Lillie Langtry

English actor

• Born: October 13, 1853
• Birthplace: St. Saviour's Parish, Jersey
• Died: February 12, 1929
• Place of death: Monte Carlo, Monaco

Widely recognized as a celebrity during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Langtry was famous as a mistress of the Prince of Wales and was also a successful actor who amassed a fortune through her stage career and product endorsements.

Early Life

Lillie Langtry was born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton. She was the only daughter of the dean of the island of Jersey, William Corbet Le Breton, and his wife, Emilie Davis Martin. Surrounded by six brothers, Lillie grew up in comfortable surroundings and was educated at home. Much of her adult personality was shaped by her father, who engaged in a string of marital infidelities that she observed throughout her life. His sexual exploits affected not only the lives of several of his neighbors but also Lillie’s own life. When she fell in love with a young boy at the age of sixteen, her father forbade her to have a relationship with the boy. After Lillie refused to obey his order, he explained his reason: The boy was his own son by one of his illicit relationships.

At the age of fifteen, Lillie spent one social season in London that resulted in disaster. She returned home and resolved to learn how to fit into London society. She spent the next few years studying and appreciated the value of education. As she matured, she became both more beautiful and more socially ambitious.

On March 9, 1874, Lillie married Edward Langtry, the son of an Irish shipowner, and honeymooned with him on his boat, the Gertrude. Afterward, they settled into a Southampton home. By that time, Lillie realized that she had nothing in common with her new husband. However, she fell ill soon after their arrival in Southampton. Edward Langtry thought that Lillie was pregnant, but Lillie had contracted typhoid fever. After she recovered, the couple moved to London, under doctor’s orders, so that Lillie could regain her strength.

Life’s Work

After Lillie and her husband arrived in London in 1878, they enjoyed sightseeing tours through the local parks and met Lord Raneleigh, a family friend from Jersey, who invited them to a Sunday brunch at his home. Lillie was mourning the death of her brother Reggie, so she wore a simple black dress to the brunch party. The following week, the couple received an invitation to a party at the home of Lady Sebright, a London art patron. Wearing the same simple black gown with no jewels, Lillie retired to a chair in the corner of a room and suddenly became the center of attention. Attracted to her beauty and her simple dress, the men in the room scrambled to meet her. Some of the greatest artists of the time descended upon her and demanded that she pose for paintings and sculptures. In that one evening lay the seeds of Langtry’s future as a famous face, mistress, and actor.

The painters and members of London society who discovered Langtry’s beauty at that dinner party catapulted her into the public eye almost overnight. Realizing that Langtry was a paragon of beauty, the painters rushed to immortalize her image. Edward Poynter, a noted artist of the time, found in Langtry his ideal of beauty and painted her several times in as many years. Other painters who appreciated Langtry’s beauty and painted her included John Everett Millais, Arthur Weigall, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and George Frederick Watts.

Frank Miles, the struggling artist who had been Oscar Wilde’s roommate, quickly sketched a pencil drawing of Langtry that was sold in shops days after their first meeting. This pencil rendition of Langtry elevated her to the status of a professional beauty. Comments were soon written about her perfect skin, her symmetrical features, and her voluptuous figure. Many observers agreed that she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Langtry’s beauty also provided the catalyst for her meeting and subsequent affair with the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, who later became King Edward VII. The two met in 1877 and began their affair soon afterward. The prince and Langtry were very public with their relationship. The prince showered gifts on his official mistress, and every party to which he was invited had to include Langtry on its guest list, or he would not attend. Although their affair did not last for a long time, Langtry and the prince remained friends. Meanwhile, Langtry began another affair, with Prince Louis of Battenberg, who fathered her only daughter, Jeanne-Marie, in 1880.

After Langtry became pregnant, she found herself in dire financial straits. Facing bankruptcy, social ostracism, and the breakup of her marriage, she became the first upper-class woman in London society to pursue a stage career. With the help of Oscar Wilde, she went on stage in 1881 as Kate Hardcastle in the Oliver Goldsmith play She Stoops to Conquer (1773). Her first London audience included the Prince and Princess of Wales. The reviews that she received were good enough to launch her acting career, and she continued to act in England and the United States for many years.

Most drama critics regarded Langtry as having only marginal acting talent at best; most of the people who attended her performances usually did so to view her costumes or her famous face. Langtry also endorsed a variety of products during her time as a stage actor. She became the first woman to endorse a commercial product when she was paid 132 pounds for endorsing a soap brand.

Langtry toured the United States several times and eventually purchased property in California’s Lake County, in the hope of raising racehorses. She eventually sold that property, which she called Guenoc, at a loss; however, the property served the purpose of establishing Langtry’s residence in the United States, and she gained American citizenship in 1887 in order to divorce Edward Langtry in 1897. Two years later, she married again. On July 27, 1899, she wed Hugo Gerald de Bathe on the island of Jersey. On the death of her father-in-law in 1907, her husband inherited his father’s title and Langtry became Lady de Bathe.

Langtry continued to tour through and began working in vaudeville at the age of fifty-four. She gave her last performance in London during World War I, after which she retired to Monaco. She also found success off the stage. Her horses, Merman and Yentoi, won the Cesarewitch twice, in 1897 and 1908. She died in Monaco on February 12, 1929, and was buried in St. Saviour’s Churchyard on Jersey.

Significance

Lillie Langtry’s personality and renowned beauty attracted both poets and princes, and she turned their friendships into professional alliances. When her financial resources fell into a precarious position and her social standing was threatened, she chose to market her image through acting and endorsements. Her close circle of friends, made up of painters, aesthetes, socialites, and poets, encouraged her to use her talent in a way that would celebrate her beauty. She also succeeded in making a name for herself on the stage when it was not entirely acceptable for “proper” women to embark on theatrical careers. Outstanding beauty, modest talent, and a deliciously scandalous personal life ensured Langtry fortune and fame in England and America. At the peak of her career, she was considered by many to be the most famous and most beautiful woman in the world. She raced horses, gambled large sums of money, and continued to act on the stage and in films.

Bibliography

Aronson, Theo. The King in Love: King Edward VII’s Mistresses—Lillie Langtry, Daisy Warwick, Alice Keppel, and Others. New York: Harper & Row, 1988. Popular account of King Edward’s relationships with his many mistresses, including Langtry.

Beatty, Laura. Lillie Langtry: Manners, Masks, and Morals. London: Chatto & Windus, 1999. This biography of Langtry provides an excellent discussion of her personal life and her love affairs with Artie Jones and the Prince of Wales.

Dudley, Ernest. The Gilded Lily: The Life and Loves of the Fabulous Lillie Langtry. London: Odhams Press, 1958. Biography of Langtry that chronicles her life in the context of her private affairs; it highlights her background in Jersey, her marriage, and her stage career.

Harper, Donna Lee. The Diary of Lillie Langtry and Other Remembrances. New York: Arrowhead Classics, 1994. Fictionalized account that emphasizes Langtry’s relationships with other famous people.

Inglis, Alison. “Deathless Beauty: Poynter’s Helen, Lillie Langtry, and High Victorian Ideals of Beauty.” In Love and Death: Art in the Age of Queen Victoria, edited by Angus Trumble. Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia, 2000. This essay examines the impact of Langtry in Poynter’s painting. Her image as Helen of Troy is compared to Dante Rossetti’s painting of the same subject, with interesting parallels and conclusions.

Langtry, Lillie. The Days I Knew. New York: George H. Doran, 1925. Langtry published this highly selective autobiography a few years before her death. It chronicles her life with the discretion and decorum expected of her at the time.

Sichel, Pierre. The Jersey Lily: The Story of the Fabulous Mrs. Langtry. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1958. Sichel’s basic biography of Langtry covers her childhood, marriage, stage career, and retirement to Monaco in terms that provide understanding for anyone interested in general facts about Langtry.