Tallulah Brockman Bankhead, 31 Jan 1902 - 12 Dec 1968, by Augustus Edwin John, Oil on canvas, 1930: Renowned for her sultry voice and languorous sophistication, actress Tallulah Bankhead exuded magnetism-"a remarkable personality with a remarkable name" to one enchanted critic. She performed not only in America but also in London, where she was painted by Augustus John: "At the time, I was the toast of London and that was some toast, dahling." She twice won the New York Drama Critics Award, as Regina in The Little Foxes in 1939 and as Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth in 1942. Bankhead also starred in movies-notably Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat in 1944-and on television, where she emceed NBC's Sunday-night Big Show and appeared on that network's All Star Revue. At the height of her career in the late 1940s, Time magazine called her "the theater's first personality."
