# Rita Romilly Benson

Rita Romilly Benson (September 7, 1900 – April 4, 1980) was an American stage actress, acting teacher, and an early proponent of Gurdjieff's teachings in America.

## Biography

Rita Romilly was born in 1900, to a successful Viennese businessman and a retired opera singer. She first lived in England before settling in New York City. Rita, trained as an actress, graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts under its founder, Charles Jehlinger. By the 1920s, she was settled in New York and performing on- and off- Broadway. She did not have a long career on the stage before becoming a teacher, but her Broadway performances included roles as the "Sweet Maiden" in George M. Cohan's "The Tavern" (1921); Hazel Williams in "A Man's Man" (1925); Christina in "Easter One Day More" (1926); Hildegarde Sandbury in "The Unchastened Woman" (1926); and Masha in Tolstoy's "The Living Corpse" (1929).
She was a long time teacher at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and later became its director. While at the academy, she taught many young actors who would later become bigger stage and film stars, including Lauren Bacall, Kirk Douglas, and Colleen Dewhurst. She also privately taught accomplished actors, including Uta Hagen and Paul Robeson. Benson was Paul Robeson's drama coach when he got his role in Othello.
Benson, a lifelong friend of Carl Van Vechten, was, like Vechten, a white fixture and frequent host of the 1920s and 30s Harlem Renaissance social scene. According to Van Vechten, Rita's personality "demanded she be popular, well-liked, and the 'hostess with the mostest'." It was in her role as social hostess that she met Jacob Epstein, who briefly lived in New York in 1927–8. In his autobiography he recalls Benson's home as a place where "artists and writers gathered, and Paul Robeson sang, and there was no formality of dress or speech." Epstein would later sculpt a portrait bust of Benson when she visited England in 1937.
Benson was an important early student of George Gurdjieff from 1922 until his death in 1948. After his death, she continued to practice and spread Gurdjieff's beliefs, founding, with others, the New York Gurdjieff Foundation. In 1934, she married Martin W. Benson, another follower of Gurdjieff.
Benson died in New York in 1980.

## Sources

* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 May, Marshall (2014-06-01). Rita Romilly Benson. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-312-15147-5.
* 1 2 3 4 "Rita Romilly Benson Dead at 79; Actress Taught at Arts Academy". The New York Times. 7 April 1980.
* ↑ Dewhurst, Colleen; Viola, Tom (1997). Colleen Dewhurst : her autobiography. Internet Archive. New York : Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-80701-0.
* ↑ Van Vechten, Carl (2007). The Splendid Drunken Twenties: Selections from the Daybooks, 1922-1930. University of Illinois. ISBN 9780252074622.
* ↑ Bogle, Donald (2011). Heat wave : the life and career of Ethel Waters. Internet Archive. New York : Harper. ISBN 978-0-06-124173-4.
* ↑ Bernard, Emily (2012). Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance : a portrait in black and white. Internet Archive. New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12199-5.
* ↑ Boyle, Sheila Tully (2005). Paul Robeson : the years of promise and achievement. Internet Archive. Amherst : Univ. of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-55849-505-0.
* ↑ Epstein, Jacob (1955). Epstein: an autobiography. Internet Archive. New York, E. P. Dutton.
* ↑ "Sold at auction Sir Jacob Epstein (British/American, 1880-1959) Portrait Bust of Rita Romilly Auction Number 2432 Lot Number 348". Skinner Inc. Skinner Auctioneers.
* ↑ Davis, James (24 February 2015). Eric Walrond: A Life in the Harlem Renaissance and the Transatlantic Caribbean. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-53861-9.
* ↑ "GIR". www.gurdjieff.org.
* ↑ Petsche, Johanna J. M. "A Gurdjieff Genealogy: Tracing the Manifold Ways the Gurdjieff Teaching Has Travelled". International Journal for the Study of New Religions. 4 (1): 49. doi:10.1558/ijsnr.v4i1.49. ISSN 2041-9511.
* ↑ "Benson, Rita Romilly (1900–1980) | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages.
* ↑ O'Dowd, Ciara. "The on and off-stage roles of Abbey Theatre actresses of the 1930s" (PDF). NUI Galway.