Rosina Lawrence

Rosina Lawrence
Lawrence in 1935
Born Rosina May Lawrence
(1912-12-30)December 30, 1912
Westboro, Nepean Township, Ontario, Canada
Died June 23, 1997(1997-06-23) (aged 84)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation Actress, singer, dancer
Years active 1933–1939
Spouse(s) Juvenal P. Marchisio (1939–1973) (his death) (3 children)
John C. McCabe (1987–1997; her death)[1]

Rosina May Lawrence (December 30, 1912 – June 23, 1997) was a British-Canadian actress and singer. She had a short but memorable career in the 1920s and 1930s in Hollywood before she married in 1939 and retired from entertainment.

Early years

Born in Westboro, a suburb of Ottawa, Lawrence was the daughter of George Frederick Francis Lawrence, a carpenter, and Annie Louise Hagar, who moved from Ramsgate, England to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in 1910. George Lawrence found work as a streetcar operator, then as a home builder.

The family moved to Boston in 1922, then moved to California. Lawrence would be one of the first women to swim Lake Tahoe in Nevada.[2]

Career

Lawrence made her film debut in the 1924 film A Lady of Quality.. She is best known for portraying Mary Roberts in Laurel and Hardy's Way Out West (1937);[2] she also provided the "high" voice when Stan Laurel sang "Trail of the Lonesome Pine".

She played schoolteacher "Miss Lawrence" in eight Our Gang comedies from 1936-37. Lawrence also appeared as "Alice Lowell" in Charlie Chan's Secret and "Cecilia Moore" in Pick A Star. Her final performance was in the 1939 Italian comedy film In the Country Fell a Star, in which she plays an American film star who causes great excitement when she appears in a small Italian town.

Personal life

Lawrence and Juvenal P. Marchisio married in 1939, and she left acting to become a housewife. Marchisio died in 1973, and in 1987, Lawrence remarried, to John McCabe, a biographer of her onetime co-stars Laurel and Hardy.[1] Rosina Lawrence died of cancer on June 23, 1997 in New York City, aged 84.

Lawrence's parents became naturalised United States citizens in 1939. Lawrence's nationality was given as British and it is unclear if she ever became a United States citizen.[3]


Selected filmography

References

  1. 1 2 Obituary, independent.co.uk; accessed April 30, 2017.
  2. 1 2 Allston, Dave. "Kitchissippi's Hollywood connection". Kitchissippi Times (July 2018). Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. pp. 12–13.
  3. ↑ Source Citation: Archives of Ontario; Series: MS929; Reel: 239
    Source Information: Ancestry.com. Ontario, Canada Births, 1858-1913 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, US: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.
  4. ↑ Charlie Chan's Secret (Trailer), 1936, YouTube]
  5. ↑ Charley Chase, "Let's Make It A Big Day," with Rosina Lawrence, YouTube
  6. ↑ Little Rascals - Bored Of Education (1936), YouTube
  7. ↑ Laurel & Hardy - Pick A Star (1937) - Guest Appearance 1, YouTube
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