Editing Sybil Thorndike (section)

== 1930s ==
Thorndike's roles of the early 1930s included the title part in [[Jean Racine|Racine's]] ''[[Phèdre]]'', Mrs Alving in [[Henrik Ibsen|Ibsen's]] ''[[Ghosts (play)|Ghosts]]'', and Emilia in a celebrated production of ''[[Othello]]'' at the [[Savoy Theatre]] with [[Paul Robeson]] and [[Peggy Ashcroft]] as Othello and Desdemona.<ref>Croall, pp. 233, 234 and 237</ref> In 1931 she was appointed [[Order of the British Empire|DBE]], the fourth actress to be made a Dame.<ref name=g1579>Gaye, p. 1579</ref>{{refn|The earlier theatrical Dames were [[May Whitty]] (1918), [[Ellen Terry]] (1925), and [[Madge Kendal]] (1926). [[Geneviève Ward]] was awarded an honorary DBE in 1921.<ref name=g1579/>|group=n}} She appeared in a wide range of plays, both classical and modern, often under Casson's direction.<ref name=odnb/>

[[File:StateLibQld 2 178175 Thorndike Family.jpg|thumb|upright|With [[Lewis Casson]] in Australia, 1932|alt=Middle aged white couple in evening clothes; he is bald and clean-shaven; she has light coloured, slightly wavy hair]]
From April 1932 to April 1933 Thorndike and Casson made a tour of Egypt, Palestine, Australia and New Zealand, in which she appeared in the satirical comedy ''Advertising April''; Shaw's ''[[Captain Brassbound's Conversion]]''; ''Ghosts''; [[Clemence Dane]]'s ''Granite''; ''[[Macbeth]]''; a romantic comedy, ''Madame Plays Nap''; ''[[Milestones (play)|Milestones]]''; ''[[The Painted Veil (novel)|The Painted Veil]]''; ''Saint Joan'' and [[Sidney Howard]]'s domestic drama ''The Silver Chord''.<ref>Herbert, p. 1478; and Croall, p. 532</ref>

In the West End in September 1933 Thorndike appeared in ''The Distaff Side'', by [[John van Druten]], which she took to Broadway the following year, having in the interim played Gertrude in ''[[Hamlet]]'' for the Old Vic company at [[Sadler's Wells Theatre|Sadler's Wells]] in an uncut, five-hour production directed by Greet (who appeared as Polonius).<ref name=c531>Croall, p. 531</ref><ref>"Five Hours of Hamlet", ''The Era'', 25 April 1934, p. 14</ref> Thorndike and Casson were among the actors who felt an obligation to appear in the provinces as well as in the West End − according to the critic [[Hannen Swaffer]] "Sybil is the only actress whom the provinces treat like a queen"<ref>Croall, p. 229</ref> − and her expressed view was, "No actor has any business to say that they won't tour, it's part of our work".<ref>''Quoted'' in Croall, p. 387</ref> In 1936 the couple toured in plays by Euripides, Shaw, [[Noël Coward]] and [[D. H. Lawrence]], and followed this with a tour of a new play, ''Six Men of Dorset'', by [[Miles Malleson]] and Harvey Brooks the following year.<ref name=ww3>Herbert, p. 1478</ref>

In 1938 Thorndike appeared in New York as Mrs Conway in [[J. B. Priestley]]'s ''[[Time and the Conways]]'',<ref name=ww3/> and in London as Volumnia in the Old Vic production of ''[[Coriolanus]]'' with Olivier in the title role as her son.<ref name=ww3/><ref>Holden, p. 135</ref> In the West End she created the role of Miss Moffat in the long-running ''[[The Corn is Green]]'' (1938) by [[Emlyn Williams]]. According to ''The Times'', this play "showed her at the top of her form as an English spinster with a vocation for teaching, and obtained for her and the author, who himself played the Welsh mining lad who was her star pupil, a heartening success on the eve of war and of new developments in theatrical life".<ref name=times/>

Thorndike made three films during the decade, appearing as Madam Duval in ''[[A Gentleman of Paris (1931 film)|A Gentleman of Paris]]'' (1931), Mrs Hawthorn in ''[[Hindle Wakes (1931 film)|Hindle Wakes]]'' (1931) and Ellen in ''[[Tudor Rose (film)|Tudor Rose]]'' (1936).<ref name=c536/> She made her television début in 1939 as the Widow Cagle in a melodrama, ''Sun Up''.<ref>Croall, pp. 297–298</ref>