Lilian Braithwaite

## Rayuwa ta farko

An haife ta a ranar 9 ga watan Maris na shekara ta 1873 a Ramsgate, Kent, 'yar Revd John Masterman Braithwaite (1846-1889), sannan kuma mai kula da Croydon, da matarsa, Elizabeth Jane, 'yar Colonel Thomas Sidney Powell, CB. Ta yi karatu a Makarantar Sakandare ta Croydon, ita ce babba cikin yara bakwai, tana da 'yan'uwa maza biyar, biyu daga cikinsu - Colonel Francis Powell Braithwaite da Mataimakin Admiral Lawrence Walter Braithwaita - sun yi aiki da bambanci a cikin soja. 'Yar'uwarta Dorothy Louisa ta auri Philip Maud .

Braithwaite ta fara aiki tare da kamfanoni masu son, gami da Strolling Players da Oxford University Dramatic Society, amma shawarar da ta yanke na zama ƙwararru ta sadu da adawa mai ƙarfi daga iyayenta. Koyaya, a cikin 1897 tana da shekaru 24, ta shiga kamfanin William Haviland da Gerald Lawrence Shakespearean, ta fara fitowa a cikin ƙananan matsayi yayin yawon shakatawa na Afirka ta Kudu a cikin 1897.  Ta auri Lawrence a ranar 2 ga Yuni 1897 a cocin St Stephen a Kensington a London,  kuma an haifi 'yarsu, actress Joyce Carey (1898-1993) a lokacin da suka dawo London daga Afirka ta Kudu. Ma'auratan sun sake aure a shekara ta 1905 bayan zina da ya yi.

## Ayyuka

Braithwaite ta fara fitowa a London a matsayin Celia a As You Like It a cikin 1900. Bayan haka, ta bayyana a cikin Paul Kester's Sweet Nell of Old Drury a Gidan wasan kwaikwayo na Royal Haymarket . A cikin 1901, ta shiga kamfanin Frank Benson kuma tare da shi ta bayyana a cikin wani lokaci na ayyukan Shakespeare a Gidan wasan kwaikwayo na Comedy . Daga nan sai ta yi tafiya tare da George Alexander kuma ta bayyana a ƙarƙashin jagorancinsa a Gidan wasan kwaikwayo na St James daga 1901 zuwa 1904. A shekara ta 1912, ta bayyana a matsayin Madonna a cikin C. B. Cochran na samar da wasan kwaikwayo na asiri The Miracle a Olympia yayin da a 1913 ta buga Mrs Gregory a Mr. Wu . A shekara ta 1921 ita ce Margaret Fairfield a cikin A Bill of Divorcement na Clemence Dane . 

Nasararta mafi girma ita ce a matsayin mahaifiyar mai shaye-shaye a cikin wasan kwaikwayo na Noël Coward mai suna The *Vortex* a 1924. Ta bayyana a fim din Alfred Hitchcock na 1927 Downhill . Har zuwa lokacin da aka haɗa shi da jarumai masu ban tsoro, ta tabbatar da cewa wasan kwaikwayo shine babban dukiyarta a cikin jerin wasan kwaikwayo na ɗaki da wasan kwaikwayo mai sauƙi. A cikin 1928, Braithwaite ta nuna kwarewarta a matsayin mai wasan kwaikwayo mai sauƙi lokacin da ta buga 'mace kashi goma' a cikin Ivor Novello's The Truth Game a Gidan wasan kwaikwayo na Globe . Ta ci gaba da taka leda a cikin jerin wasan kwaikwayo masu nasara, ciki har da Flat to Let, Fresh Fields (1933), Family Affairs, Full House, The Lady of La Paz da Bats in the Belfry . Koyaya, ba ta juya ta baya kan matsayi mai tsanani ba lokacin da ta taka rawar gani a cikin Elizabeth, la femme sans homme a gidan wasan kwaikwayo na Haymarket (1938) da Lady Mountstephan a cikin A House in the Square (1940) a gidan wasan kwaikwayon St Martin.

A shekara ta 1940, a lokacin yakin duniya na biyu, Braithwaite ta yi aiki a matsayin shugaban da kuma babban mai shirya sashen asibiti na Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) kuma a shekara ta 1943 an nada ta Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), don hidimomi zuwa mataki.[1][2] Ta koma wasan kwaikwayo a Arsenic da Old Lace a watan Disamba na shekara ta 1942 wanda ya yi wasa na tsawon shekaru uku.[3] Ayyukanta na karshe da aka sani shine a matsayin Mrs. Armitage a fim din A Man About the House (1947). [1]

Braithwaite ta amsa da'awar mai sukar James Agate cewa ita ce "mace ta biyu mafi kyau a London" ta hanyar amsawa, "Zan daɗe ina son hakan, daga mai sukar gidan wasan kwaikwayo na biyu mafi kyau". 

Dame Lilian Braithwaite ta mutu a London a ranar 17 ga Satumba 1948, cikin imanin cewa rashin lafiyarta ta wucin gadi ce kuma nan da nan za ta sake yin sabon wasa.

## Manazarta