Rosamond Pinchot

Rosamond Pinchot was born in New York City in 1904, the daughter of Amos Pinchot, a wealthy lawyer and political activist. She was educated at Miss Chaplin's school in Manhattan. Her parents divorced in 1918, and soon after her mother remarried. At nineteen, she was discovered by theater producer Max Reinhardt, launching a career that made her a star.

She made her Broadway debut in the 1924 play The Miracle, earning rave reviews and the title "the loveliest woman in America." Over the next four years, she starred in several more successful plays. In 1928, she married playwright William Gaston, who had previously been married to actress Kay Francis. They had two sons, William and James. Rosamond stopped acting to focus on family life, though the couple separated in 1933 but stayed legally married.

She rented a large fifteen-room home in Old Brookeville and counted Eleanor Roosevelt among her friends. In 1935, she played Queen Anne in the film The Three Musketeers, but this did not lead to more movie roles. She returned to Broadway in the 1936 play St. Helene. Her romance with theatrical director Jed Harris ended heartbreakingly. On January 24, 1938, she died by suicide from carbon monoxide poisoning. Her body was found in the front seat of her car, clad in a white evening gown. She left two suicide notes for her family that were never made public, and she was buried at Milford Cemetery in Milford, Pennsylvania.