Biography

Agnes de Mille

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Agnes de Mille was born on September 18, 1905 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Oklahoma! (1955), The Ragamuffin (1916) and Carousel (1956). She was married to Walter Foy Prude. She died on October 7, 1993 in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.

Choreographer Agnes de Mille came from a prominent family. A graduate from UC-Berkeley (class of 1926), she was the daughter of William C. de Mille, niece of Cecil B. DeMille, granddaughter of Beatrice DeMille, sister of Peggy George, and sister-in-law of B.P. Fineman.
De Mille's husband, Walter Foy Prude, died of heart failure at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan after a long bout with emphysema. Her own ashes are inurned in Merriewold Park, Forestburgh, Sullivan County, New York, beside those of her husband. The couple had a son, Jonathan (born 1946).
A witty and vivid writer and speaker, she remained unquenchable in spirit even after being disabled by a cerebral hemorrhage on May 15, 1975, as she was about to go on stage for her famous lecture, 'Converstions About the Dance'. It paralyzed the right side of her body. She had to undergo two operations to remove blood clots. With the aid of rehabilitative therapy and her own enormous willpower, she recovered sufficiently to continue her career, learning to write with her left hand in the process.
Agnes de Mille was born at 357 West 118th Street in Harlem, close to Morningside Park.
She won two Tony Awards as Best Choreographer: in 1947 for "Brigadoon", in a tie with Michael Kidd for "Finian's Rainbow", and in 1962 for "Kwamina", in a tie with Joe Layton for "No Strings". She was also nominated in the same category in 1959 for "Goldilocks".

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.
No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our lives are made. Destiny is made known silently.
[on desire] Bodies cannot lie.
I learned three important things in college: to use a library, to memorize quickly and visually, to drop asleep at any time given a horizontal surface and fifteen minutes.

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