Husband Rory Harrity, Mark Littman

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Marguerite Littman.jpgMarguerite Lamkin Brown Harrity Littman (May 4, 1930 – October 16, 2020) was an American-British socialite and HIV/AIDS activist.[1] As a Southern American accent coach she is known to have coached actors including Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. Littman is remembered for her role in HIV/AIDS advocacy, including fundraising for charities. Author Truman Capote famously modeled his famous southern character, Holly Golightly, in his 1958 Breakfast at Tiffany's novella after Littman.[1]

Marguerite Lamkin was born on May 4, 1930, to Eugenia and Ebenezer Lamkin in Monroe, Louisiana. Her father was a lawyer and her mother a homemaker. She studied philosophy at Newcomb College and later at Finch College in New York City.[1] Her brother, Speed Lamkin, went on to become a novelist and playwright.[2]

She moved to Los Angeles after her studies in New York and became a voice coach specializing in the Southern American accent. She coached actors including Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman in southern-themed movies such as Baby Doll, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Long, Hot Summer, and Raintree County.[1][2]

Lamkin married screenwriter Harry Brown on September 20, 1952; the union ended in divorce. On March 10, 1959, she remarried to actor Rory Harrity; this marriage also ended in divorce.[7] According to the novelist Christopher Isherwood, Harrity and Lamkin’s marriage ended because Harrity was homosexual and “Marguerite has been accusing Rory right and left of boyf***ing”.

Christopher Isherwood recalled a longer guest list from the night in 1955 when he, William Faulkner, and Gore Vidal went to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He included Carson McCullers and Marguerite Lamkin as well. Lamkin was an employee of the director Elia Kazan, whom Kazan “had hired to coach his actors in simulating Southern accents”. Perhaps her southern background led to Faulkner’s interest in her, though Lamkin ultimately makes only minimal appearance in the biographical record. No evidence suggests that they engaged in an affair, but Shelby Foote claimed that Lamkin was responsible for introducing Faulkner to Jean Stein, whose friendship would prove significant in Faulkner’s life thanks in large part to Stein’s interview of him for the Paris Review in 1956. Stein journeyed to Mississippi in late 1955 along with Lamkin, who was working with Kazan on his film Baby Doll. Faulkner introduced both to Ben Wasson and another famous Greenville native, Hodding Carter. Stein would recall how highly she regarded Carter. Conversely, she explained of Wasson that he “seemed very effeminate, homosexual, old when she saw him.” Faulkner did not share her disregard for his old friend; nor, for that matter, would Lamkin have shared Stein’s opinions either. According to Foote, Lamkin had a reputation for being part of a gay social milieu: “Her brother, Speed Lamkin, the writer, was apparently King of the perverts. Apparently she was the Queen.” Foote’s wife “admired Lamkin extravagantly.” Foote himself “seemed to think she was disgusting.” Foote’s disgust clearly emanated from his opinion of her sexual taste, an opinion he extended to Lamkin’s brother. No evidence suggests that Lamkin was a lesbian. She was what we might now call a “fag hag,” or a woman who surrounds herself with the company of gay men.

In the early 1960s, she moved to New York City, where she worked with photographer Richard Avedon, supporting him while he was working on his book Nothing Personal (1964), a collection of portraits of civil rights workers. She was also an advice columnist for Glamour magazine. She moved to London in 1965.[1][3] She married British barrister and Queen's Counsel Mark Littman, a union which lasted from 1965 until his death in 2015.[3]

Between 1976 and 1985, she modelled for Andy Warhol's minimalist Polaroid portraits, depicting her transformation over the nine-year period.[4] Littman started the AIDS Crisis Trust in 1986, as a charity to collect funds for AIDS research and treatment.[1][5][6] As a start, she had written to over 300 of her socialite friends asking for a contribution of £100 to be founding members. The trust organized gala events and auctions to raise funds for the cause. The trust went on to become one of Britain's most prominent AIDS-awareness charity groups. The trust's auctions would offer pieces from her socialite friends including Elizabeth Taylor and David Hockney. During this period, Littman was introduced to Diana, Princess of Wales, who was already associated with AIDS-related charities across the world. In 1997, Diana donated her entire wardrobe to Littman to be auctioned. The auction, facilitated by Christie's, raised more than $3 million for the trust and other charities.[1][5] In 1999, the trust was merged with the Elton John AIDS Foundation, for whom Littman served as a director.[5]

Littman died on October 16, 2020, at her home in London.[1] Her obituary in the New York Times stated: By all accounts hypnotically charming, Ms. Littman, who landed in Los Angeles at midcentury, counted among her closest friends the writer Christopher Isherwood and his partner, the artist Don Bachardy, as well as Gore Vidal, David Hockney and, famously, Truman Capote, who is said to have distilled that charm into his most famous character, Holly Golightly of Breakfast at Tiffany's.[1]

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