Hilda Vaughn

{{short description|American actress}}

{{for|the Welsh novelist|Hilda Vaughan}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Hilda Vaughn

| birth_date = December 27, 1898

| birth_place = Baltimore,Baltimore city,Maryland

| death_date = December 28, 1957 (aged 60)

| death_place = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

| height = 5 ft 5 in

| alma_mater = Vassar College
American Academy of Dramatic Arts

| occupation = Actress

| years_active = 1929–1950

| spouse =

| parents =

}}

Hilda Vaughn (born Hilda Weiller Strouse; December 27, 1898 – December 28, 1957) was an American actress of the stage, film, radio, and television.Eckstein, Arthur. “The Hollywood Ten in History and in Memory”. Film History 16, no. 4 (December 2004): 424-436. Communication and Mass Media complete, EBSCOhost; accessed March 28, 2015.{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/arthur-miller-mccarthyism/484/ |title=arthur-miller & mccarthyism |website=American Masters |publisher=pbs |access-date=2017-08-29 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150914055652/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/arthur-miller/mccarthyism/484/ |archive-date=2015-09-14 }}

Early years

Born Hilda Weiller Strouse,{{cite web |title=Vaughn, Hilda |url=https://broadcast41.uoregon.edu/biography/vaughn-hilda |website=The Broadcast 41 | publisher=broadcast41.uoregon.edu}} Vaughn was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eli Strouse, Vaughn attended Vassar College{{cite journal |title=Catalogue |journal=Vassar College Bulletin |date=1915 |volume=5 |issue=4 |page=184 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OaBGAQAAMAAJ&dq=Baltimore%7CMaryland+%22Hilda+Strouse%22%7C%22Strouse+Hilda%22&pg=RA1-PA184 |language=en |quote=Host Bibliographic Record for Boundwith Item Barcode 30112114116525 and Others}}{{Cite web | url=https://ia903205.us.archive.org/34/items/vassarion00vass/vassarion00vass.pdf#page=108 | year=1917 | journal=The Vassarion | volume=29 | publisher=Vassar College | location=Poughkeepsie, NY | title=Sophomore Party | page=108}} and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.{{cite news |last1=Leith |first1=Elizabeth |title=Miss Vaughn Again Acts For Theatergoers Here |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29917527/hilda_vaughn/ |work=The Evening Sun |date=November 10, 1943 |location=Maryland, Baltimore |page=26|via = Newspapers.com}}

Career

Vaughn frequently played a "pleb", or a commoner, in the films she acted in (waitresses, maids, charwomen, governesses, and saleswomen). A fixture at MGM in the sound era of the early 1930s, she acted in more than 50 films. Her most notable films were 1933's Dinner at Eight where she was memorable as Jean Harlow's blackmailing maid, as well as Today We Live (1933), Chasing Yesterday (1935), and Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940).{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/artist/hilda-vaughn-p73141#IPGM876ZWT7ZkcQk.99 |title=Biography by Hans J. Wollstein |last=Wollstein |first=Hans J.|website=www.allmovie.com |access-date=June 30, 2018}}

She appeared on Broadway, and in 1924 toured as the lead in Rain based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham. Her "smoldering quality" came back to Broadway two years later in The Seed of the Brute at the Little Theatre. She also appeared on Broadway in Glory Hallelujah.{{cite news |author= |title= Hilda Vaughn, Actress, Is Dead at 60; Last Appeared Here in 'The River Line'|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1957/12/30/archives/hilda-vaughn-actress-is-dead-at-60-last-appeared-here-in-the-river.html|work= New York Times |date= 1957-12-30|access-date= 2018-05-06 |quote=Hilda Vaughn of 315 East Sixty-eighth Street, New York, a character actress who appeared on the Broadway stage and in more than fifty motion pictures, died yesterday at a hospital here on her sixtieth birthday. }}

After making several films, Vaughn was part of the Hollywood blacklist. She returned to the stage in 1942 to play the lead in Only the Heart at the American Actors Company. In 1943 she appeared in William Saroyan's Get Away Old Man, followed by several other appearances, including playing the nurse to Judith Anderson's Medea and the mother in The Devil's Disciple by George Bernard Shaw. She was also known for her concert readings of plays.

Death

On December 28, 1957, Vaughn died in Baltimore.{{cite news |title=Hilda Vaughn, Ex-Actress, Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29918801/hilda_vaughn/ |accessdate=25 March 2019 |work=The Los Angeles Times |agency=Associated Press |date=December 30, 1957 |location=California, Los Angeles |page=1|via = Newspapers.com}}{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Scott |title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. |date=19 August 2016 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-2599-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOHgDAAAQBAJ&dq=Hilda+Strouse&pg=PA773 |language=en |page=773 |quote=She died in Baltimore, listed as Hilda Strouse, the day after her 59th birthday. Oheb Shalom Cemetery, 6130 O'Donnell St., Baltimore, MD. 12999.}}

Filmography

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References

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