Edith Evans

Lore & Background

Edith Evans was born in Pimlico, London, the daughter of a junior civil servant. She was apprenticed as a milliner at age 15 in 1903, then began drama classes and made her first stage appearance in October 1910 as Viola in Twelfth Night with the Streatham Shakespeare Players. Her first professional appearance came in 1912 for producer William Poel, and her West End debut was in 1913. She achieved wide public fame with her performance as Millamant in The Way of the World in 1924. She created roles in two of Bernard Shaw's plays: Orinthia in The Apple Cart (1929) and Epifania in The Millionairess (1940), and was in the British premières of Heartbreak House (1921) and Back to Methuselah (1923).

Reader's Guide

Edith Evans became widely known for portraying haughty aristocratic women, most famously Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, where her elongated delivery of the line 'A handbag' became synonymous with the play. She also played a downtrodden maid in The Late Christopher Bean (1933), an eccentric impoverished old woman in The Whisperers (1967), and one of her most celebrated roles, Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, which she performed in four productions between 1926 and 1961. Her career included work with Ellen Terry's company, Noël Coward, and numerous Shakespeare roles. She was nominated for three Academy Awards between 1964 and 1968. Her legacy rests on her versatility across classical and modern drama, and her ability to command both stage and screen.

Did You Know?

• Evans was apprenticed as a milliner at age 15 in 1903.
• She made her first stage appearance in October 1910 as Viola in Twelfth Night.
• She created roles in two Bernard Shaw plays: The Apple Cart (1929) and The Millionairess (1940).
• She was nominated for three Academy Awards between 1964 and 1968.