- Born
- Died
- Alfred Lunt was an American actor, particularly known for his professional partnership with his wife Lynn Fontanne (1887-1983). Lunt was one of Broadway's leading male stars.
Lunt was born in 1892 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His father Alfred D. Lunt was active in the lumber business, while his mother Harriet Washburn Briggs was a housewife. Lunt's ancestry in both Maine and Massachusetts dated back to the colonial era. He was a distant descendant of Henry Lunt, an early settler of Newbury, Massachusetts. Lunt's paternal grandmother was Scottish American. Lunt's maternal ancestors lived in New England since colonial times, and including a number of Mayflower arrivals.
Alfred D. Lunt died in 1893. The widowed Harriet married a Finnish-American physician, Dr. Karl Sederholm. The Sederholms eventually settled in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, a small unincorporated community in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Lunt was raised in Genesse Depot, along with three younger half-siblings, He attended Carroll College in nearby Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Lunt fist gained publicity in 1919, for his starring role in the comedy play "Clarence" by Booth Tarkington (1869-1946). He distinguished himself in a variety of theatrical roles, including in Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" and Chekhov's "The Seagull ". On May 26, 1926, Lunt married actress Lynn Fontane. The two became the preeminent Broadway acting couple. Their successes included a play written specifically for them, the menage a trois-themed "Design for Living" (1932) by Noël Coward.
Lunt started acting in films in the 1920s. His film debut was the silent drama "Backbone" (1923) for Goldwyn Pictures. Subsequent films included the South Sea romance "The Ragged Edge" (1923), the romantic comedy "Second Youth" (1924), the circus-themed comedy "Sally of the Sawdust" (1925), and the comedy film "Lovers in Quarantine" (1925).
Lunt's most successful film effort was the comedy film "The Guardsman" (1931). In the film, A jealous husband creates a second identity in order to woo his wife, and she plays along. Lunt played the role of the husband, and Lynn Fontane the role of the wife. It was a critical success, but not particularly successful at the box office. Lunt was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for this role, but the Award was instead won (in a tie) by Wallace Beery and Fredric March.
Lunt returned to being mostly a theatrical actor. He had a cameo in the World War II film "Stage Door Canteen" (1943), and appeared as himself in the documentary film "Show Business at War" (1943). During the 1940s, Lunt and and Fontane starred in several radio dramas. In the 1950s and the 1960s, they appeared frequently on television.
Lunt officially retired from the stage in 1958, at the age of 66. His last film appearance was the television film "The Magnificent Yankee" (1965), where he played the United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935).
Lunt spend his last years in retirement at his summer home "Ten Chimneys" in in Genesse Depot. He died in August 1977, about a week before his 85th birthday. The cause of death was cancer. Fontane remained in "Ten Chimneys" until her own death in 1983. Ten Chimneys was afterwards converted into a house museum, and a resource center for theater.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dimos I
- SpouseLynn Fontanne(May 26, 1922 - August 3, 1977) (his death)
- Awarded a Tony in 1954 for his direction of the play, "Ondine."
- He appears on a U.S. 33 cent stamp, with Lynn Fontanne, debuting 3/1/99 in New York City.
- Has won three Tony Awards: in 1954, as Best Director for "Ondine;" in 1955, as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "Quadrille;" and in 1970, a Special Award shared with his wife, Lynn Fontanne. He was also nominated in 1959 as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "The Visit."
- Despite their intentionally hammy acting in the excerpt from Maxwell Anderson's "Elizabeth the Queen" in their film, "The Guardsman", the Lunts are said to have acted Shakespeare onstage in a non-declamatory, more conversational manner, as opposed to the standard way of performing Shakespeare onstage in those days.
- Is an honorary brother of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity based out of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.
- The secret of my success? I speak in a loud clear voice and try not to bump into the furniture.
- [on the eventual demise of vaudeville] There were a great many in vaudeville - people who never quite came through. But they had their place and they filled it. They kept theatres open. Those pan-timers, those interstate-timers, those four-a-dayers, those six-a-dayers - they were an integral part of that endearing merry-go-round called vaudeville. Their sincerity was greater than their artistry. Their eagerness to please was beyond their capacity to please. But they gave their hearts and their lives and it was not their fault that it was not enough. God bless them, everyone.
- One sketch was was called 'Ashes'. I played the role of the man with whom Mrs. Langtry was in love. Insasmuch as she, at that time, was sixty-three and I was twenty-one, audiences were inclined to be somewhat bewildered. Usually they began by thinking that I was her son, so it must have seemed a little odd to them when I suddenly began to make violent love to her.
- I remember one week in Winnipeg when Lady DeBathe - that would be Mrs. Langtry, the Jersey Lily, for it was she who gave me the opportunity to see and know the work with these amazing people of vaudeville by engaging me as a 'leading man' for her vaudeville sketch - shared honors with Fink's Mules. Mrs. Langtry thought the combination entirely irreconcilable. She told the booking office so in notes that probably should have been written on asbestos than hotel stationery. I never could understand why. The mules, it seemed to me were unusually talented. They behaved admirably about the whole business. They made no objection at all to her sharing their billing.
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