On May 8, 1902, the Actors Fund opened a home for retired entertainers on Staten Island, a borough of New York City, New York. In 1928, the New York City government took the property using eminent domain to enlarge an adjacent city park. That year, the residents were moved to the former mansion of American businesswoman Hetty Green in Englewood.[2][3] The mansion was razed in 1959, and a modern facility was erected in 1961.
In 1975, the facility was merged with the Percy Williams Home on Long Island, New York. The facilities were expanded in 1988 with a 50-bed nursing home. In the same year, the Edwin Forrest wing was created at the nursing home after a merger with the Edwin Forrest Home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1993, a wing was named in honor of actress Natalie Schafer, notable for her role as Eunice "Lovey" Wentworth Howell on the television sitcomGilligan's Island (1964–1967), who left $1.5 million to the Actors Fund after her death.[2] In 2003, it was named in honor of Lillian Booth, a philanthropist who donated $2 million to the facility.[4][5]
Notable former residents
(year of birth–year of death; sorted by year of death)
Reginald Denham (1894–1983) English writer, theater and film director, actor, and producer who spent much of his life directing Broadway theater.
May Clark (1885–1971) English silent film actress known for starring in the first film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.
Roland Winters (1904–1989) American actor who portrayed the title character in six Charlie Chan films in the late 1940s.
Dorothy Tree (1906–1992) American character actress, voice teacher and writer of books on voice.
Claudia McNeil (1917–1993) American actress known for the role of matriarch Lena Younger in both stage and screen productions of A Raisin in the Sun.
Cecil Roy (1900–1995) American radio actress of the 1930s and 1940s, later known as the voice of Casper in the Casper the Friendly Ghost animated series of the 1940s and 1950s.
Alfred Ryder (1916–1995) An American film, radio, and television actor. He appeared in the first aired episode of the NBC television series Star Trek on September 8, 1966.
Judith Malina (1926–2015)[12] German-born American theater and film actress, writer and director. She co-founded The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe in New York City and Paris.
Grover Van Dexter (1920–2015)[13] Stage, screen, and TV actor who later served the antique toy collecting passions of his actor friends by opening Second Childhood toys in New York City.
^Staff (May 23, 2002). "Forgotten Hollywood Actors Retire in Style". Fox News. Retrieved August 17, 2012. The Motion Picture and Television Fund Country House in California and the Actors Fund Homes in New Jersey are retirement communities that take care of little guys in the entertainment industry – supporting stars and extras who lived by the maxim that there are no small parts, only small actors.
^ abcStaff (n.d.). "The Lillian Booth Actors Home". Actors Fund. Retrieved August 17, 2012. The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund in Englewood, New Jersey is an assisted living and skilled nursing care facility, which provides a comfortable living environment on six acres of property for 124 entertainment professionals.
^La Gorce, Tammy (January 18, 2004). "Life's Dramas Play at Home For Actors". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2012. "The home here was renamed for the philanthropist Lillian Booth just last spring, after she presented it a $2 million gift. Mrs. Booth, not a part of the Booth theatrical family, is the widow of Ferris Booth, a private investment counselor and heir to an I.B.M. fortune."
^"Leslie Stowe", The New York Times, July 19, 1949. Accessed August 24, 2021. "Leslie Stowe, retired actor, died Saturday in the Englewood (N. J.) Hospital at the age of 82. He had been living at the Actors' Fund Home in Englewood since 1932."
^Fox, Maraglit (October 4, 2010). "Dolores Wilson, Met Soprano, Dies at 82". The New York Times. Retrieved March 22, 2011. Dolores Wilson, a Metropolitan Opera soprano of the 1950s who later sang in Broadway musicals, died on Sept. 28 in Englewood, N.J. She was 82 and lived in Englewood. A friend, Karin Farrell, confirmed the death, saying Ms. Wilson died of natural causes.
