Sybil Thorndike
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Dame Sybil Thorndike CH DBE |
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Sybil Thorndike photographed in 1943
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| Born |
Agnes Sybil Thorndike 24 October 1882 Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK |
| Died | 9 June 1976 (aged 93) Chelsea, London, England, UK |
| Years active | 1904-1970 |
| Spouse(s) | Lewis Casson (1908-1969; his death) |
| Children | John (b. 1909) Christopher (b. 1912) Mary (b. 1914) Ann (b. 1915) |
Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike CH DBE (24 October 1882 – 9 June 1976) was an English actress who toured internationally in Shakespearean productions, often appearing with her husband Lewis Casson. Bernard Shaw wrote Saint Joan specially for her, and she starred in it with great success. She was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1931, and Companion of Honour in 1970.
Thorndike was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, to Arthur Thorndike and Agnes Macdonald. Her father was a canon of Rochester Cathedral. She was educated at Rochester Grammar School for Girls, and first trained as a classical pianist, making weekly visits to London for music lessons at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Her childhood home in Rochester has been renamed after her. She gave her first public performance as a pianist at the age of 11, but in 1899 was forced to give up playing owing to piano cramp. At the instigation of her brother, the author Russell Thorndike, she then trained as an actress under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, then based at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
At the age of 21 she was offered her first professional contract: a tour of the United States with the actor-manager Ben Greet's company. She made her first stage appearance in Greet's 1904 production of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. She went on to tour the U.S. in Shakespearean repertory for four years, playing some 112 roles.
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