Kathleen Howard
Kathleen Howard | |
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| |
Born |
Clifton, Ontario, Canada | July 27, 1884
Died |
April 15, 1956 71) Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged
Occupation | Opera singer, actress, magazine editor |
Years active | 1934-1951 |
Kathleen Howard (July 27, 1884 - April 15, 1956) was a Canadian-born American opera singer magazine editor and a character actress from the mid-1930s through the 1940s.[1]
Biography
Howard was born in Clifton Hill, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada on July 27, 1884.[2]
In 1906, Howard began her career in opera in Germany. Following eight years of singing in Berlin, she performed concerts in Belgium, England, Germany, Holland, and Scandinavia. She arrived in America in 1913 and joined the Metropolitan Opera in 1916.[2]
Howard created the role of Zita in Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi at the Metropolitan Opera in 1918. Howard was part of the repertory system in the opera houses of Metz and Darmstadt previous to World War I. Beginning in 1918, for four years Howard was the fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar magazine. She resigned from that position to begin acting in films. While in that post, she was also president of Fashion Group International.[2]
Howard's film debut came in Death Takes a Holiday (1934).[2] She played Amelia, the nagging, shrewish wife of W.C. Fields in It's a Gift (1934). She also appeared in two other films of W.C. Fields: You're Telling Me! (1934) and Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935).
Howard died on April 15, 1956, aged 71, in Hollywood, California after a long illness. She had been an invalid for seven years.[1] She was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York.
Legacy
Howard appears to have not made as many opera recordings for companies of the acoustical era such as did her contemporaries Geraldine Farrar and Mary Garden; her few recordings were vertical-cut discs made for the American branch of Pathé Frères in 1918 which received limited distribution. Among them are Harry Burleigh's arrangement of the spiritual "Deep River," arias from Charles Gounod's Faust and Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore (in English), and the "Barcarolle" from Jacques Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann with Claudia Muzio (in French).
Selected filmography
Film | |||
---|---|---|---|
Year | Film | Role | Notes |
1934 | Death Takes a Holiday | Princess Maria | |
You're Telling Me! | Mrs. Edward Quimby Murchison | ||
It's a Gift | Mrs. Amelia Bissonette | Starring W.C. Fields | |
One More River | Lady Charwell | ||
Once to Every Bachelor | Aunt Henrietta | ||
1935 | Man on the Flying Trapeze | Leona Wolfinger | Alternative title: The Memory Expert |
1937 | Stolen Holiday | Madame Delphine | |
1939 | First Love | Miss Wiggins | |
Little Accident | Mrs. Allerton | ||
1940 | Young People | Hester Appleby | |
Mystery Sea Raider | Maggie Clancy | ||
Five Little Peppers in Trouble | Mrs. Wilcox | ||
1941 | Blossoms in the Dust | Mrs. Sarah Keats | |
Ball of Fire | Miss Bragg | Alternative title: The Professor and the Burlesque Queen | |
Miss Polly | Mrs. Minerva Snodgrass | ||
Sweetheart of the Campus | Mrs. Minnie Lambeth Sparr | ||
A Girl, a Guy and a Gob | Jawme Duncan | ||
1942 | Take a Letter, Darling | Aunt Minnie | Alternative title: Green-Eyed Woman |
You Were Never Lovelier | Grandmother Acuña | Uncredited | |
The Mad Martindales | Grandmother Varney | ||
1943 | My Kingdom for a Cook | Mrs. Theodore Carter | Uncredited |
1944 | Laura | Louise, Ann's Cook | Uncredited |
Reckless Age | Sarah Wadsworth | ||
Swing Out the Blues | Aunt Amanda | ||
1945 | Eadie Was a Lady | Aunt Priscilla | |
Snafu | Dean Garrett | ||
Shady Lady | Butch | ||
1946 | Centennial Summer | Deborah | |
Danger Woman | Eddie | ||
Mysterious Intruder | Rose Denning | ||
1947 | The Late George Apley | Margaret, the Maid | Uncredited |
Cynthia | McQuillan | ||
1948 | The Bride Goes Wild | Aunt Susan | |
1950 | Born to Be Bad | Mrs. Bolton | |
Television | |||
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
1951 | The Bigelow Theatre | 1 episode | |
References
- 1 2 "Miss Howard, 77, Singer, Actress. Former Contralto At 'Met' Dies. Film Player Was Fashion Editor Here". New York Times. August 17, 1956.
- 1 2 3 4 "Fashion Magazine Editor Turns to Motion Pictures". The Evening Independent. February 23, 1934. p. 4-A. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kathleen Howard. |
- Works by Kathleen Howard at Project Gutenberg
- Confessions of an Opera Singer freely available at gutenberg.org in many formats.
- Works by or about Kathleen Howard at Internet Archive
- Kathleen Howard on IMDb
- Kathleen Howard at Find a Grave