Claire Luce (October 15, 1903 – August 31, 1989) was an American stage and screen actress, dancer and singer. Among her few films were Up the River (1930), directed by John Ford and starring Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart in their feature film debuts (Luce played Bogart's love interest), and Under Secret Orders, the English-language version of G. W. Pabst's French-language feature, Salonique, nid d'espions (1937).
Early years
Luce was born in Syracuse, New York, but she grew up in Rochester in what an article in Silver Screen magazine described as "an atmosphere of discord and squalor".[1] Luce's parents were divorced when she was 13. Florence Colebrook Powers, a friend of Luce's mother, adopted her. Powers was in charge of a dance school, and she introduced Luce to dancing. While still 13, Luce took a job as a "sort of utility employee" at a cafe in Rochester.[1] When she was 15, she ran away with a Russian opera troupe that played in Rochester, becoming a ballerina with the group. Before long, she said, "people in Rochester traced me and had me brought back."[1]
Of her performance in Gay Divorce the critic Brooks Atkinson wrote: "In the refulgent Claire Luce, Fred Astaire has found a partner who can match him step for step and who flies over the furniture in his company without missing a beat."[2] Unfortunately, during the London run of Gay Divorce, Luce suffered a serious injury during the "Table Dance" routine—a routine which is reprised in the film—damaging her hip, and this put an end to her stage dancing career.[3]
In his autobiography, Astaire credits Luce as the inspiration for his revolutionary "Night and Day" dance routine: "Claire was a beautiful dancer and it was her style that suggested to me the whole pattern of the "Night and Day" dance. This was something entirely different from anything Adele and I had done together. That was what I wanted, an entirely new dancing approach."[4]
Luce recalls her own experience with the chronically insecure Astaire: "I actually felt more sorry for Fred than I did for myself, despite the horrendous schedules of rehearsals that he kept up. He was a very worried man."[2]
Luce often appeared on the English stage and, having been seen in Of Mice and Men in London in 1939, stayed in the UK throughout the war years. She played a number of Shakespearean roles during that time and in 1945 scored a big success leading the company at the annual Stratford-on-Avon Memorial Theatre's summer Shakespeare Festival, particularly as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra. Her last appearance in London at that time was as Becky Sharp in an adaptation of Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair at the Comedy Theatre in 1946.[6]
Personal life
Luce married Clifford Warren Smith, first cousin of Dudley Wolfe, in 1928.[7] They were divorced on January 16, 1935.[8] Luce became engaged to John Woodburn Gillan in 1940.[9] He was an RAF pilot and he was shot down and killed in 1941.[10][11][12]
^"England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:W794-6DZM : Wed Dec 13 23:31:08 UTC 2023), Entry for John Woodburn Gillan and David Hedley Gillan, 19 Feb 1943.
External links
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