Skinner, Cornelia Otis, 1899-1979

Cornelia Otis Skinner was an American writer, monologist, and actress. Born on either May 30, 1899 or 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, Skinner was the daughter of actors Otis Skinner and Maud Durbin. Skinner attended Bryn Mawr College, but left during her sophomore year to move to Paris, where she attended the Sorbonne and studied acting at the Jacques Copeau School and the Comedie Francaise.

Skinner began her acting career in 1921, debuting as Dona Sarasate in the stage adaptation of Blasco-Ibanez's Blood and Sand, alongside her father, Otis Skinner. Skinner went on to establish herself as a well-known stage actress in her plays Will Shakespeare (1923), Tweedles (1923), The Wild Wescotts (1923), In His Arms (1924), and White Collars (1925). In 1925, Skinner wrote her first play for her father, the off-Broadway production, Captain Fury.

Skinner continued writing and toured the United States from 1926 to 1929 performing one-woman monologues. In 1928, she married Alden S. Blodget and had one son, Otis Skinner Blodget. In the early 1930s, Skinner's roles focused on historical women, writing and portraying a range of different characters in The Wives of Henry VIII (1931), The Empress Eugenie (1932), The Loves of Charles II (1933), and The Mansion on the Hudson (1935). Additionally, Skinner earned recognition for her adaptation of Margaret Ayer Barne's novel Edna, His Wife, which toured London in 1937 and the United States in 1938, as well as for the lead in George Bernard Shaw's Candida in 1939. In 1952, Skinner won the Barter Theatre Award for outstanding acting on the Broadway stage. That same year her one-woman show, Paris '90, debuted on Broadway. Skinner played fourteen different characters, celebrating the women depicted by French painter Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Skinner's final stage performance was in The Irregular Verb to Love in 1964.

After retiring from acting, Skinner continued to write, contributing numerous essays to publications such as The New Yorker, Ladies' Home Journal, Vogue, Life, Harper's Bazaar, and Reader's Digest. Compilations of Skinner's essays include Tiny Garments (1932), Excuse It, Please! (1936), Dithers and Jitters (1938), and Soap Behind the Ears (1941). In the 1950s, three more volumes were created: Nuts in May (1950), Bottoms Up! (1955), and The Ape in Me (1959). In 1948, Skinner published the memoir, Family Circle. Other writing projects included Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals (1962), adapting material from her one-woman play Paris '90 about the Belle Époque; Madame Sarah (1967), a biography of Sarah Bernhardt; and Skinner's final book, Life with Lindsay and Crouse (1976), a biography of Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse. Skinner died on July 9, 1979 in New York City.