Eileen Darby Lester, 87; Prolific Photographer of Broadway’s Stars

Eileen Darby Lester, 87, who as Eileen Darby photographed about 500 Broadway productions and its stars, from Sir Laurence Olivier to Marlene Dietrich and Marlon Brando, died March 30 in a Long Beach, N.Y., nursing home.

She had been in declining health since falling at her Point Lookout, N.Y., home in November.

One of Darby’s most memorable photos was of actress Jessica Tandy cringing as a terrified Blanche Du Bois to Brando’s menacing Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

The photographer’s roster of actors included Tallulah Bankhead, Helen Hayes, Gregory Peck, Katharine Hepburn and Paul Robeson.

Born in Portland, Ore., Darby studied biology at Marlhurst University in Oregon, but dropped out to become a photographer in Manhattan.

She started working for the photo agency Pix and in 1941 helped establish a new agency, Graphic House, where she was a photographer for three decades.