Alfred Davis Lunt Jr. (August 12, 1892 â€" August 3, 1977) was an
American stage director and actor who had a long-time professional
partnership with his wife, actress Lynn Fontanne. Broadway's
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre was named for them. Lunt was one of 20th century
Broadway's leading male stars.Lunt received two Tony Awards, an
Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for 1931's The Guardsman and
an Emmy Award for the Hallmark Hall of Fame's production of The
Magnificent Yankee.He became a star in 1919 as the buffoonish lead in
Booth Tarkington's play, Clarence, but soon distinguished himself in a
variety of roles. The roles ranged from the Earl of Essex in Maxwell
Anderson's Elizabeth the Queen, to a song-and-dance man touring the
Balkans in Robert E. Sherwood's Idiot's Delight, a megalomaniacal
tycoon in S. N. Behrman's Meteor and Jupiter himself in Jean
Giraudoux's Amphitryon 38. His appearances in classical drama were
infrequent, but he scored successes in Shakespeare's The Taming of the
Shrew and Chekhov's The Seagull (in which Lunt played Trigorin, his
wife played Arkadina, and Uta Hagen made her Broadway debut in the
role of Nina). He was described by director and critic Harold Clurman
as "universally acclaimed the finest American actor in the generation
which followed John Barrymore; the Lunts are absolute angels." Lunt
was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1892 to Alfred D. Lunt and Harriet
Washburn Briggs. With the exception of his paternal grandmother, who
was of Scottish descent, his ancestors were of colonial Maine and
Massachusetts stock. His father was descendant of Henry Lunt, an early
settler of Newbury, Massachusetts.
American stage director and actor who had a long-time professional
partnership with his wife, actress Lynn Fontanne. Broadway's
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre was named for them. Lunt was one of 20th century
Broadway's leading male stars.Lunt received two Tony Awards, an
Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for 1931's The Guardsman and
an Emmy Award for the Hallmark Hall of Fame's production of The
Magnificent Yankee.He became a star in 1919 as the buffoonish lead in
Booth Tarkington's play, Clarence, but soon distinguished himself in a
variety of roles. The roles ranged from the Earl of Essex in Maxwell
Anderson's Elizabeth the Queen, to a song-and-dance man touring the
Balkans in Robert E. Sherwood's Idiot's Delight, a megalomaniacal
tycoon in S. N. Behrman's Meteor and Jupiter himself in Jean
Giraudoux's Amphitryon 38. His appearances in classical drama were
infrequent, but he scored successes in Shakespeare's The Taming of the
Shrew and Chekhov's The Seagull (in which Lunt played Trigorin, his
wife played Arkadina, and Uta Hagen made her Broadway debut in the
role of Nina). He was described by director and critic Harold Clurman
as "universally acclaimed the finest American actor in the generation
which followed John Barrymore; the Lunts are absolute angels." Lunt
was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1892 to Alfred D. Lunt and Harriet
Washburn Briggs. With the exception of his paternal grandmother, who
was of Scottish descent, his ancestors were of colonial Maine and
Massachusetts stock. His father was descendant of Henry Lunt, an early
settler of Newbury, Massachusetts.
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