Grayson Hall  

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Grayson Hall (September 18, 1922 – August 7, 1985) was an American television, film and stage actress. She was widely regarded for her avant garde theatrical performances in the 1960s-80s. Hall was nominated in 1964 for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the John Huston film The Night of the Iguana. She was also played multiple prominent roles in the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows (1966-1971), and appeared on One Life to Live in 1982-83.

Early life

Born Shirley Grossman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Hall became interested in acting as a teen and began auditioning for plays while still in high school. She studied at Temple University and later Cornell University, before dropping out in 1942 to pursue a career in acting. Her first professional acting job came in the summer of 1942 doing summer stock in Long Island.

In 1946, she married fellow actor Ted (Bradbart) Brooks. The marriage ended in 1949, and in 1952, she married writer Sam Hall. Their only child, Matthew, was born in August 1958. Early in her career, she used the stage name Shirley Grayson. Sam Hall, disliking the name Shirley, called her Grayson, "like an old Army buddy", she told a reporter. She eventually adopted it as her professional name.

Career

Having guest starred on various television series during the mid-1950s, Hall made her film debut in 1961 in Run Across the River. Hall also made another film originally entitled Stacy's story but renamed Satan in High Heels starring Meg Myles. Hall portrayed a cabaret club owner named Pepe. She disavowed participation in the film.

In September 1963, Hall traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to play the role of Judith Fellowes in John Huston's version of The Night of the Iguana, based on the original Tennessee Williams play. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Judith Fellowes, a latent lesbian vocal instructor from a Texas women's college. In the original play, the character was not sympathetic but Huston rewrote the character, wanting more complexity and sympathy.

Dark Shadows

Hall's best-known television role was that of Dr. Julia Hoffman, on Dark Shadows, where she portrayed a friend of the vampire, Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid). Other key roles that she played on the show were those of Countess Natalie Dupres; Magda Rakosi, a Gypsy; and Hoffman, a Mrs. Danvers-type housekeeper.

Theatre and post-Dark Shadows career

Before appearing in The Night of the Iguana and Dark Shadows, Hall had an active stage career in New York City. She portrayed Irma, the madam of an irregular bordello amidst a civil war in the controversial Jean Genet play The Balcony for over one year at the Circle in the Square theatre in Greenwich Village. It was the longest running off-Broadway play for many decades. After Dark Shadows ended in 1971, Hall continued acting on stage as Warda in Jean Genet's The Screens (1971-72) and The Lady in Gray/The Fly in Happy End (1977) which co-starred Meryl Streep and Christopher Lloyd. She would be in the 1980 US premiere of The Suicide with Derek Jacobi.

She acted in the camp classic film The Gargoyles, filmed in New Mexico and the Dan Curtis film The Great Ice Rip-off opposite Lee J. Cobb and Gig Young. She starred in an ABC Wide World Mystery film "The Two Deaths of Sean Doolittle" which was written by her husband, Sam Hall. Her last onscreen role was that of Euphemia Ralston in the soap opera One Life to Live in 1982.

Death

After battling lung cancer, Grayson Hall died on August 1985, in New York City. She was 62. Grayson was cremated, and her widower Sam Hall and son disagreed on the vessel used to have Grayson interred. Sam thought it whimsical to use one of his beloved wife's Gucci bags. Her son vetoed the idea. She was interred at her Hudon Valley home, under a simple marker "Grayson Hall -August 7, 1985".

Filmography

Further reading

• Grayson Hall: A Hard Act to Follow, by R.J. Jamison, iUniverse, 2006. ISBN 0-595-40462-6