- Sarah Siddons Award
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The Sarah Siddons Society is an American non-profit organization founded in 1952 by prominent Chicago theatre patrons with the goal of promoting excellence in the theatre. The Society presents the Sarah Siddons Award annually to an actor for an outstanding performance in a Chicago theatre production. The winner receives a statuette of the Welsh stage actress Sarah Siddons (1775–1831).
The award stems from the fictional award referred to in the opening scene of the 1950 Joseph L. Mankiewicz film All About Eve. The film opens with the image of an award trophy, described by character Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) as the "highest honour our theater knows: the Sarah Siddons Award for Distinguished Achievement." The award was invented by Mankiewicz for the script. In 1952 a small group of eminent Chicago theater-goers, including Mrs. Loyal Davis, mother of future First Lady Nancy Davis Reagan, began to give an award physically modeled and named after the one in the film. In 1973, during the Sarah Siddons Society Anniversary Gala, an honorary Sarah Siddons award was presented to Bette Davis, even though she didn't appear in a Chicago play that year. Another All About Eve cast member, Celeste Holm, had previously won the award.
Past winners
Actress/Actor of the Year (alphabetically):
- Julie Andrews (1996)
- Eve Arden (1967)
- Lucie Arnaz (1986)
- Lauren Bacall (1972 & 1984)
- Gertrude Berg (1961)
- Shirley Booth (1957)
- Ellen Burstyn (1990)
- Carol Channing (1966)
- Claudette Colbert (1980)
- Irene Dailey (1971)
- Bette Davis (1973)
- Brian Dennehy (1999)
- Colleen Dewhurst (1974)
- Faye Dunaway (1997)
- Julie Harris (1976)
- Helen Hayes (1953 & 1969)
- Heather Headley (2000)
- Florence Henderson (1962)
- Celeste Holm (1968)
- Nancy Kelly (1956 & 1964)
- Deborah Kerr (1955)
- Angela Lansbury (1975 & 1981)
- Cloris Leachman (1978)
- Beatrice Lillie (1954)
- Dorothy Loudon (1982)
- Myrna Loy (1965)
- Patti LuPone (2010)
- John Mahoney (2006)
- Julia Meade (1963)
- Ann Miller (1983)
- Liza Minnelli (1987)
- Rita Moreno (1985)
- Geraldine Page (1960)
- Bernadette Peters (1994)
- William Petersen (2009)
- Stefanie Powers (1993)
- Lynn Redgrave (1977 & 1995)
- Hollis Resnik (1992)
- Chita Rivera (2002)
- Anne Rogers (1958)
- Ruth Roman (1959)
- Barbara Rush (1970)
- Elaine Stritch (2004)
- Loretta Swit (1991)
- Jessica Tandy (1979)
- Sada Thompson (1973 & 1988)
- Lily Tomlin (1989)
- Kathleen Turner (2008)
External links
Categories:- American theater awards
- Organizations based in Chicago, Illinois
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