On May 8, 1902, the Actors Fund opened a home for retired entertainers on Staten Island, a borough of New York City, New York. In 1928, the New York City government took the property using eminent domain to enlarge an adjacent city park. That year, the residents were moved to the former mansion of American businesswoman Hetty Green in Englewood.[2][3] The mansion was razed in 1959, and a modern facility was erected in 1961.
In 1975, the facility was merged with the Percy Williams Home on Long Island, New York. The facilities were expanded in 1988 with a 50-bed nursing home. In the same year, the Edwin Forrest wing was created at the nursing home after a merger with the Edwin Forrest Home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1993, a wing was named in honor of actress Natalie Schafer, notable for her role as Eunice "Lovey" Wentworth Howell on the television sitcomGilligan's Island (1964–1967), who left $1.5 million to the Actors Fund after her death.[2] In 2003, it was named in honor of Lillian Booth, a philanthropist who donated $2 million to the facility.[4][5]
Notable former residents
(year of birth–year of death; sorted by year of death)
Irene Franklin (1876–1941), actress and singer, best known for her work in musical comedy on the Broadway stage of the early 20th Century.
Maida Craigen (1861–1942), actress and clubwoman, known for Shakespearean roles
Reginald Denham (1894–1983) English writer, theater and film director, actor, and producer who spent much of his life directing Broadway theater.
May Clark (1885–1971) English silent film actress who starred in the first film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.
Roland Winters (1904–1989), actor who portrayed the title character in six Charlie Chan films in the late 1940s
Dorothy Tree (1906–1992), character actress, voice teacher and writer of books on voice
Claudia McNeil (1917–1993), actress known for the role of matriarch Lena Younger in both stage and screen productions of A Raisin in the Sun
Cecil Roy (1900–1995), radio actress of the 1930s and 1940s, later known as the voice of Casper in the Casper the Friendly Ghost animated series of the 1940s and 1950s
Alfred Ryder (1916–1995), film, radio, and television actor. He appeared in the first aired episode of the television series Star Trek
Judith Malina (1926–2015)[11] German-born American theater and film actress, writer and director. She co-founded The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe in New York City and Paris.
Grover Van Dexter (1920–2015)[12] Stage, screen, and TV actor who later served the antique toy collecting passions of his actor friends by opening Second Childhood toys in New York City.
