress
Years active	1900s-1958
Spouse(s)	Charles Coleman ​ ​ (m. 1914; div. 1921)​ William J. Quinn ​ (m. 1921)​

Evelyn Varden (born Mae Evelyn Hall; June 12, 1893 – July 11, 1958) was an American character actress.

Stage

Born in Adair, Oklahoma, Varden was Cherokee and is listed on the Dawes Rolls as 1/32nd Cherokee by Blood. She began her career as a teenager in the first decade of the 20th century, acting with her aunts in a troupe that toured the western United States. She was on Broadway by age sixteen in 1910. It was not until the 1930s and into her forties that her stage career took off in the theater, notably playing Mrs. Gibbs, the small town matron who dreams of Paris, in the original production of Our Town.

Varden's stage work mainly consisted of showy supporting roles although she did star in the ill-fated Return Engagement by Lawrence Riley. The 1950 melodrama Hilda Crane was a personal success for Varden although the play itself ran only two months. The following year she played the Nurse in a production of Romeo and Juliet starring Olivia de Havilland. Her final Broadway appearance in The Bad Seed was one of her acclaimed performances.

Radio and television

Varden occasionally appeared on radio from the early 1940s and well into the 1950s. She starred in radio productions of Hay Fever, The Silver Cord, and The Glass Menagerie among several other programs. She would later appear in a number of television productions during the 1950s, including an adaptation of Cradle Song, opposite Judith Anderson.

Film

Varden did not make her first film appearance until 1949 at age 56 with the film Pinky. She then went on to make over a dozen more films, including recreating her stage roles in the motion picture adaptations of Hilda Crane (1956) and The Bad Seed (1956).

Varden's best-known motion picture performance was as the gregarious storekeeper Icey Spoon in the 1955 film classic, The Night of the Hunter, based on the like-named novel. That performance garnered considerable acclaim, as well asfrom the book's author, Davis Grubb.

Varden's career was still going strong at the time of her death. Immediately prior to taking ill in January, Varden was appearing in London, earning kudos for her portrayal of an American mother in Lesley Storm's comedy, Roar Like a Dove. Just weeks before her death, that turn earned Varden the award for Best Supporting Performance (in a Play or Musical) for 1957/1958, as judged by drama critics of the National British press.

Personal life

Varden was married twice: first to fellow thespian Charles Pearce Coleman, from 1914 until their divorce in 1921, and then, from 1921 until her death, to Baltimore-based hotel operator William J. Quinn.

Death

Varden died on July 11, 1958 at 65 in Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in Manhattan.

Filmography

Broadway Appearances

See also

In Spanish: Evelyn Varden para niños