Carmen Mathews
{{short description|American actress (1911–1995)}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox actor
|name = Carmen Mathews
|image =
|caption =
|birth_name = Carmen Sylvia Mathews
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1911|5|8}}
|birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date = {{death date and age|1995|8|31|1911|5|8}}
|death_place = Redding, Connecticut, U.S.
|occupation = Actress, environmentalist
|years_active = 1943–1992
}}
Carmen Sylvia Mathews{{Citation needed |date=May 2024}} (May 8, 1911 – August 31, 1995) was an American actress and environmentalist.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/03/obituaries/carmen-mathews-environmentalist-and-an-actress-84.html |title=Carmen Mathews, Environmentalist And an Actress, 84| newspaper=The New York Times| date=1995-09-03| accessdate=2014-01-18}}
Biography
Mathews was born in Philadelphia. She studied first at Bennett Junior College and then in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.{{cite web| url=http://www.newpondfarm.org/npf_s_founder__carmen_mathews |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150129020051/http://www.newpondfarm.org/npf_s_founder__carmen_mathews| url-status=dead| archive-date=2015-01-29| title=NPF's Founder, Carmen Mathews |website=New Pond Farm.org| accessdate=2020-03-02}} She began her professional acting appearance with the Stratford-on-Avon Shakespearean Company before moving back to the United States.
Her Shakespearean roles included Ophelia in Hamlet and the Queen in Richard II. She also starred as Theresa Tapper in the William Roos, Jack Lawrence, and Don Walker 1951 Broadway musical Courtin' Time.{{cite news|page=30|title=At The Theatre|author=Brooks Atkinson|date=June 14, 1951|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1951/06/14/archives/at-the-theatre.html|work=The New York Times}} Her film credits include Butterfield 8 (1960), A Rage to Live (1965), Rabbit, Run (1970), Sounder (1972), Top of the Hill (1980) and Daniel (1983). On television she performed on a wide variety of series over a span of four decades. A few of those series include appearances on six episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–65), as well as roles in a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone, a 1964 episode of The Fugitive,{{cite web| url=http://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Carmen_Mathews| title=Carmen Matthews| website=The Hitchcock Zone| accessdate=2020-03-02}} and a 1972 episode of Cannon. One of her more memorable televised performances is as Colonel Lilian Rayburn on Episode 150 of M*A*S*H. Toward the end of her career, in 1990, she was cast in the Last Best Year with Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters.
In 1975, Mathews set up and ran a residential summer camp for disadvantaged children on her 100-acre farm in Redding, Connecticut.{{Citation needed |date=February 2022}} Toward the end of her life, Mathews, a passionate environmentalist, made a perpetual donation of her 100-acre New Pond Farm to the Redding Land Trust,{{cite news| url=https://variety.com/1995/scene/people-news/carmen-mathews-99130214/| title=Obituaries: Carmen Matthews| newspaper=Variety| date=1995-09-18| accessdate=2020-03-02}} to ensure that it would retain its woods, fields, pond and marsh. The United Nations Association of the United States of America named Mathews one of Connecticut's outstanding women in 1987.{{cite news| newspaper=The New York Times| agency=Associated Press| title=U.N. Group to Honor 110 Connecticut Women| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/11/nyregion/un-group-to-honor-110-connecticut-women.html| accessdate=2015-12-04| date=1987-10-11}}
Death
Filmography
| class="wikitable" | |||
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Lizzie Borden | Season 1 Episode 17: "The Older Sister" |
| 1956 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Katherine Oldham | Season 2 Episode 4: "Kill With Kindness" |
| 1956 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Joanna Enright | Season 2 Episode 8: "Conversation Over a Corpse" |
| 1958 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Celia Boerum | Season 3 Episode 31: "The Festive Season" |
| 1958 | Butterfield 8 | Mrs. Jescott | Uncredited |
| 1959 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Miss Hall | Season 4 Episode 28: "The Impossible Dream" |
| 1961 | The Twilight Zone | Vinnie | Episode: Static |
| 1962 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Thelma Malley | Season 7 Episode 28: "The Kerry Blue" |
| 1965 | A Rage to Live | Emily Caldwell | |
| 1970 | Rabbit, Run | Mrs. Springer | |
| 1972 | Sounder | Rita Boatwright | |
| 1975 | Ellery Queen | Laticia Alley | Episode 8: "The Mad Tea Party" |
| 1978 | M*A*S*H | Colonel Lillian Rayburn | Season 7, Episode 8:"Lil" |
| 1980 | Top of the Hill | Minna Ellsworth | TV movie |
| 1980 | Gauguin the Savage | Madame Jeanette | TV movie |
| 1983 | Daniel | Mrs. Ascher |
References
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
- [http://archives.nypl.org/the/18921 Carmen Mathews papers, 1921-1995], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20150129020051/http://www.newpondfarm.org/npf_s_founder__carmen_mathews New Pond Farm's page on Carmen Mathews]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140106042500/http://s.b5z.net/i/u/10071912/f/NewPondFarm_History_RememberingCarmenMatthews.pdf Remembering Carmen Mathews]
- {{Find a Grave|6868182}}
- {{IMDb name|0558618}}
- {{IBDB name|51833}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathews, Carmen}}
Category:Actresses from Philadelphia
Category:American environmentalists
Category:American women environmentalists
Category:American stage actresses
Category:American Shakespearean actresses
Category:American film actresses
Category:Bennett College (New York) alumni
Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:People from Redding, Connecticut
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