Lillie Langtry 20 x 16 inches, Acrylic on Panel 2019
Lillie Langtry (1853- 1929) Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, called “Lillie” because of the whiteness of her complexion, was born on October 13, 1853 on the island of Jersey, one of the English Channel Islands, located only 14 miles from the coast of Normandy. Her father, the Very Reverend William Corbet Le Breton, the dean and rector of Jersey, and mother Emilie Martin had 7 children, Lillie, being the 6th and the only daughter. Mrs. Le Breton was a noted beauty; Lillie, a statuesque redhead, would take after her. Dean Le Breton, despite his station, was a notorious ladies man and the father of several illegitimate children, for which reason his wife eventually left him in 1880.
Lillie received a good education from her brothers’ tutor, a French governess chosen for her despairing of reigning in her somewhat rebellious spirit. A lovely young woman, Lillie received several offers of marriage which her father turned down. At a ball Lillie met Edward Langtry, an Irish gentleman and landowner whose family were in shipping. She was less attracted to the man, a boring chap, than to the fact that he owned a a 100-foot schooner called the Red Gauntlet, a means of escape from her cloistered life in Jersey. Edward, born in 1847, had been married before, to Jane Price, sister of the future wife of Lillie’s older brother William. But Jane had died in 1871. On March 9, 1874 Lillie, at age 20, married Edward Langtry, with her father, perhaps reluctantly, presiding over a simple service.
Langtry was very shy with few social skills. His weak features, walrus mustache, stout build, and diffident manner led most to regard him as a characterless sort of person. Like his father, he was a yachtsman and wished to be regarded as a sportsman, but woefully lack the color and dash needed to carry off the part. Whatever personality he had was eclipsed by that of his vivacious wife. During the Langtry’s first year of marriage they lived in Jersey and spent a lot of time with Edward’s yacht, the Gertrude, a 60-ton yawl, a two-masted sailing boat that participated in many regattas. Under pressure from Lillie’s family, Edward cut back on his yachting activities, even selling his beloved Red Gauntlet. Lillie’s family came to dislike Edward thoroughly and estranged themselves from the Langtrys.
While the Langtry’s were staying at Southampton, a port on the south coast of England, Lillie became ill with typhoid. After she recovered, doctors recommended that she have a change of air. Edward obligingly took her to London, where the air was decidedly worse, but which provided an environment much more exciting for a young woman. In 1876 the Langtrys rented a flat in Eaton Square, Belgravia, an expensive district in central London.
In spring of 1877 the Langtrys were invited to an exclusive reception at the Belgravia home of Sir John and Lady Sebright. The invitation came from Thomas Heron Jones, the 7th Viscount Ranelagh, a rakish military officer whose illegitimate daughter Alice had just married Lillie’s brother Clement. At that time Lillie was very depressed and was in mourning for her younger brother Reginald, who had died in a riding accident. Consequently, she appeared at the party wearing only a simple black dress, no jewelry, and her hair simply done. The contrast with the other ladies, elaborately gowned and jeweled bedecked, was striking. Despite Lillie’s attempt to be inconspicuous, her charm and beauty attracted considerable attention. Frank Miles, a wealthy young artist, had previously seen her at the theater and, inspired by her beauty, he had sought to meet her. He was able to do so and made several sketches of her that very night. John Everett Millais, a respected artist in his late 40s, was impressed, too, and sought to paint her. In a single evening Lillie Langtry, hitherto unaware of the impact of her person and her beauty, had become a star of high society.
Championed by Lord Ranelagh and Frank Miles, Lillie quickly became the rage of London. The Langtrys were invited to all the “best” parties and met all the “best” people. No one cared for Edward: he was just a tag-a-long. People, though, were captivated not only by Lillie’s looks and personality, but by her intelligent conversation and by her refreshingly outspoken opinions. Her little black dress became a trademark. (Never had a woman traveled so far in society with so little wardrobe). The famous would pay court to her; she met Frank Miles’ Irish boarder from Oxford, Oscar Wilde, who would become her good friend. She dined with Lord Randolph Churchill, Winston’s father. Leopold, the King of the Belgians, came to call on the Langtrys just to see her. Prime Minister Gladstone, who met her when she was posing for Millais, became a friend and mentor. She even aroused the interest of the 36 year old Prince of Wales, who, to the horror of his mother Queen Victoria, had already become notorious as a womanizer.
At a dinner party held on May 24, 1877, Edward, Prince of Wales arranged to sit next to Mrs. Langtry. This was a fateful night for Lillie. Although she was scared to death to meet him, Prince Edward was immediately captivated by her. Lillie soon became mistress to the heir to the British throne. Princess Alexandra of Denmark, Edward’s wife, who had become accustomed to his infidelities, graciously accepted Lillie’s position. Even Queen Victoria allowed Lillie Langtry to be presented to her. Society, too, accepted Mrs. Langtry as the Prince’s companion, while the dull husband Edward faded into the background.
Comfortable in her position, Lillie did not demure to breech propriety. She called the Prince “Bertie-wertie” in public. Once she made him drink champagne with a flea swimming in the drink. On another occasion she put ice down the back of his collar. She became famous for engaging in spirited high jinks such as sliding down stairs sitting on a silver serving tray. Such antics, though, were common at exclusive parties at that time, but some thought she went too far.
Artists were at her feet and queued up to paint her. Frank Miles’ sketches of her became popular postcards. John Everett Millais, who was also a native of Jersey, executed the most famous portrait of her, entitled A Jersey Lily. The title was soon assumed by Lillie herself, but, ironically, the flower depicted in the painting was, in fact, a Guernsey lily. The portrait, when exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878, created a sensation and mobs came to see it, a simple picture of what seems, to the modern eye, an ordinary-looking woman in a sombre black dress. Edward Poynter and Edward Burne-Jones also painted her. Many photographs would be taken of what the age would soon regard the apotheosis of feminine beauty.
Adolphus Rosenberg, a newspaperman, had claimed that Edward Langtry intended to divorce his wife, naming the Prince of Wales, among others, as co-respondents, but that he was being bribed to halt the action by being offered a diplomatic post abroad. Langtry testified in court, denying the accusations, but no doubt was humiliated to do so. Rosenberg was found guilty of libel in this case (and in a separate case involving a former mistress of the Prince of Wales) and sent to prison for 18 months. Scandal, though, did not tarnished the Jersey Lily, but merely made her a more intriguing celebrity.
After a couple years, the liaison between the Prince of Wales and Lillie Langtry cooled, for neither seemed constitutionally suited to fidelity in such matters. Lillie had no difficultly attracting men, even those of the highest rank. In April 1879 Lillie had a brief affair with Prince Louis of Battenberg, a naval officer who would eventually become the Royal Navy’s First Sea Lord and the father of “Lord Louie” Mountbatten, uncle of Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband. In July 1879 Lillie had an affair with the 18-year old Earl of Shrewsbury. She had ideas of running away with him, but they came to naught. A longer-lasting romantic relationship was forged with Arthur Clarence Jones, an illegitimate son of Lord Ranelagh. When Lillie became pregnant, it was probably Jones who was the father. However, Lillie led Prince Louis to believe that he was the one so that she might wheedle a little money from him. She did and Prince Edward, who remained her friend and supporter, helped her financially as well. While she went into confinement in Paris, her husband was got out of the country for a time so that he might never know that his wife was giving birth to a child that was not his. A daughter was delivered to Lillie on March 8, 1881. Named Jeanne Marie, she was left with Lillie’s mother to be reared.
The Langtrys lived lavishly and were running into debt. Edward Langtry’s income had dried up, for his properties in Ireland were costing him money instead of providing income. With the Prince of Wales no longer paying the bills, the Langtrys were indeed in financial straits. In October 1980 Lillie sold many of her possessions to forestall her husband declaring bankruptcy. It was not enough. In 1881 Lillie separated from her husband, although he, still not knowing of her child, adamantly refused to grant her a divorce.
Lillie was not content to rely upon lovers for her living. She desired a more reliable source of income. Her friend Oscar Wilde, who would become one of England’s most successful playwrights, suggested that she try her hand at acting, since she certainly possessed the requisite popularity and star quality. Under the tutelage of experienced actress Henrietta Hodson, she studied drama. She appeared with Hodson in a small amateur production on November 19, 1881. It went well and, after some further coaching, Lillie Langtry made her London debut at the Haymarket Theatre in a leading role in Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer, a comedy written more than a hundred years before. The public loved her, even if all the critics did not. The Prince of Wales promoted her and attended her performances.
By early 1882 Lillie Langtry was touring England with her own theatrical company. Later in the year Lillie booked a tour of the United States through American impresario Henry Abbey, a theatrical manager and producer who had just arranged an American tour for the celebrated French actress Sarah Bernhardt. Lillie Langtry arrived in New York in October and was met there by Oscar Wilde, who was in America lecturing on aestheticism (a philosophy that literature and art should exist for its own sake and not necessarily serve some social or moral purpose). While performing in New York Lillie fell in love with one Fred Gebhard, a 22-year old playboy and sportsman of a wealthy and socially prominent family. Henrietta Hodson, who was accompanying and mentoring Mrs. Langtry, disapproved of Gebhard. She and Lillie quarreled about it, resulting in a bitter separation. Gebhard instead accompanied Lillie Langtry on her tour.
The Langtry American tour was a huge success, more profitable than that of the Divine Sarah Bernhardt. Critics were dubious when she tackled such fare as Shakespeare’s As You Like It, but the adoring public was forgiving of any deficiencies she might have had as an actor. Lillie, though, was not so vain of her talents that she did not strive to improve her acting skills. Upon returning to Europe in 1883 she spent six weeks at the Conservatoire de Paris to receive instruction in acting technique. By 1889 she was confident enough to assume the role of Lady MacBeth in a production of Shakespeare’s MacBeth.
While in America again in 1888 she and Fred Gephard bought adjoining farms in northern California, Lake County, north of Napa Valley. Lillie turned her property into a winery, and while she eventually sold it (in 1906) Langtry Farms still produces its own rich, full-bodied red wine.
One of Fred Gephard’s hobbies was thoroughbred racing and he got Lillie interested in it. In 1885 they brought a stable of American horses to England. In 1888, though, an effort to transport a string of race horses across America resulted in tragedy. In Pennsylvania the car holding the horses derailed, rolled down an embankment, and burst into flames, killing a human and 14 of the 17 horses. Despite the setback, Lillie continued as a stable owner and made herself knowledgeable in matters concerning the turf. She imported horses from as far away as New Zealand and had some winners, such as the Australian chestnut stallion Merman, who had a splendid career, winning the Ascot Gold Cup in 1900. To be near her stables in Suffolk in southern England she took as her residence Regal Lodge in the town of Kentford. She lived there until 1919.
By 1891 Lillie Langtry’s relationship with Fred Gephard soured. Living together for nine years, each hoped that they would eventually marry, but Edward Langtry would not consent to a divorce. At a racing event in April 1891 Lillie met another sportsman with a great deal of inherited wealth, a man to take his place. George Alexander Baird was an avid horseman and stable owner, He was even an amateur jockey, riding under an assumed name. Lillie and Baird became friends and then lovers. Baird was kind and generous, but also erratic, jealous and violent, especially when drunk. Their relationship was tempestuous. Once he beat Lillie up but, to compensate, gave her a 200-foot, three-masted luxury steam yacht, which he renamed the White Ladye.
In March 1893 while Lillie was sailing the Mediterranean on the White Ladye she heard the news that Baird had died in New Orleans of pneumonia. He was only 31. He had been in America to set up possible boxing matches between English prize fighters Charley Mitchell and Jem Hall and the current heavy-weight champion, American “Gentleman” Jim Corbett. He did arrange a match between Hall and future champion Bob Fitzsimmons, a Britisher, but Hall, his man, lost. Disappointed, Baird went out drinking — too much — and fell ill the next morning. He died on March 18, 1893. Lillie would no longer use the yacht he had given her, and sold the White Ladye in 1897.
During her trips to America, Lillie Langtry became a US citizen. Using her citizenship, she successfully obtained a divorce from Langtry in May of 1897. Edward, though, refused to accept the decree. Since their separation he had been living in obscurity, apparently sailing and fishing and little else. The divorce increased his depression and his drinking. While crossing on a ferry from Ireland to England he fell and sustained a head wound. He eventually ended in a hospital and then an asylum where, after several days, he died. It was October 15, 1897 and he was 49.
It was thought that Lillie might now marry Prince Louis Esterhazy, an Austrian general and another horse racing enthusiast. The newspapers were counting on it, but instead, Lillie chose as her second husband Hugo Gerald de Bathe, son and heir of a baronet and former general. They were married on July 27, 1899. Hugo was 28, Lillie was not quite 46. Soon after the wedding de Bathe volunteered to fight in the Boer War. He was made a lieutenant in a horse brigade. When his father died in 1907, he inherited many properties and became the 5th Baronet de Bathe. Much to her pleasure, Lillie assumed the title Lady de Bathe.
Lillie Langtry was perhaps the first modern star and international celebrity. She was famous for her private life, her love affairs being fodder for the press, and she was famous for her professional career, her acting achieving a popularity well beyond what it might have otherwise merited. She was regarded by the world as a new kind of royalty. She always traveled in style, if not on a yacht then in a luxurious private railway car. She was given and acquired many residences. There were fabulous jewels as well as gowns made for her by the House of Worth, the top couturier of the time. Like the modern star, she was not averse to seeking profits, even making paid endorsements of products such as soap. Lillie was a canny businesswoman.
From 1901 to 1903 Lillie Langtry was the manager of the Imperial Theatre in London after she refurbished it with the financial backing of a friend, Edgar Israel Cohen, whose many business interests included Harrod’s department store. In 1903 she returned to United States to star in The Crossways, a play which she co-authored. There were later tours of America in 1906, 1912, and 1917. At one point she toured with the young and soon to be legendary American stage actor Alfred Lunt. She even starred in a silent motion picture made there in 1913. She maintained not only her verve and vitality, but her looks, owing, she claimed, to her habit of daily physical exercise.
During her travels Lillie Langtry acquired many friends and fans. Her most ardent fan was eccentric Westerner Roy Bean (1825-1903) who had set himself up as a judge in a Texas town on the Pecos River called, coincidentally, Langtry, but named after George Langtry, a railroad engineer and work crew foreman who was not related to Lillie’s husband. In the 1880s and ‘90s Bean glorified his role as purveyor of “Law West of the Pecos” that he administered from his saloon named the Jersey Lily in honor of lillie Langtry. He decorated its walls with magazine pictures of the actress he idolized. He even built an opera house in the hopes that one day Lillie Langtry would perform in it. Legend portrays the colorful Bean as a hanging judge, but there is no evidence he hanged more than one man. He was, in fact, a lenient judge and a kind-hearted man, although his ethics were a little suspect (he pocketed all the fines he imposed rather than forwarding them to the government). Lillie Langtry heard about Judge Roy Bean during one of her later trips to America and made a point of stopping at Langtry, Texas, on a train trip from New Orleans to San Francisco. Unfortunately she arrived in Langtry a little late. The original Jersey Lily had burned to the ground in 1896 and the Judge had drunk himself to death in 1903, the year before. Langtry residents, though, received her like royalty and presented the actress with the late Roy Bean’s six-shooter. Lillie, an ever gracious star, was appreciative and donated money and books to the local school.
In 1917 Lillie retired from the stage at age 64. In 1919 she sold the Regal Lodge. She and her husband left England to reside elsewhere, but in different places. Their separation was amicable and they occasionally met socially. But Hugo lived in Venice, while Lillie, independently wealthy, resided in a villa in Monaco, a tiny principality on the French Riviera. There she gambled at the famous casino, danced with gigolos, and otherwise devoted herself to reading and gardening. She lived only with a woman companion.
Lillie Langtry, Lady de Bathe, aged 75, died of pneumonia on February 12, 1929. Condolences were sent to her family by King George and Queen Mary of England. (Her lover Prince Edward had died in 1910). She was buried in the graveyard of the church in Jersey where her father had preached.
After breaking with Mrs. Langtry, Henrietta Hodson married her long-time lover, Henry Labouchére, theater owner, magazine editor, campaigner against public immorality, diplomat, and Member of Parliament. Labouchére’s major legislative achievement was the Labouchére Amendment to the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, which criminalized male homosexual relations. Oscar Wilde, whom Labouchére had dismissed as “an effeminate phrase maker,” was convicted in 1895 of violating this law and sentenced to two years hard labor.
Fred Gephard married in 1894 and again in 1907. His wealth squandered, he ended up trying to support himself selling wine. He died at the age of 50 in 1910.
Lillie’s daughter Jeanne Marie, who always sought to distance herself from her mother, married Scottish politician Sir Ian Malcolm in 1902. Their daughter Mary Malcolm was, from 1948 to 1956, an announcer for BBC television, one of the first women to do so. A son, Victor, was the first wife of British film actress Ann Todd. Jeanne, Lady Malcolm died in 2010 at the age of 92.
In addition to a 1909 novel, All at Sea, Lillie published a memoir, The Days I Knew, in 1925. Although heavy into name-dropping, her autobiography is hardly the controversial, scandalous tell-all book common today. It leaves much to the imagination. In it she never even acknowledges that she was the mistress of the Prince of Wales! Many biographers have taken on her fascinating life, and there have been many films in which her character appears. Lillie, a highly successful BBC miniseries from 1978, all of 672 minutes in length, covers the entirety of her life with reasonable accuracy and stars the luminous Francesca Annis as Lillie Langtry.
Lillie received a good education from her brothers’ tutor, a French governess chosen for her despairing of reigning in her somewhat rebellious spirit. A lovely young woman, Lillie received several offers of marriage which her father turned down. At a ball Lillie met Edward Langtry, an Irish gentleman and landowner whose family were in shipping. She was less attracted to the man, a boring chap, than to the fact that he owned a a 100-foot schooner called the Red Gauntlet, a means of escape from her cloistered life in Jersey. Edward, born in 1847, had been married before, to Jane Price, sister of the future wife of Lillie’s older brother William. But Jane had died in 1871. On March 9, 1874 Lillie, at age 20, married Edward Langtry, with her father, perhaps reluctantly, presiding over a simple service.
Langtry was very shy with few social skills. His weak features, walrus mustache, stout build, and diffident manner led most to regard him as a characterless sort of person. Like his father, he was a yachtsman and wished to be regarded as a sportsman, but woefully lack the color and dash needed to carry off the part. Whatever personality he had was eclipsed by that of his vivacious wife. During the Langtry’s first year of marriage they lived in Jersey and spent a lot of time with Edward’s yacht, the Gertrude, a 60-ton yawl, a two-masted sailing boat that participated in many regattas. Under pressure from Lillie’s family, Edward cut back on his yachting activities, even selling his beloved Red Gauntlet. Lillie’s family came to dislike Edward thoroughly and estranged themselves from the Langtrys.
While the Langtry’s were staying at Southampton, a port on the south coast of England, Lillie became ill with typhoid. After she recovered, doctors recommended that she have a change of air. Edward obligingly took her to London, where the air was decidedly worse, but which provided an environment much more exciting for a young woman. In 1876 the Langtrys rented a flat in Eaton Square, Belgravia, an expensive district in central London.
In spring of 1877 the Langtrys were invited to an exclusive reception at the Belgravia home of Sir John and Lady Sebright. The invitation came from Thomas Heron Jones, the 7th Viscount Ranelagh, a rakish military officer whose illegitimate daughter Alice had just married Lillie’s brother Clement. At that time Lillie was very depressed and was in mourning for her younger brother Reginald, who had died in a riding accident. Consequently, she appeared at the party wearing only a simple black dress, no jewelry, and her hair simply done. The contrast with the other ladies, elaborately gowned and jeweled bedecked, was striking. Despite Lillie’s attempt to be inconspicuous, her charm and beauty attracted considerable attention. Frank Miles, a wealthy young artist, had previously seen her at the theater and, inspired by her beauty, he had sought to meet her. He was able to do so and made several sketches of her that very night. John Everett Millais, a respected artist in his late 40s, was impressed, too, and sought to paint her. In a single evening Lillie Langtry, hitherto unaware of the impact of her person and her beauty, had become a star of high society.
Championed by Lord Ranelagh and Frank Miles, Lillie quickly became the rage of London. The Langtrys were invited to all the “best” parties and met all the “best” people. No one cared for Edward: he was just a tag-a-long. People, though, were captivated not only by Lillie’s looks and personality, but by her intelligent conversation and by her refreshingly outspoken opinions. Her little black dress became a trademark. (Never had a woman traveled so far in society with so little wardrobe). The famous would pay court to her; she met Frank Miles’ Irish boarder from Oxford, Oscar Wilde, who would become her good friend. She dined with Lord Randolph Churchill, Winston’s father. Leopold, the King of the Belgians, came to call on the Langtrys just to see her. Prime Minister Gladstone, who met her when she was posing for Millais, became a friend and mentor. She even aroused the interest of the 36 year old Prince of Wales, who, to the horror of his mother Queen Victoria, had already become notorious as a womanizer.
At a dinner party held on May 24, 1877, Edward, Prince of Wales arranged to sit next to Mrs. Langtry. This was a fateful night for Lillie. Although she was scared to death to meet him, Prince Edward was immediately captivated by her. Lillie soon became mistress to the heir to the British throne. Princess Alexandra of Denmark, Edward’s wife, who had become accustomed to his infidelities, graciously accepted Lillie’s position. Even Queen Victoria allowed Lillie Langtry to be presented to her. Society, too, accepted Mrs. Langtry as the Prince’s companion, while the dull husband Edward faded into the background.
Comfortable in her position, Lillie did not demure to breech propriety. She called the Prince “Bertie-wertie” in public. Once she made him drink champagne with a flea swimming in the drink. On another occasion she put ice down the back of his collar. She became famous for engaging in spirited high jinks such as sliding down stairs sitting on a silver serving tray. Such antics, though, were common at exclusive parties at that time, but some thought she went too far.
Artists were at her feet and queued up to paint her. Frank Miles’ sketches of her became popular postcards. John Everett Millais, who was also a native of Jersey, executed the most famous portrait of her, entitled A Jersey Lily. The title was soon assumed by Lillie herself, but, ironically, the flower depicted in the painting was, in fact, a Guernsey lily. The portrait, when exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878, created a sensation and mobs came to see it, a simple picture of what seems, to the modern eye, an ordinary-looking woman in a sombre black dress. Edward Poynter and Edward Burne-Jones also painted her. Many photographs would be taken of what the age would soon regard the apotheosis of feminine beauty.
Adolphus Rosenberg, a newspaperman, had claimed that Edward Langtry intended to divorce his wife, naming the Prince of Wales, among others, as co-respondents, but that he was being bribed to halt the action by being offered a diplomatic post abroad. Langtry testified in court, denying the accusations, but no doubt was humiliated to do so. Rosenberg was found guilty of libel in this case (and in a separate case involving a former mistress of the Prince of Wales) and sent to prison for 18 months. Scandal, though, did not tarnished the Jersey Lily, but merely made her a more intriguing celebrity.
After a couple years, the liaison between the Prince of Wales and Lillie Langtry cooled, for neither seemed constitutionally suited to fidelity in such matters. Lillie had no difficultly attracting men, even those of the highest rank. In April 1879 Lillie had a brief affair with Prince Louis of Battenberg, a naval officer who would eventually become the Royal Navy’s First Sea Lord and the father of “Lord Louie” Mountbatten, uncle of Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband. In July 1879 Lillie had an affair with the 18-year old Earl of Shrewsbury. She had ideas of running away with him, but they came to naught. A longer-lasting romantic relationship was forged with Arthur Clarence Jones, an illegitimate son of Lord Ranelagh. When Lillie became pregnant, it was probably Jones who was the father. However, Lillie led Prince Louis to believe that he was the one so that she might wheedle a little money from him. She did and Prince Edward, who remained her friend and supporter, helped her financially as well. While she went into confinement in Paris, her husband was got out of the country for a time so that he might never know that his wife was giving birth to a child that was not his. A daughter was delivered to Lillie on March 8, 1881. Named Jeanne Marie, she was left with Lillie’s mother to be reared.
The Langtrys lived lavishly and were running into debt. Edward Langtry’s income had dried up, for his properties in Ireland were costing him money instead of providing income. With the Prince of Wales no longer paying the bills, the Langtrys were indeed in financial straits. In October 1980 Lillie sold many of her possessions to forestall her husband declaring bankruptcy. It was not enough. In 1881 Lillie separated from her husband, although he, still not knowing of her child, adamantly refused to grant her a divorce.
Lillie was not content to rely upon lovers for her living. She desired a more reliable source of income. Her friend Oscar Wilde, who would become one of England’s most successful playwrights, suggested that she try her hand at acting, since she certainly possessed the requisite popularity and star quality. Under the tutelage of experienced actress Henrietta Hodson, she studied drama. She appeared with Hodson in a small amateur production on November 19, 1881. It went well and, after some further coaching, Lillie Langtry made her London debut at the Haymarket Theatre in a leading role in Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer, a comedy written more than a hundred years before. The public loved her, even if all the critics did not. The Prince of Wales promoted her and attended her performances.
By early 1882 Lillie Langtry was touring England with her own theatrical company. Later in the year Lillie booked a tour of the United States through American impresario Henry Abbey, a theatrical manager and producer who had just arranged an American tour for the celebrated French actress Sarah Bernhardt. Lillie Langtry arrived in New York in October and was met there by Oscar Wilde, who was in America lecturing on aestheticism (a philosophy that literature and art should exist for its own sake and not necessarily serve some social or moral purpose). While performing in New York Lillie fell in love with one Fred Gebhard, a 22-year old playboy and sportsman of a wealthy and socially prominent family. Henrietta Hodson, who was accompanying and mentoring Mrs. Langtry, disapproved of Gebhard. She and Lillie quarreled about it, resulting in a bitter separation. Gebhard instead accompanied Lillie Langtry on her tour.
The Langtry American tour was a huge success, more profitable than that of the Divine Sarah Bernhardt. Critics were dubious when she tackled such fare as Shakespeare’s As You Like It, but the adoring public was forgiving of any deficiencies she might have had as an actor. Lillie, though, was not so vain of her talents that she did not strive to improve her acting skills. Upon returning to Europe in 1883 she spent six weeks at the Conservatoire de Paris to receive instruction in acting technique. By 1889 she was confident enough to assume the role of Lady MacBeth in a production of Shakespeare’s MacBeth.
While in America again in 1888 she and Fred Gephard bought adjoining farms in northern California, Lake County, north of Napa Valley. Lillie turned her property into a winery, and while she eventually sold it (in 1906) Langtry Farms still produces its own rich, full-bodied red wine.
One of Fred Gephard’s hobbies was thoroughbred racing and he got Lillie interested in it. In 1885 they brought a stable of American horses to England. In 1888, though, an effort to transport a string of race horses across America resulted in tragedy. In Pennsylvania the car holding the horses derailed, rolled down an embankment, and burst into flames, killing a human and 14 of the 17 horses. Despite the setback, Lillie continued as a stable owner and made herself knowledgeable in matters concerning the turf. She imported horses from as far away as New Zealand and had some winners, such as the Australian chestnut stallion Merman, who had a splendid career, winning the Ascot Gold Cup in 1900. To be near her stables in Suffolk in southern England she took as her residence Regal Lodge in the town of Kentford. She lived there until 1919.
By 1891 Lillie Langtry’s relationship with Fred Gephard soured. Living together for nine years, each hoped that they would eventually marry, but Edward Langtry would not consent to a divorce. At a racing event in April 1891 Lillie met another sportsman with a great deal of inherited wealth, a man to take his place. George Alexander Baird was an avid horseman and stable owner, He was even an amateur jockey, riding under an assumed name. Lillie and Baird became friends and then lovers. Baird was kind and generous, but also erratic, jealous and violent, especially when drunk. Their relationship was tempestuous. Once he beat Lillie up but, to compensate, gave her a 200-foot, three-masted luxury steam yacht, which he renamed the White Ladye.
In March 1893 while Lillie was sailing the Mediterranean on the White Ladye she heard the news that Baird had died in New Orleans of pneumonia. He was only 31. He had been in America to set up possible boxing matches between English prize fighters Charley Mitchell and Jem Hall and the current heavy-weight champion, American “Gentleman” Jim Corbett. He did arrange a match between Hall and future champion Bob Fitzsimmons, a Britisher, but Hall, his man, lost. Disappointed, Baird went out drinking — too much — and fell ill the next morning. He died on March 18, 1893. Lillie would no longer use the yacht he had given her, and sold the White Ladye in 1897.
During her trips to America, Lillie Langtry became a US citizen. Using her citizenship, she successfully obtained a divorce from Langtry in May of 1897. Edward, though, refused to accept the decree. Since their separation he had been living in obscurity, apparently sailing and fishing and little else. The divorce increased his depression and his drinking. While crossing on a ferry from Ireland to England he fell and sustained a head wound. He eventually ended in a hospital and then an asylum where, after several days, he died. It was October 15, 1897 and he was 49.
It was thought that Lillie might now marry Prince Louis Esterhazy, an Austrian general and another horse racing enthusiast. The newspapers were counting on it, but instead, Lillie chose as her second husband Hugo Gerald de Bathe, son and heir of a baronet and former general. They were married on July 27, 1899. Hugo was 28, Lillie was not quite 46. Soon after the wedding de Bathe volunteered to fight in the Boer War. He was made a lieutenant in a horse brigade. When his father died in 1907, he inherited many properties and became the 5th Baronet de Bathe. Much to her pleasure, Lillie assumed the title Lady de Bathe.
Lillie Langtry was perhaps the first modern star and international celebrity. She was famous for her private life, her love affairs being fodder for the press, and she was famous for her professional career, her acting achieving a popularity well beyond what it might have otherwise merited. She was regarded by the world as a new kind of royalty. She always traveled in style, if not on a yacht then in a luxurious private railway car. She was given and acquired many residences. There were fabulous jewels as well as gowns made for her by the House of Worth, the top couturier of the time. Like the modern star, she was not averse to seeking profits, even making paid endorsements of products such as soap. Lillie was a canny businesswoman.
From 1901 to 1903 Lillie Langtry was the manager of the Imperial Theatre in London after she refurbished it with the financial backing of a friend, Edgar Israel Cohen, whose many business interests included Harrod’s department store. In 1903 she returned to United States to star in The Crossways, a play which she co-authored. There were later tours of America in 1906, 1912, and 1917. At one point she toured with the young and soon to be legendary American stage actor Alfred Lunt. She even starred in a silent motion picture made there in 1913. She maintained not only her verve and vitality, but her looks, owing, she claimed, to her habit of daily physical exercise.
During her travels Lillie Langtry acquired many friends and fans. Her most ardent fan was eccentric Westerner Roy Bean (1825-1903) who had set himself up as a judge in a Texas town on the Pecos River called, coincidentally, Langtry, but named after George Langtry, a railroad engineer and work crew foreman who was not related to Lillie’s husband. In the 1880s and ‘90s Bean glorified his role as purveyor of “Law West of the Pecos” that he administered from his saloon named the Jersey Lily in honor of lillie Langtry. He decorated its walls with magazine pictures of the actress he idolized. He even built an opera house in the hopes that one day Lillie Langtry would perform in it. Legend portrays the colorful Bean as a hanging judge, but there is no evidence he hanged more than one man. He was, in fact, a lenient judge and a kind-hearted man, although his ethics were a little suspect (he pocketed all the fines he imposed rather than forwarding them to the government). Lillie Langtry heard about Judge Roy Bean during one of her later trips to America and made a point of stopping at Langtry, Texas, on a train trip from New Orleans to San Francisco. Unfortunately she arrived in Langtry a little late. The original Jersey Lily had burned to the ground in 1896 and the Judge had drunk himself to death in 1903, the year before. Langtry residents, though, received her like royalty and presented the actress with the late Roy Bean’s six-shooter. Lillie, an ever gracious star, was appreciative and donated money and books to the local school.
In 1917 Lillie retired from the stage at age 64. In 1919 she sold the Regal Lodge. She and her husband left England to reside elsewhere, but in different places. Their separation was amicable and they occasionally met socially. But Hugo lived in Venice, while Lillie, independently wealthy, resided in a villa in Monaco, a tiny principality on the French Riviera. There she gambled at the famous casino, danced with gigolos, and otherwise devoted herself to reading and gardening. She lived only with a woman companion.
Lillie Langtry, Lady de Bathe, aged 75, died of pneumonia on February 12, 1929. Condolences were sent to her family by King George and Queen Mary of England. (Her lover Prince Edward had died in 1910). She was buried in the graveyard of the church in Jersey where her father had preached.
After breaking with Mrs. Langtry, Henrietta Hodson married her long-time lover, Henry Labouchére, theater owner, magazine editor, campaigner against public immorality, diplomat, and Member of Parliament. Labouchére’s major legislative achievement was the Labouchére Amendment to the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, which criminalized male homosexual relations. Oscar Wilde, whom Labouchére had dismissed as “an effeminate phrase maker,” was convicted in 1895 of violating this law and sentenced to two years hard labor.
Fred Gephard married in 1894 and again in 1907. His wealth squandered, he ended up trying to support himself selling wine. He died at the age of 50 in 1910.
Lillie’s daughter Jeanne Marie, who always sought to distance herself from her mother, married Scottish politician Sir Ian Malcolm in 1902. Their daughter Mary Malcolm was, from 1948 to 1956, an announcer for BBC television, one of the first women to do so. A son, Victor, was the first wife of British film actress Ann Todd. Jeanne, Lady Malcolm died in 2010 at the age of 92.
In addition to a 1909 novel, All at Sea, Lillie published a memoir, The Days I Knew, in 1925. Although heavy into name-dropping, her autobiography is hardly the controversial, scandalous tell-all book common today. It leaves much to the imagination. In it she never even acknowledges that she was the mistress of the Prince of Wales! Many biographers have taken on her fascinating life, and there have been many films in which her character appears. Lillie, a highly successful BBC miniseries from 1978, all of 672 minutes in length, covers the entirety of her life with reasonable accuracy and stars the luminous Francesca Annis as Lillie Langtry.
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