Hermione Gingold

Hermione Gingold

Hermione Ferdinanda Gingold (9 December 1897 – 24 May 1987) was an English actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric persona. Her signature drawling, deep voice was a result of nodes on her vocal cords she developed in the 1920s and early 1930s. After a successful career as a child actress, she later established herself on the stage as an adult, playing in comedy, drama and experimental theatre, and broadcasting on the radio. She found her milieu in revue, which she played from the 1930s to the 1950s, co-starring several times with Hermione Baddeley. Later she played formidable elderly characters in such films and stage musicals as Gigi (1958), Bell, Book and Candle (1958), The Music Man (1962) and A Little Night Music (1973). From the early 1950s Gingold lived and made her career mostly in the U.S. Her American stage work ranged from John Murray Anderson's Almanac (1953) to Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad (1963), the latter of which she also played in London. She became well known as a guest on television talk shows. She made further appearances in revue and toured in plays and musicals until an accident ended her performing career in 1977.

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