Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike, Lady Casson, CH, DBE (24 October 1882 – 9 June 1976) was an English actress whose stage career lasted from 1904 to 1969.
Trained in her youth as a concert pianist, Thorndike turned to the stage when a medical problem with her hands ruled out a musical career. She began her professional acting career with the company of the actor-manager Ben Greet, with whom she toured the US from 1904 to 1908. In Britain she played in old and new plays on tour and in the West End, often appearing with her husband, the actor and director Lewis Casson. She joined the Old Vic company during the First World War, and in the early 1920s George Bernard Shaw, impressed by seeing her in a tragedy, wrote Saint Joan with her in mind. She starred in it with great success. She became known as Britain's leading tragedienne, but also appeared frequently in comedy.
During the Second World War, Thorndike and her husband toured in Shakespeare productions, taking professional theatre to remote rural locations for the first time. Towards the end of the war she joined Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier for two seasons staged by the Old Vic company in the West End. After the war she and Casson made many overseas tours, playing in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. They also appeared on Broadway.
Thorndike was mainly known as a stage actress, but made several films from the 1920s to the 1960s, among them The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) and Uncle Vanya (1963), both with Olivier. She also broadcast from time to time on radio and television. Her last stage appearances were in 1969 at the theatre named in her honour, the Thorndike Theatre, Leatherhead.
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Dame Agnes SybilThorndike, Lady Casson, CH, DBE (24 October 1882 – 9 June 1976) was an English actress whose stage career lasted from 1904 to 1969. Trained...
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comedy-drama film in CinemaScope directed by Anthony Kimmins and starring SybilThorndike and Chips Rafferty. It is the sequel to the 1956 film Smiley. A young...
Marina Laurence Olivier as Charles, the Prince Regent of Carpathia SybilThorndike as the Dowager Queen Richard Wattis as Northbrook Jeremy Spenser as...
actress. She was a daughter of acting couple Sir Lewis Casson and Dame SybilThorndike and had three siblings: John, Christopher and Mary. She was married...
under the direction of Jose Levy, where it attracted the talents of SybilThorndike, Noël Coward, and Richard Hughes (whose one-act play The Sisters' Tragedy...
directed by Jean Negulesco and starring Dana Andrews, Maureen O'Hara, SybilThorndike, Fay Compton and A. E. Matthews. Set in Victorian London, it tells...
premiered in London at the Duchess Theatre in September 1938; with SybilThorndike as Miss Moffat and Williams himself portraying Morgan Evans, the West...
Casson and SybilThorndike played 400 performances. 1948 – Angela Baddeley in a revival of Eden End. 1949 – Lewis Casson and SybilThorndike were re-united...
Campbell. Campbell's maternal grandparents are Sir Lewis Casson and Dame SybilThorndike. While working in England, Campbell met Jackie Maxwell, who was working...
including Arms and the Man with Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, SybilThorndike and Margaret Leighton in the leading roles. Two touring companies took...
Paula reads them for her. The crew and the other actors, including SybilThorndike, are in awe of Marilyn. Colin meets Lucy, a wardrobe assistant to whom...
commemorated by a blue plaque placed by English Heritage in 2015. The actress SybilThorndike and her husband, the actor and director Lewis Casson, lived there for...
included George Bernard Shaw's secretary. Other early members included SybilThorndike, Flora Drummond, and Mary Allen. The Soroptimist International of London...
starring Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier, Dench played actress SybilThorndike. The film garnered largely positive reviews, and earned Dench a Best...
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