Rosamond Pinchot

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Rosamond Pinchot
Portrait, c. 1925
Born(1904-10-26)October 26, 1904
New York City, U.S.
DiedJanuary 24, 1938(1938-01-24) (aged 33)
Old Brookville, New York, U.S.
Cause of deathAsphyxia due to carbon monoxide poisoning
Resting placeMilford Cemetery
NationalityAmerican
Other namesRosamond Pinchot Gaston
Occupation(s)Actress, socialite
Spouse
William Gaston
​
​
(m. 1928; sep. 1933)​
Children2
Parent
RelativesMary Pinchot (half sister)
Robert Bowne Minturn Jr. (maternal grandfather)
Gifford Pinchot (uncle)
Edie Sedgwick (cousin)

Rosamond Pinchot (October 26, 1904 – January 24, 1938) was an American socialite, stage and film actress.

Early life and career[edit]

Born in New York City, Pinchot was the daughter of Amos Pinchot, a wealthy lawyer and a key figure in the Progressive Party and Gertrude Minturn Pinchot, the daughter of shipping magnate Robert Bowne Minturn, Jr. She had a younger brother, Gifford (nicknamed Long Giff). Her uncle was Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot and her cousin was Edie Sedgwick.[1][2][3] The family divided their time between their home in New York City and the family estate, Grey Towers, in Milford, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Miss Chapin's School.[4]

Her parents divorced in 1918. After the divorce, Pinchot and her brother lived with their mother in her townhouse in New York City.[5] In 1919, Amos Pinchot married magazine writer Ruth Pickering with whom he would have two more children: Mary Eno and Antoinette "Tony" Pinchot.[6][7]

Career[edit]

At the age of nineteen, Pinchot was discovered by Max Reinhardt while traveling on an ocean liner with her mother. Reinhardt cast her as a nun who runs away from a convent in the Broadway production of Karl Vollmoller's The Miracle.[8]

Pinchot's appearance in the play caused a sensation and led to her receiving considerable attention from the press who named her "the loveliest woman in America".[9][10]

Reinhardt later cast her in productions of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Franz Werfel's The Eternal Road. She made her only film appearance in the 1935 adaptation of The Three Musketeers, as Queen Anne.

Personal life[edit]

Pinchot married William "Big Bill" Gaston (who was previously married to Kay Francis), on January 26, 1928. The couple had two children, William Alexander Gaston and James Pinchot Gaston.[11][12] In 1933, Pinchot and Gaston separated. They remained married but were estranged at the time of Pinchot's death.[13]

Death[edit]

On the morning of January 24, 1938, a cook found Pinchot's body in the front seat of her car parked in the garage of a rented estate in Old Brookville, New York.[14] Her death was later determined to be caused by asphyxia due to carbon monoxide poisoning and was ruled a suicide.[15][16] Pinchot left two suicide notes, the contents of which were never made public.[17]

Pinchot's funeral was held at her mother's townhouse in New York City on January 26, 1938, her tenth wedding anniversary.[11][17] She was buried in the Pinchot family plot in Milford Cemetery in Milford, Pennsylvania.[18]

Stage credits[edit]

Date Production Role
January 16 – June 1924 The Miracle The Nun
May 31 – June 1926 Henry IV, Part 2 John of Lancaster
November 17 – December 1927 A Midsummer Night's Dream Helena
December 7 – 1927 Jederman Lady
December 20, 1927 – January 1928 Danton's Tod Marion
October 6 – November 1936 St Helena Countess Bertrand
January 7 – May 15, 1937 The Eternal Road Bath-Sheba

Filmography[edit]

Year Title Role Role
1935 The Three Musketeers Queen Anne

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ Gaston 2009, p. 5
  2. ^ "THE WEDDINGS OF A DAY; Marriage of Miss Gertrude Minturn to Mr. Pinchot. The Ceremony at St. George's Church -- Many Guests Invited -- The Bride's Costume". The New York Times. November 15, 1900.
  3. ^ Gaston 2009, p. 61
  4. ^ "Miss Chapin's School NYC". Ephemeral New York.
  5. ^ Gaston 2009, p. 31
  6. ^ "Amos Pinchot Married To Magazine Writer". The Gazette Times. August 10, 1919. p. 3. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
  7. ^ Bernstein, Adam (November 4, 2011). "Antoinette Pinchot Bradlee, former wife of prominent Washington Post executive editor Benjamin C. Bradlee, dies at 87". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
  8. ^ Gaston 2009, pp. 7, 12
  9. ^ Burleigh, Nina (2009). A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer. Random House, Inc. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-307-57417-6.
  10. ^ See, Carolyn (June 6, 2008). "A Complicated Pedigree". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  11. ^ a b Kear, Lynn; Rossman, John (2006). Kay Francis: A Passionate Life and Career. McFarland. p. 33. ISBN 0-7864-2366-8.
  12. ^ Gaston 2009, pp. 43, 49
  13. ^ "Rosamond Pinchot, Actress, A Suicide". The Montreal Gazette. January 24, 1938. p. 2. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  14. ^ "Rosamond Pinchot Takes Own Life". The Daily Times. January 24, 1938. p. 1. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  15. ^ "Actress Suicides In Car". The Daily News. Perth, Western Australia. January 25, 1938. p. 5. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "ROSAMOND PINCHOT ENDS LIFE IN GARAGE; Actress of 'The Miracle' Fame Dies of Fumes in Auto at Long Island Home". The New York Times. January 25, 1938. p. 1.
  17. ^ a b "Pinchot Rites Are Arranged". Prescott Evening Courier. January 25, 1938. p. 8. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  18. ^ "Rosamond Pinchot Buried In Family Lot". The Pittsburgh Press. January 26, 1938. p. 2. Retrieved December 13, 2012.

References[edit]

  • Gaston, Bibi (2009). The Loveliest Woman in America: A Tragic Actress, Her Lost Diaries, and Her Granddaughter's Search for Home. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-085771-4.

External links[edit]

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