Anglo-American actress Eva Le Gallienne was BOTD in 1899. Born in London and raised in Paris, she aspired to become an actress after meeting theatre star Sarah Bernhardt. After success on the Paris stage, she moved to New York in 1915, becoming a Broadway star within five years. An actress of impressive range, she appeared in light comedy, Shakespeare (playing the lead in Hamlet, in homage to Bernhardt) and a celebrated production of Peter Pan. Again following Bernhardt’s model, she became an actor-manager, running the Civic Repertory Theatre Company for 10 years, and later co-founding the American Repertory Theatre. She nurtured the early careers of Peter Falk and Uta Hagen, but refused to hire the young Bette Davis, whom she considered “insincere” and “frivolous”. Her film and television appearances were rare, but earned an Oscar nomination for 1980’s Resurrection and an Emmy for The Royal Family. Le Gallienne had relationships with heiress Alice DeLamar, Hollywood actresses Alla Nazimova and Tallulah Bankhead and writer Mercedes de Acosta. In 1927, her affair with actress Josephine Hutchinson was publicly exposed when Hutchinson’s husband named her in divorce proceedings. She had long-term relationships with theatre director Margaret Webster, and lived with Marion Evensen until the latter’s death in 1971. In her later years, she was awarded an honorary Tony Award and the National Medal of Arts for her commitment to repertory theatre. She died in 1991 aged 92.