Lillian Booth Actors Home

Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund

Formation	May 8, 1902
Type	Assisted-living facility
Purpose	Assisting American entertainment and performing arts professionals
Location	Englewood, New Jersey, United States
Parent organization	Actors Fund
Website	www.actorsfund.org/services-and-programs/lillian-booth

The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund is an American assisted-living facility, in Englewood, New Jersey. It is operated by the Actors Fund,^[1][2] a nonprofit umbrella charitable organization that assists American entertainment and performing arts professionals.

Founded as The Actors Fund Home, in 2003, it was named in honor of Lillian Booth, a philanthropist who donated $2 million to the facility.^[3][4]

History

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][5]

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 sitcom Gilligan's Island (1964–1967), who left $1.5 million to the Actors Fund after her death.^[2]

Notable former residents

(year of birth–year of death; sorted by year of death)

• Julian Reed (actor) (1860-1934)^[6]
• Russ Brown (1892–1964) American Tony Award winning actor of stage and film remembered by audiences as Captain Brackett in South Pacific.
• Nance O'Neil (1874–1965) American actress of stage and silent cinema of the early 20th century, dubbed the American Bernhardt.^[7]
• Charles Dale (1885-1971) American vaudeville performer, who, with Joe Smith, was part of the inseparable and very popular Smith & Dale duo.^[8]
• Wendy Barrie (1912–1978) English actress who worked in British and American films, goddaughter of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie.
• Glenn Anders (1889–1981) American actor, most notable for his work on the Broadway stage, appearing in three Pulitzer Prize winning productions.
• Joe Smith (1884-1981) American vaudeville performer, who, with Charlie Dale, was part of the inseparable and very popular Smith & Dale duo.^[8]
• Reginald Denham (1894–1983) English writer, theater and film director, actor, and producer who spent much of his life directing Broadway theater.
• May Clark (1889–1984) English silent film actress known for starring in the first film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.
• Roland Winters (1904–1989) American actor who portrayed the title character in six Charlie Chan films in the late 1940s.
• Dorothy Tree (1906–1992) American character actress, voice teacher and writer of books on voice.
• Claudia McNeil (1917–1993) American 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) American 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) An American film, radio, and television actor. He appeared in the first aired episode of the NBC television series Star Trek on September 8, 1966.
• Joey Faye (1909–1997) Comedian and actor who appeared with Phil Silvers in two Broadway shows, High Button Shoes and Top Banana, and later as a guest star on many TV shows.
• Ray Heatherton (1909–1997)
• Edward Joseph Herlihy (1909–1999).
• Rosetta LeNoire (1911–2002).
• Hildy Parks (1926–2004).
• Pamela Duncan (1931–2005).
• John Fiedler (1925–2005).
• Joseph Bova (1924–2006).
• Franklin Cover (1928–2006).
• Robert Earl Jones (1910–2006).
• Dody Goodman (1914–2008).
• Louisa Horton Hill (1920–2008).
• Marilyn Cooper (1934–2009).
• Susanna Foster (1924–2009).
• Aaron Schroeder (1926–2009).
• Dolores Sutton (1927–2009).
• Leslie Barrett (1919–2010).
• Jane Nossette Jarvis (1915–2010).
• Jane Sherman (1908–2010).
• Ted Sorel (1936–2010).
• Dolores Mae Wilson (1928–2010).^[9]
• Graham Brown (1924–2011).
• Clarice Taylor (1917–2011).
• Margaret Whiting (1924–2011).
• Carrie Smith (1925–2012).
• Jane Connell (1925–2013).
• Sheila MacRae (1921–2014).
• Judith Malina (1926–2015) ^[10] 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) ^[11] 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.
• Vivian Nathan (1916–2015) ^[12] Stage and screen actress and an original founding member of the Actors Studio. She served on the Actors Studio's board of directors until 1999.
• Mark Murphy (singer) (1932-2015)

In popular culture

The facility was the subject of the short documentary film Curtain Call (2008), directed by Charles Braverman; the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject).

See also

• Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital
• The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund. Retrieved October 29, 2012

References

1. Staff (May 23, 2002). "Forgotten Hollywood Actors Retire in Style". Fox News. Retrieved August 17, 2012. The Motion Picture and Television Fund Country House in California and the Actors Fund Homes in New Jersey are retirement communities that take care of little guys in the entertainment industry – supporting stars and extras who lived by the maxim that there are no small parts, only small actors.
2. Staff (n.d.). "The Lillian Booth Actors Home". Actors Fund. Retrieved August 17, 2012. The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund in Englewood, New Jersey is an assisted living and skilled nursing care facility, which provides a comfortable living environment on six acres of property for 124 entertainment professionals.
3. Malcolm, Andrew H. (November 5, 1991). "Our Towns; Secrets of an Elusive Lady Bountiful". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
4. La Gorce, Tammy (January 18, 2004). "Life's Dramas Play at Home For Actors". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2012. "The home here was renamed for the philanthropist Lillian Booth just last spring, after she presented it a $2 million gift. Mrs. Booth, not a part of the Booth theatrical family, is the widow of Ferris Booth, a private investment counselor and heir to an I.B.M. fortune."
5. Westergaard, Barbara (2006). New Jersey – A Guide to the State. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-813-51242-6.
6. "1930 U.S. Census". Familysearch.org.
7. "Nance O'Neil, 90, Tragedienne Of Stage in Early 1900's, Dead". New York Times. February 8, 1965. Retrieved 2015-01-06. Nance O'Neil, an actress who starred in dozens of tragic roles in the early part of the century, died yesterday in Englewood, N.J. She was 90 years old. ...
8. "Joe Smith, 97, A Star Of Vaudeville As Part Of Comedy Team 73 Years". New York Times. February 23, 1981. Retrieved 2015-01-06. Joe Smith, a partner for 73 years in the vaudeville team of Smith and Dale, died yesterday at the Actors' Fund Home in Englewood, N.J., five days after celebrating his 97th birthday
9. Fox, Maraglit (October 4, 2010). "Dolores Wilson, Met Soprano, Dies at 82". The New York Times. Retrieved March 22, 2011. Dolores Wilson, a Metropolitan Opera soprano of the 1950s who later sang in Broadway musicals, died on Sept. 28 in Englewood, N.J. She was 82 and lived in Englewood. A friend, Karin Farrell, confirmed the death, saying Ms. Wilson died of natural causes.
10. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/theater/judith-malina-founder-of-the-living-theater-dies-at-88.html
11. http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/selling-toys-to-the-young-at-heart/2602/
12. Barnes, Mike (2015-04-10). "Vivian Nathan, Original Member of The Actors Studio, Dies at 98". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2015-04-25.

Coordinates: 40°54′41″N 73°58′32″W / 40.91129°N 73.97551°W