Actress, born in Jersey, Channel Is. One of the most noted beauties of her time, she married Edward Langtry in 1874, and was the first society woman to appear on stage. Her beauty brought her to the attention of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, and she became his mistress. She managed the Imperial Theatre, which was never successful. Widowed in 1897, she married in 1899 Hugo Gerald de Bathe, and became well known as a racehorse owner.
Lillie Langtry (née Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, nicknamed the Jersey Lily) (13 October 1853 – 12 February 1929) was a British actress and courtesan born on the island of Jersey in 1853.
Emilie Le Breton was the only daughter of the Dean of Jersey, Rev.
Marriage
In 1874, Emilie married Irish landowner Edward Langtry. it was no great loss" (Letter in the Curtis Theatre Collection, University of Pittsburgh) ll
Relationships, affairs and scandals
Lille Langtry was, throughout her marriage, unfaithful, and throughout her lifetime promiscuous.
She had a daughter, born in 1881 (Jeanne Marie Langtry), who later married Sir Ian Malcolm of Poltalloch in 1902.
Her daughter Jeanne's father was definitely not Lillie's husband. The child's actual father was reportedly Lillie Langtry's extra-marital lover at the time, Prince Louis of Battenberg (later 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, 1854–1921), who married Princess Victoria of Hesse and the Rhine in 1884 and became father of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who became the last Viceroy of India (and great-uncle of Prince Charles) and uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
A recent biography of Langtry suggests that another of her extramarital lovers, Arthur Jones, may have been Jeanne Marie's father, although Prince Louis's son, Lord Mountbatten, always maintained that it in fact was his father.
Other lovers included wealthy Britons Robert Peel and George Baird.
Among her friends were the Irish writer Oscar Wilde and the American artist James McNeill Whistler.
American citizenship and after
In 1887, Lillie became an American citizen, and divorced her husband the same year in California.
She resided during her final years in a home in Monaco, with her husband living separate from her a short distance away.
Cultural influence
Her nickname, "The Jersey Lily", was taken from the Jersey lily flower (Amaryllis belladonna) – a symbol of Jersey. The nickname was popularised by a portrait of Lillie Langtry, entitled A Jersey Lily, painted by Sir John Everett Millais, a fellow-countryman (according to tradition, they spoke Jèrriais to each other during the sittings).
The painting caused great interest when exhibited at the Royal Academy, but Lillie is holding a Guernsey lily (Nerine sarniensis) in the painting rather than a Jersey lily, as no Jersey lilies were available at Covent Garden during the sittings.
Besides sitting for Millais, Frank Miles and Sir Edward Poynter, she is also depicted in works by Sir Edward Burne-Jones.
She used her high public profile to endorse commercial products such as cosmetics and soap, becoming an early example of celebrity endorsement.
Lillie Langtry's story was dramatised by London Weekend Television in 1978 as Lillie, with Francesca Annis in the title role.
A heavily fictionalized incarnation of Langtry was performed by Stacy Haiduk in the 1996 television series Kindred: The Embraced.
Langtry is also a featured character in the tongue-in-cheek western novel, Slocum and the Jersey Lily by Jake Logan.
The song Pictures of Lily, wrote in 1966 by The Who, is about a guy who had his childhood's problems resolved by "Pictures of Lily" put in his bedroom by his father to help him to sleep at night
Places connected with Lillie Langtry
The town of Langtry, Texas, was not named for her, although its most illustrious inhabitant, Judge Roy Bean, was an ardent admirer, naming the saloon where he held court "The Jersey Lily". (The town was named for railroad supervisor George Langtry.)
The Langtry Manor hotel in Bournemouth, Dorset, was built as a romantic retreat for Lillie and the Prince of Wales.
Lillie Langtry lived at 21 Pont Street, London from 1892 to 1897. A blue plaque on the hotel commemorates this
Merman Cottage in Saint Brelade, Jersey, was owned and occupied by Lillie Langtry (Merman was also the name of one of her racehorses).
In the Golden Triangle area of Norwich, England, there is a public house named the Lillie Langtry, which is decorated in the Edwardian theatre style and has articles from newspapers of the time and old documents celebrating the talent of Lillie Langtry.
Lillie Langtry stayed at Teddy's Nook.
Book
Langtry, Lillie, The Days I Knew, 1925.
User Comments Add a comment…