Blanche Marvin, an American expatriate whom The New York Times once called London’s “best-loved theater critic,” was not just a commentator on great dramas, but someone who also claimed to be an inspiration for one of the most famous of them.
She said her friend Tennessee Williams had named Blanche DuBois, the faded-belle protagonist of his 1947 classic, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” after her.
Moreover, she insisted that Mr. Williams had adapted a consoling remark that Ms. Marvin had offhandedly made to him into Blanche’s indelible final line: “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
Whether her assertions were truth or self-mythologizing, Ms. Marvin went on to a redoubtable career as a critic — starting in her 60s and publishing in a newsletter and then mostly on her website — after working as an actress, playwright, impresario and agent. She died on Jan. 13 at her home in London, four days before her 101st birthday, her daughter, Niki Marvin, said.
