Background
She was the daughter of actor/playwright, James A. Herne, and the younger sister of actress and Hollywood talent scout, Julie Herne. Katherine Chrystal Herne, the middle daughter of James A. and Katherine (née Corcoran) Herne, was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts on June 16, 1883. At the age of sixteen as Sue Hardy in her father"s play, Review
Griffith Davenport.
Over the following two season she played Jane Cauldwell in Sag Harbor, her father"s last play. After her father"s death, Chrystal played a third season in Sag Harbor, although this time assuming her sister"s role as the heroine Martha Reese.
Career
She made her stage debut in Washington District of Columbia James Herne died a short while later in early June 1901. Later that same season she played Helen Berry in one of her father’s best known plays, Shore Acres. She joined East. H. Sothern in 1903 playing Huguette in If I Were King and as Gertrude in Hamlet.
Chrystal Herne was remembered for playing the title role in Arnold Daly’s production of Shaw’s “Candida” during the 1905/06 season. and as Vera Revendal opposite Walker Whiteside in Israel Zangwill"s “The Melting Pot” that debuted in 1908 at the Columbia Theatre in Washington District of Columbia She was well received playing Diana opposite Dustin Farnum in a 1911 revival of The Squaw Manitoba at the Broadway Theatre and later in her career playing the title role in Craig"s Wife opposite Charles Trowbridge produced at the Morosco Theatre in 1925 She appeared in almost 40 Broadway productions over her career.
Her last performance was as Beatrice Crandall in A Room in Red and White, staged at the 46th Street Theatre in January and February 1936. Chrystal Herne died fourteen years later, on September 19, 1950, after a month"s illness at the Phillips House, a private care facility at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
She was cremated. John Herne appeared on stage in his youth, served as an Ensign with the United States. Navy during World War I and later worked for Charles Scribner"s Sons.
He is interred at the Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York Her younger sister, Dorothy Lucille Herne preceded her in death in 1921. Her mother, Katherine Corcoran Herne, was originally an actress whom her father first met while performing in San Francisco.
Chrystal"s name came from her mother"s role in Hearts of Oak, written in 1879 by James Herne and David Belasco. Katherine Corcoran Herne died at age 86 in 1943.
