Margaret Halstan

Last updated • 1 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Margaret Halstan
MargaretHalstan1904.png
Margaret Halstan, from a 1904 publication
Born
Clara Maud Hertz

25 December 1879 (1879-12-25)
London
Died8 January 1967 (1967-01-09) (aged 87)
Hornchurch, Greater London
OccupationActress
Years active1895-1963
Spouse
(m. 1905;died 1955)

Margaret Halstan (25 December 1879 [1] – 8 January 1967 [2] ) was a British stage, radio, television and film actress. In theatre and film roles she often played upper-class ladies of the gentry, with a career spanning over six decades. [1] She was particularly known for her Shakespearian roles, having debuted in 1895. At the turn of the century she joined Sir Frank Benson's theatre company, and also played in the theatrical companies of Sir George Alexander and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, before making her debut in silent films in 1916. [3]

Contents

Biography

She was born Clara Maud Hertz in Greater London in 1879, of apparently Jewish descent [3] and later used the stage name Margaret Halstan. [4] [5] Her parents were Henry Anthony Hertz and his wife Elizabeth Maud. [1]

Before becoming a professional actor, Halstan performed as an amateur with the Strolling Players and the Bancroft Amateur Dramatic Society. [1] She performed in a show titled Beethoven's Romance at the Royalty Theatre on 1 December 1894. [6] Halstan made her first professional stage appearance at the Haymarket Theatre on 30 October 1895, as a walk-on in Trilby . [1] She was fluent in English, German, and French, and performed on stage in all three languages. [7] [8] Halstan also acted in BBC radio productions such as the 1938 radio adaptation of the novel If I Were You , [9] and the 1940 radio adaptation of the short story "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime". [10]

Halstan married lawyer John Hartman Morgan in 1905. [11]

Theatre

ShowDatesTheatreRoleRef(s)
Antony and Cleopatra 24 May – 5 June 1897 Olympic Theatre Octavia [6]
My "Soldier" Boy3 January – 18 March 1899 Criterion Theatre Geraldine [6]
You Never Can Tell 26 November 1899 Royalty Theatre Gloria Clandon [12]
The Wisdom of the Wise22 November 1900 – 12 January 1901 St James's Theatre Mrs. Tommie Bistern [13]
Das große Licht 16 December – 22 December 1902 Great Queen Street Theatre Charlotte Eggers [13]
The Good Hope 26–27 April 1903Imperial TheatreJo [12]
Ina15–17 May 1904 Royal Court Theatre Ina [12]
Othello 12 January 1907Queen’s Theatre, Manchester Desdemona [14]
The Rights of the Soul21–22 February 1909 Kingsway Theatre Anna [13]
What the Public Wants2 May – 26 June 1909 Aldwych Theatre and Royalty TheatreEmily Vernon [12]
Twelfth Night 8 January 1910Queen’s Theatre, Manchester Viola [15]
A Fool There Was21 March – 13 May 1911Queen’s Theatre and Aldwych TheatreThe Wife [16]
Arms and the Man 18 May – 1 July 1911Criterion TheatreRaina [17]
The Man of Destiny 28 January 1912 Savoy Theatre Strange Lady [17]
The Gold Thread7 November 1912Royal Court Theatre, LondonMrs. Innes [18]
A Scrap of Paper16 June – 25 July 1914Criterion TheatreLucy, Lady Icebrook [17]
The Stormy Petrel30 September – 9 October 1915Criterion TheatreFrances Weir [17]
As You Like It 24 January 1916Queen’s Theatre, Manchester Rosalind [19]
Where Is He?4 September 1916 Gaiety Theatre, Manchester Marged [19]
The House of Peril 8 March – 7 June 1919Queen's TheatreAnna Wolsky [17]
Brown Sugar7 July 1920 – 19 February 1921 Duke of York's Theatre and Garrick Theatre Lady Honoria Nesbitt [20]
The Desire for Change26 October – 14 November 1925 Playhouse Theatre Countess Sucha [20]
The Blue Kitten23 December 1925 – 24 April 1926 Gaiety Theatre, London and London Pavilion Mme Lucile Popp [20]
The Lady-in-Law29 September – 12 November 1927 Wyndham's Theatre Magda Kramsen [20]
Wooden Shoes13 November – 13 December 1930Kingsway TheatreTrine Krebs [21]
The Young Idea 31 August – 24 October 1931 St Martin's Theatre Julia Craigworthy [21]
The Admirable Crichton 28 October – 23 December 1943 His Majesty's Theatre, London Countess of Brocklehurst [22]
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets 28 November 1944 – 17 January 1945 Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith The Lady [22]
Pygmalion 12 December 1944 – 20 January 1945Lyric Theatre, HammersmithMrs. Higgins [22]
The Holly and the Ivy 28 March – 29 April 1950Lyric Theatre, HammersmithAunt Lydia [23]
The Holly and the Ivy10 May 1950 – 5 May 1951 Duchess Theatre Aunt Lydia [23]
Indian Summer12 December – 29 December 1951Criterion TheatreMuriel Petersham [23]
The Children's Hour 19 September – 28 October 1956 Arts Theatre Amelia Tilford [23]
My Fair Lady 30 April 1958 – 19 October 1963 Theatre Royal, Drury Lane Queen of Transylvania [23]

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1916 A Bunch of Violets Lady Marchant
1917 Profit and the Loss Unknown role
1922 Tell Your Children Lady Sybil Edwards
1922 Brown Sugar Honoria NesbittPerformed the same role in the 1920 play [20]
1930 The Middle Watch Lady Agatha Hewitt
1931 The Beggar Student Countess Novalska
1935 Drake of England Lady Sydenham
1940 Old Mother Riley in Society Duchess
1941 Quiet Wedding Lady Yeldham
1942 The Black Sheep of Whitehall Matron
1952 The Holly and the Ivy Aunt LydiaPerformed the same role in the 1950 play [23]
1953 Blood Orange Lady Marchant
1955 Touch and Go Mrs. Pritchett

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betty Astell</span> English actress (1912–2005)

Betty Astell, born Betty Julia Hymans, was an English actress, best known for comedy and pantomime productions on stage, screen, and radio with her husband, Cyril Fletcher. She was one of the first performers to appear on television, in experimental broadcasts by the BBC in 1932.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emrys Jones (actor)</span> English actor (1915–1972)

John Emrys Whittaker Jones was an English actor of Welsh heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. P. Wearing</span> Anglo-American theatre historian and professor

John Peter Wearing is an Anglo-American theatre historian and professor, who has written numerous books and articles about nineteenth and twentieth-century drama and theatre, including The Shakespeare Diaries: A Fictional Autobiography, published in 2007. He has also written and edited well-received books on George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Wing Pinero, extensive reference series on the London theatre from 1890 to 1980, and theatrical biographies, among other subjects. As a professor of English literature, Wearing has specialised in Shakespeare and modern drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Young (actor)</span> English actor (1898–1959)

Arthur Young was an English actor, notable for roles including Gladstone in the 1951 The Lady with a Lamp. He can be seen as a window cleaner in the film Radio Parade of 1935. He regularly appeared in BBC radio plays and was a member of the Corporation’s Drama Repertory Company in the late 1950s. His stage work encompassed West End revue, as well as Stratford.

Someone at the Door is a British comedy thriller play by Campbell Christie and Dorothy Christie which was first staged in 1935, and ran successfully at the Aldwych, New and Comedy theatres in London's West End.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florence Collingbourne</span>

Florence Eliza Collingbourne was a British actress, singer and stage beauty known for her appearances in Edwardian musical comedies. One of George Edwardes' Gaiety Girls, she took over the title role in San Toy and originated the role of Nancy Staunton in The Toreador.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clare Eames</span> American actress and stage director (1894–1930)

Clare Eames was an American actress and stage director, and the first wife of playwright Sidney Howard.

Rowland Leigh was an aristocratic Anglo-American lyricist, screenwriter, and librettist, who worked with many famous actors and musicians during his career on Broadway and in Hollywood.

Ambrose Applejohn's Adventure is a 1921 play written by Walter Hackett. It was a hit on the West End, where it ran for 18 months, and also on Broadway, where it was performed under the title Captain Applejack. It has been adapted multiple times as a movie and also as a stage musical.

Moira Hamilton Verschoyle was an Irish novelist and playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lettice Fairfax</span> English actress (1876–1948)

Alice Lilian Robbins "Lettice" Fairfax was an English stage and silent film actress. She is known for her roles in the Edwardian musical comedy An Artist's Model (1895) and in silent cinema such as Brother Officers as Baroness Honour Royden (1915).

Jesse Louise Whittock was an actress, singer and broadcaster who performed small and supporting roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the mid-1920s, appeared in the chorus of an early film version of The Mikado and performed in the early years of the 2LO radio station in 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Ricciardi</span> Italian actor

William Ricciardi was an Italian actor known for his role as Signor Baldini in San Francisco (1936). He also appeared in the Phil Rosen film The Heart of a Siren (1926). In Anthony Adverse (1936) he had a splendid cameo as the talkative coachman who converses with Adverse, played by Fredric March.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wish Wynne</span>

Wish Wynne (1882-1931) was a British music hall performer and radio actress.

Ben Landeck (1864–1928) was a prolific British playwright, who wrote melodramas often in collaboration with Arthur Shirley. Several of his plays were made into early films.

Arthur Benham was an English playwright.

Henryetta Edwards was a British actress on the London stage, and in films and television, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cissie Sewell</span> English actress

Elizabeth H. "Cissie" Sewell was an English-born stage actress, dancer, and ballet mistress, wife of Irish-born Canadian performer Cyril Biddulph.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgette Cohan</span> American actress

Georgia Ethelia Cohan Southern Rowse, known as Georgette Cohan, was an American actress, daughter of George M. Cohan and Ethel Levey. She played Peter Pan in London in 1919, and appeared in several Broadway productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Clarkson</span> British actress

Joan Rosaline Clarkson was an English actress who was most active in the 1920s and 1930s.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Parker, John (1939). Who's Who in the Theatre: A Biographical Record of the Contemporary Stage (ninth ed.). New York: Pitman Publishing Company. p. 744.
  2. "Obituary". The Stage. 12 January 1967. p. 15.
  3. 1 2 "Margaret Halston: Beautiful Shakespearian Actress and Film Star". The Cabinet Card Gallery. 2017-07-18. Retrieved 2020-12-27 via cabinetcardgallery.com.
  4. Mills, Steve (2019). The Dawn of the Drone: From the Back-Room Boys of World War One. Casemate. p. 120. ISBN   978-1-61200-790-8.
  5. Room, Adrian (2014). Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins (5th ed.). McFarland. p. 217. ISBN   978-0-7864-4373-4.
  6. 1 2 3 Wearing, J. P. (2014). The London Stage 1890–1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Scarecrow Press. pp. 232, 342, 401. ISBN   978-0-8108-9282-8.
  7. The Royal Magazine, Volume 7. London: C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. 1902. p. 311.
  8. The Royal Magazine, Volume 12. London: C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. 1904. p. 291.
  9. "'IF I WERE YOU'". BBC Genome: Radio Times. BBC. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  10. "Oscar Wilde's famous story 'LORD ARTHUR SAVILE'S CRIME'". BBC Genome: Radio Times. BBC. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  11. Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News, Volume 63. George S. Maddick. 1905. p. 740.
  12. 1 2 3 4 The Incorporated Stage Society (1909). Ten Years 1899 to 1909. Chiswick Press.
  13. 1 2 3 Wearing, J. P. (2014). The London Stage 1900–1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (2nd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 36, 123, 453. ISBN   978-0-8108-9294-1.
  14. Carson, L. The Stage Year Book 1908. Carson & Comerford, Ltd.
  15. Carson, L. (1911). The Stage Year Book 1911. London: The Stage.
  16. Carson, L. (1912). The Stage Year Book 1912. London: The Stage.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 Wearing, J. P. (2013). The London Stage 1910–1919: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (2nd ed.). Scarecrow Press. pp. 81, 123, 212, 278, 288, 345, 374, 499. ISBN   978-0-8108-9299-6.
  18. Carson, L. (1913). The Stage Year Book 1913. London: The Stage.
  19. 1 2 Carson, L. (1917). The Stage Year Book 1917.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 Wearing, J. P. (2014). The London Stage 1920–1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (2nd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 42, 395, 410, 541. ISBN   978-0-8108-9302-3.
  21. 1 2 Wearing, J. P. (2014). The London Stage 1930–1939: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (2nd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 67, 140. ISBN   978-0-8108-9304-7.
  22. 1 2 3 Wearing, J. P. (2014). The London Stage 1940–1949: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (2nd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 129, 177, 178. ISBN   978-0-8108-9306-1.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wearing, J. P. (2014). The London Stage 1950–1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (2nd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 13, 20, 137, 454, 568. ISBN   978-0-8108-9308-5.