Eleanor Daniels (28 December 1886 – 18 March 1994) was a Welsh stage and film actress.
Early life
Eleanor Jane Daniels was born in
Llanarthney
Llanarthney ( cy, Llanarthne; ) is a village and community in Carmarthenshire, south-west Wales. Situated on the B4300 road 12 km (7.5 miles) east of Carmarthen and 10 km (6 miles) west of Llandeilo, the community had a population at the ...
and raised in
Llanelli
Llanelli (" St Elli's Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarth ...
, the daughter David Daniels and Margaret Daniels. Her father was a hay merchant and publican.
She had her first public success at age 13, when she won a prize at a local
eisteddfod
In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music.
The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, ac ...
.
She won three
National Eisteddfod chairs by 1907, and studied acting with the
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) was an English actor and theatre manager.
Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, winning praise for adventurous progr ...
company.
Career
Daniels taught school as a young woman, and acted in Welsh stage dramas in Great Britain. She toured the United States with the Welsh Players in 1914. She moved to the United States soon after, and appeared on stage and in silent films, with good reviews for her work, though
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.
From a conflicted and unhap ...
commented that "Eleanor Daniels works enthusiastically at being funny."
Daniels' stage roles included parts in ''Change'' (London 1912, 1913, New York 1914)'','' ''The Joneses'' (London 1913), ''Kitty MacKay'' (1914)'','' ''Loyalty, Heart of the Heather, Zach'', ''Kitty Darlin (1917), ''Lassies'', ''
La La Lucille'' (1919, 1920), ''Ashes'' (1924), ''The Beaten Track'' (1926),
''
Juno and the Paycock'' (1926), and ''Rain''.
Her film appearances included a role in ''
If Winter Comes'' (1923).
She was a vocal coach in New York later in life,
and had an office job with a diabetes charity.
Personal life
Daniels died in 1994, aged 107 years, in
Darien, Connecticut
Darien ( ) is a coastal town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. With a population of 21,499 and a land area of just under 13 square miles, it is the smallest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast. It has the youngest population of any ...
. A
blue plaque honouring Daniels was unveiled in Llanelli in 2011.
References
External links
*
Video of the unveiling of the Eleanor Daniels blue plaque in Llanelli 2011, on YouTube
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daniels, Eleanor
1886 births
1994 deaths
People from Llanelli
Welsh actresses
Welsh centenarians
Women centenarians