Broadway Actress Natasha Rawson Dies at 92

Natasha Rawson (stage name Natasha Dana), a three-time Broadway performer in Stars in Your Eyes, The Devil Knows, and Between the Devil, died at her home last week just 10 days shy of her 93rd birthday.  She died of natural causes.

Born in Shanghai, Natasha was educated on three continents, studying art in France and music in California. In 1934, at age 18, Natasha traveled to New York City, where she continued commercial fashion art for the newspapers, where her beauty was noticed.  Offers to model and auditions for Broadway plays rolled in and, being both talented and fluent in many languages she landed starring roles in three Broadway plays, Stars in Your Eyes, The Devil Knows, and Between the Devil, opposite such performers as Ethel Merman, Ronald Coleman, Jack Buchanan, and Lupe Vélez.

As a John Powers model, she appeared in Life Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, and Vogue (often on the covers) and on billboards across the US. She sang and performed at the Plaza Hotel, and took ballet classes with famed Russian choreographer George Balanchine. After getting married, Rawson moved to Houston, where she became involved in the arts painting portraits, playing the piano, and singing. She studied painting at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and was a private pupil of painter Boleslaw Czedekowski. Her pastels, charcoals and oils are a part of numerous private collections. As a mezzo-soprano, she sang with Boris Goldovsky and the Houston Grand Opera, and was a featured soloist with Leopold Stokowski conducting.

In 1955, Natasha organized a gathering in her home, which led to the formation of the Houston Foundation for Ballet, which today has a successful professional company The Houston Ballet.

Natasha is survived by three children, two grandchildren, her husband, and a great-granddaughter.

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