Hildegarde Lasell Watson (December 28, 1888 – September 26, 1976) was an American actress, singer, writer and arts patron.
Early life
Hildegarde Lasell was born in Whitinsville, Massachusetts, the daughter of Chester Whitin Lasell and Jessie Maude Keeler Lasell. She went to Florence to study art as a young woman.
Career
Hildegarde Lasell was a concert singer. "Miss Lasell sang with refinement and cultivation," commented a reviewer in 1936, "she is obviously a serious student of the meaning and values of the music she interprets." She appeared in her husband's two short avant-garde films. She played Madeline Usher in the silent horror film The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), and Lot's wife in the Biblical adaptation Lot in Sodom (1933). In the 1950s, she persuaded composer Alec Wilder to write an original soundtrack for the 1928 film.
