American actress Katharine Cornell was BOTD in 1893. Born in Berlin to a wealthy American family, she was raised in New York. She studied at the University of Buffalo, before cashing in her trust fund and moving to New York City to pursue a stage career. She became one of the most admired actresses of her generation, starring on Broadway in A Bill of Divorcement, Candida, Romeo and Juliet, Saint Joan, The Letter and most famously as Elizabeth Barrett Browning in The Barretts of Wimpole Street. Unusually, she did not pursue a film career, with most of her famous roles becoming award-winning film projects for Katharine Hepburn, Wendy Hiller, Bette Davis and Vivien Leigh. Cornell continued performing into the 1950s, often co-starring with the young Marlon Brando, though her mannered acting style and preference for classical roles became overshadowed by the new fashion for Method Acting. Discreetly lesbian, she married gay theatre director Guthrie McClintic in 1921, living and working together for 40 years while each pursuing same-sex affairs. Cornell had relationships with Nancy Hamilton, Tallulah Bankhead and Mercedes de Acosta. After McClintick’s death in 1961, she retired from acting, collecting a series of lifetime achievement awards and writing her (heavily sanitised) memoirs. She died in 1974 aged 81.