Before becoming a Thirties/Forties Hollywood support actress, Constance Collier (Constance Hardie) had many other roles.
Born in Windsor, she began on the London stage at the delicate age of three and went on to become one of the famed "Gaiety Girls". In her early days she performed before the Kaiser in Berlin.
The arrival of talkies opened new doors for her and she was hired by Hollywood Studios as a drama coach, working with many leading actors including Marilyn Monroe.
Her own roles as a support actor were always first class, as in the Garbo classic Anna Karenina (MGM 1935) and Stage Door (RKO 1937), a film in which she actually played a drama coach.
Constance was gifted inasmuch as she could portray every emotion with the absolute minimum of facial movement. From 1916 to 1950, her film career was mostly taken up by playing eccentrics with either wit or despair.
In Susan And God (MGM 1940) she played with a fantastic cast, with Joan Crawford as the star.
Constance Collier died in 1955 aged 77.
-Gordon Dean, Lancing
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