Constance Collier was a British actress who became famous for her roles on the stages of London and Broadway.
Early in her career she shared the London stage with Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, performing the classics as well as Shakespeare. She was a well established and distinguished actress before her 1916 arrival in Hollywood.
That year, Collier made four films: "The Tongues of Men" and "The Code of Marcia Gray," directed by Frank Lloyd; "Macbeth," which costarred Tree; the D.W. Griffith epic "Intolerance."
With the arrival of talking films, Hollywood went looking for experienced stage actors to train its silent stars to speak — Collier returned to Hollywood and soon became a very successful drama and voice teacher. Over the years, she coached some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including Marilyn Monroe and Katharine Hepburn.
She also appeared in scores of motion pictures during this time, like "Shadow of Doubt" with Ricardo Cortez in 1935, "Zaza" with Claudette Colbert in 1938, and Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope" in 1948.
After Collier's death in 1955, her companion of 30 years, Phyllis Welbourn, said, “I spent my life with an angel."
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