Lee Remick Biography

According to Lee Remick, her ancestors are “a strange mixture of Scotch, English, French and German," but it was one ancestor in particular that Lee claimed was a source of inspiration to the budding young actress. Lee remembered visiting Round Lake, New York as a young child to see her great-grandmother, Gertrude Eliza Duffield preach the gospel with great verve and vitality. Duffield was a minister from England who used the pulpit as effectively as Olivier used the stage to deliver her fiery discourses to her quaking flock.

“She was 4-feet-nothing but she had a huge, booming voice and a British accent and she sang hymns while she accompanied herself. The theatre has often been compared to the church. I believe my great-grandmother would have been a fine actress had she not been a minister. She would have brought to the stage the same sense of honesty, dedication and passion that made her a great preacher."

Lee Ann Remick, born December 14, 1935 in Boston, Massachusetts, was the second child of Frank Edwin and Margaret Patricia Waldo Remick. Their first child, born two years earlier, was Bruce Waldo Remick.

Lee lived with her parents and brother in Quincy, Massachusetts, the "City of
Presidents," and the "Birthplace of the American Dream," until the age of
seven, when her father accepted an appointment to work with the War
Production Board. With her father going to Washington D. C. to carry out his
new duties, Lee, her mother and brother moved to an apartment in New York
in the interim so that Lee's mother, an actress, could enjoy working on the
occasional radio or television show.

Once settled in New York, Lee's mother immediately enrolled Lee in the exclusive
private girl's school called Miss Hewitt's Classes, whose past graduates included
daughters of the DuPonts, Morgans and Sarnoffs.

The following year (1944), Lee's father enlisted in the Navy as a Lieutenant, working in
the Bureau of Supply and Accounts. As luck would have it, he was stationed in New York
near his family. Eventually, however, the separation between Lee's parents became
permanent, with Lee, her mother and brother continuing to live in their apartment in
Sutton Place, and her father returning to Quincy after the war.

Believing that her daughter was not getting enough exercise, Mrs. Remick
enrolled eight-year-old Lee in the Swoboda School of Dance to study ballet
with the distinguished Madame Maria Swoboda where Lee trained for ten years.
"The discipline of the dance was awesome," Lee remembered.

Mrs. Remick also took Lee to the John Robert Powers modeling agency where
Lee worked as a child model. As an adult, Lee continued to take the occasional
modeling job.