Donna Murphy.
Photo: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock
In the first few episodes of The Gilded Age, various characters speak in reverent tones about a woman of impeccable taste and class whom they all love and fear: Mrs. Astor a.k.a. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, the grand arbiter of New York high society. Enter Donna Murphy, a two-time Tony winner for Passion and The King and I, who graces a scene or two each episode with her chin held high and her smile at its most immaculately circumspect. Unlike many characters on The Gilded Age, Mrs. Astor was a real person, a doyenne of old New York who maintained “the list” of who was in and out of society and what was deemed fashionable. The real Mrs. Astor was especially powerful in…
