From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Laura Hope Crews (San Francisco, December 12, 1879 – November 12, 1942 in New York City) was a character actress of movies and stage. The daughter of a stage actress and a backstage carpenter, Crews started acting at age four. Her first stage appearance was at Woodward's Garden. She stopped acting to finish school and then returned in 1898. After finishing her studies, Crews went back into acting.

Throughout her career, she is perhaps remembered as "Aunt Pittypat" from the movie Gone with the Wind. Along with her Gone with the Wind co-stars Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Hattie McDaniel, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Thomas Mitchell (actor), Ann Rutherford, George Reeves and Victor Jory, each of them a have "Star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She was featured in theatrical productions of plays written by A.A. Milne, the English playwright. Milne was particularly impressed by Miss Crews' work in his Mr. Pim Passes By. The play was a big success and ran for 232 performances. Afterward the actress began to work in productions staged by the New York Theater Guild, which had just opened.

Laura's final stage appearance came in Arsenic and Old Lace. She participated for more than a year and a half on Broadway and on the road. She was forced to leave because of illness. She was proudest of her work in The Silver Cord by Sidney Howard. It was produced by the New York Theater Guild in 1926 and ran for 212 performances. When The Silver Cord was not being presented there were matinee performances of Right You Are If You Think You Are by Luigi Pirandello.

Laura Hope Crews died in the Le Roy Sanitorium in New York, New York in 1942, following an illness of four months. She was admitted on October 15, suffering from a kidney ailment. She had been in serious condition for most of the time since.

• Oakland Tribune, "'Laura H. Crews of Stage Dies", Friday, November 13, 1942, Page D9.