Elsie Mackay | |
|---|---|
 The Stage Yearbook 1917 | |
| Born | Elsie Gertrude Mackay 20 February 1893 |
| Died | 6 February 1963 (aged 69) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Spouses | James Stanley Smith (m.1957-1963) |
| Parent |
|
Elsie Gertrude Mackay (20 February 1893 – 6 February 1963) was an Australian-born actress who appeared on stage in the United States and Britain between 1914 and the early 1930s, and after 1934 performed on radio in Australia. [1] [2]
Mackay was born on 20 February 1893 in Roebourne, Western Australia, [1] [3] to wealthy pastoralist Samuel Peter Mackay and Florence Gertrude Mackay of Mundabullangana Station. [4] [2]
Mackay's education was completed at a finishing school in Switzerland. In 1910 her father remarried and her new step-mother was actress Fanny Dango. [5] Dango's relatives Millie Hylton and George Grossmith Jr introduced her to the London stage. On 19 April 1914 she became understudy to Mrs. Patrick Campbell. [6]
She became a player in the Cyril Maude Company, touring the United States in 1915. In 1916, she joined Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company on its tour of the United States, consistently taking the role of leading ladies and acting under the direction of David Belasco. [2]
Mackay's US stage career included:
On Broadway she performed in: [9]
Her only film role was the female lead in the silent comedy Nothing But the Truth opposite Taylor Holmes. [11] [12] [13] Motion Picture News of Jan-Feb 1920 noted it was her first film but reported that she "does not register... a screen personality. She appeared somewhat camera conscious... and did not photograph well." [14]
In December 1933 she returned to Australia with her English-born second husband, actor Max Montesole. [1] [15] Together the two gave recital tours and were in radio theatre. [16] [17]
In 1920 Mackay became the second wife of actor Lionel Atwill. [18]
Mackay and Montesole married in 1933 at St. Germans, Cornwall, England. The couple moved to Australia in late 1933 where they worked together, often on radio. Montesole died in Perth in 1942. [19] Elsie married James Stanley Smith in 1957. She died in Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia in 1963 as Elsie Gertrude Smith. She was buried with her father, brother Peter and her stepmother Fanny Dango. [5]
Alice Brady was an American actress of stage and film. She began her career in the theatre in 1911, and her first important success came on Broadway in 1912 when she created the role of Meg March in the original production of Marian de Forest's Little Women. As a screen actress she first appeared in silent films and was one of the few actresses to survive the transition into talkies. She worked until six months before her death from cancer in 1939. Her films include My Man Godfrey (1936), in which she plays the flighty mother of Carole Lombard's character, and In Old Chicago (1937) for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
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Samuel Peter Mackay was a pastoralist and businessman in Western Australia.
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Fanny Mackay, better known as Fanny Dango, was a British comedienne, singer and actress who found fame in both the UK and Australia. She was one of the Rudge Sisters. She married a rich Australian grazier and died in Australia.
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