Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Lillie Langtry (née Emilie Charlotte Richard le
Breton|Le Breton, nicknamed the Jersey Lily) (13
October 1853 - 12 February 1929) was a United
Kingdom|British actor|actress born on the island
of Jersey in 1853.  Her father was the Dean of
Jersey.

Emilie married Irish landowner Edward Langtry in
1874.  One of his attractions was the fact that he
possessed a yacht, and she insisted that he take
her away from the Channel Islands; eventually they
set up home in London.  She did not begin her
stage career until several years later, after her
husband became bankrupt. She also had a daughter,
born in 1881, Jeanne Marie Langtry (who married
Sir Ian Malcolm of Poltalloch in 1902, had four
children, and died in 1964), and whose father was
definitely not Lillie's husband. The child's
actual father was reportedly Lillie Langtry's
lover Prince Louis of Battenberg (later 1st
Marquess of Milford Haven, 1854-1921), who married
Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Victoria
of Hesse and the Rhine in 1884 and became father
of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the last Viceroy of
India, and grandfather of Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh. A recent biography of Langtry suggests
that another of her lovers, Arthur Jones, may have
been Jeanne Marie's father, though Prince Louis's
son, Lord Mountbatten, always maintained that his
father was the one.

Lillie's heyday as a society beauty culminated in
her becoming a semi-official mistress to the
Prince of Wales, Victoria of the United
Kingdom|Queen Victoria's son Albert Edward
("Bertie"), the future king Edward VII of the
United Kingdom|Edward VII. Other lovers included
wealthy Britons Robert Peel(adulterer)|Robert Peel
and George Baird(Scottish landowner)|George Baird.
Among her friends were the Irish writer Oscar
Wilde and the American artist James McNeill
Whistler.  She was for a time the manager of the
Imperial Theatre and also manufactured claret at
her 4,200 acre (17 km²) winery in Lake County
(northern) California, which she purchased in 1888
and sold in 1906.

In 1887, Lillie became an US citizenship|American
citizen, and divorced her husband the same year in
California. In 1899, she married the much younger
Hugo Gerald de Bathe, who would inherit a
baronetcy, and became a leading owner in the
horse-racing world, before retiring to Monte
Carlo. She died there in 1929, and was buried in
the graveyard of St. Saviour's Church in Jersey -
the church of which her father had been rector.

==Cultural influence==

Her nickname, "The Jersey Lily", was taken from
the Jersey lily flower (Amaryllis belladonna) - a
symbol of Jersey. The nickname was popularised by
a portrait of Lillie Langtry, entitled A Jersey
Lily, painted by Sir John Everett Millais, a
fellow-countryman (according to tradition, they
spoke Jèrriais to each other during the
sittings). The painting caused great interest when
exhibited at the Royal Academy, but Lillie is
holding a Guernsey Lily|Guernsey lily (Nerine
sarniensis) in the painting rather than a Jersey
lily, as no Jersey lilies were available at Covent
Garden during the sittings.


Besides sitting for Millais, Frank Miles and Sir
Edward Poynter, she is also depicted in works by
Sir Edward Burne-Jones.

She used her high public profile to endorse
commercial products such as cosmetics and soap,
becoming an early example of celebrity
endorsement.

Lillie Langtry's story was dramatised by London
Weekend Television in 1978 as Lillie, with
Francesca Annis in the title role. Annis had
previously played Langtry in an episode of
Associated Television Network Limited|ATV's Edward
VII (television)|Edward VII. She was also
portrayed on film by Lillian Bond in the film The
Westerner, and by Ava Gardner in the 1972 movie
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, and (a
heavily fictionalized version) by Stacy Haiduk in
the 1996 television series Kindred.

==Places connected with Lillie Langtry==

The town of Langtry, Texas, was not named for her,
although its most illustrious inhabitant, Judge
Roy Bean, was an ardent admirer, naming the saloon
where he held court "The Jersey Lily".  Bean
himself spread the rumor about the town's name. He
also built an opera house in anticipation of a
visit, and Mrs. Langtry appeared there after
Bean's death.  (The town was named for railroad
supervisor George Langtry.)

The Langtry Manor hotel was built as a romantic
retreat for Lillie and the Prince of Wales.

Merman Cottage in Saint Brelade, Jersey, was owned
and occupied by Lillie Langtry (Merman was also
the name of one of her racehorses).