Elsie Louise Ferguson (August 19, 1883 – November 15, 1961) was an American stage and film actress.
Early life
Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Hiram and Amelia Ferguson. Her father was a successful attorney. Raised and educated in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, she became interested in the theater at a young age and made her stage debut at 17 as a chorus girl in a musical comedy. For almost two years, from 1903 to 1905, she was a cast member in ''
The Girl from Kays
''The Girl from Kays'' is a musical comedy in three acts, with music by Ivan Caryll and book and lyrics by Owen Hall. Additional songs were by Paul Rubens, Howard Talbot, Adrian Ross, Percy Greenbank and others. The farcical story concerns a m ...
''. In 1908, she was leading lady to
Edgar Selwyn
Edgar Selwyn (October 20, 1875 – February 13, 1944) was a prominent figure in American theatre and film in the first half of the 20th century. An actor, playwright, director and producer on Broadway, he founded a theatrical production ...
in ''Pierre of the Plains''. By 1909, after several years apprenticeship under several producers, including
Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman (July 15, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American theater manager and producer, who discovered and promoted many stars of the American stage. Notably, he produced '' Peter Pan'', both in London and the US, the latter productio ...
, Klaw & Erlanger,
Charles Dillingham
Charles Bancroft Dillingham (May 30, 1868 – August 30, 1934) was an American theatre manager and producer of over 200 Broadway shows.
Biography
Charles Bancroft Dillingham was born on May 30, 1868 in Hartford, Connecticut to Edmund Bancroft D ...
and
Henry B. Harris
Henry Birkhardt Harris (December 1, 1866 – April 15, 1912) was a Broadway producer and theatre owner who died in the sinking of the . His wife was future producer Renee Harris, who survived the sinking and lived until 1969.
Life
Harris was the ...
, she was a major
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
star, starring in ''Such a Little Queen''. In 1910, she spent time on the stage in London. Actresses
Evelyn Nesbit
Evelyn Nesbit (born Florence Evelyn Nesbit; December 25, 1884 or 1885 – January 17, 1967) was an American artists' model, chorus girl, and actress. She is best known for her years as a young woman in New York City, particularly her inv ...
and
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore (born Ethel Mae Blythe; August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959) was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Barrymore was a stage, screen and radio actress whose career spanned six decades, and was regard ...
were friends of hers.
During World War I, a number of Broadway stars organized a campaign to sell
Liberty Bonds
A liberty bond (or liberty loan) was a war bond that was sold in the United States to support the Allied cause in World War I. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty in the United States and introduced the idea of finan ...
from the theatre stage before the performance as well as at highly publicized appearances at places such as the New York Public Library. On one occasion, Ferguson is reputed to have sold $85,000 worth of bonds in less than an hour.
Stardom
At the peak of her popularity, several film studios offered her a contract but she declined them all until widely respected New York-based French director
Maurice Tourneur Maurice may refer to:
People
* Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr
*Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor
*Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and L ...
proposed she appear in the lead role as a sophisticated patrician in his 1917
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
''
Barbary Sheep
The Barbary sheep (''Ammotragus lervia''), also known as aoudad (pronounced �ɑʊdæd is a species of caprine native to rocky mountains in North Africa. While this is the only species in genus ''Ammotragus'', six subspecies have been descri ...
''. She also may have consented to films because she no longer had the protection of her Broadway employers
Henry B. Harris
Henry Birkhardt Harris (December 1, 1866 – April 15, 1912) was a Broadway producer and theatre owner who died in the sinking of the . His wife was future producer Renee Harris, who survived the sinking and lived until 1969.
Life
Harris was the ...
, who died on the ''
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unite ...
'' in 1912, and
Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman (July 15, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American theater manager and producer, who discovered and promoted many stars of the American stage. Notably, he produced '' Peter Pan'', both in London and the US, the latter productio ...
, who perished on the ''
Lusitania
Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and
a portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or Lu ...
'' in 1915. Producer and director
Adolph Zukor
Adolph Zukor (; hu, Zukor Adolf; January 7, 1873 – June 10, 1976) was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures.Obituary '' Variety'' (June 16, 1976), p. 76. He produced one of America' ...
then signed her to an 18-film, three-year, $5,000-per-week contract.
Following this first film, Ferguson was billed prominently in promotional campaigns, and starred in two more films directed by Tourneur under a lucrative contract from
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
that paid her $1,000 per day of filming in addition to her weekly contract income. Her only surviving complete silent film is ''
The Witness for the Defense
''The Witness for the Defense'' is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by George Fitzmaurice and starring Elsie Ferguson, Warner Oland, and Wyndham Standing. '' (1919), co-starring
Warner Oland
Warner Oland (born Johan Verner Ölund; October 3, 1879 – August 6, 1938) was a Swedish-American actor. His career included time on Broadway and numerous film appearances. He is most remembered for playing several Chinese and Chinese-American ...
and performed as a play in 1911 by her friend Ethel Barrymore.
A surviving fragment of footage of Ferguson from ''The Lie'' or ''The Avalanche'' can be seen in Paramount's ''
The House That Shadows Built
''The House That Shadows Built'' (1931) is a feature compilation film from Paramount Pictures, made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the studio's founding in 1912. The film was a promotional film for exhibitors and never had a regular thea ...
'' (1931). Other brief surviving footage of Ferguson is preserved in Paramount's ''
A Trip to Paramountown
''A Trip to Paramountown'' is a 1922 American short silent documentary film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and released through Paramount Pictures, to celebrate 10 years of Paramount's founding. The film runs about 20 minutes and features ma ...
'' (1922)
Continuing to play roles of elegant society women, Ferguson was quickly dubbed "The Aristocrat of the Silent Screen", but the aristocratic label also was because she was known as a difficult and sometimes arrogant personality with whom to work. Many of the films she agreed to do were because they were adaptations of stage plays with which she was familiar.
Elsie Ferguson eventually followed the move west and bought a home in the hills of
Hollywood, California
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Picture ...
. In 1920, she traveled to the Middle East and Europe. She fell in love with Paris and the French Riviera, and within a few years, she bought a permanent home there.
In 1921, she accepted another contract offer from Paramount Pictures to star in four films to be spread over a two-year period. One of these was the 1921 film entitled ''
Forever
Forever or 4ever may refer to:
Film and television Films
* ''Forever'' (1921 film), an American silent film by George Fitzmaurice
* ''Forever'' (1978 film), an American made-for-television romantic drama
* ''Forever'' (1992 film), an American ...
'' in which she starred with
Wallace Reid
William Wallace Halleck Reid (April 15, 1891 – January 18, 1923) was an American actor in silent film, referred to as "the screen's most perfect lover". He also had a brief career as a racing driver.
Early life
Reid was born in St. Louis, M ...
.
"Talkies" and retirement
Ferguson's last silent film before returning to Broadway was the 1925 drama ''
The Unknown Lover
''The Unknown Lover'' is a 1925 American silent drama film produced and directed by Victor Halperin (an early effort for him) under his Victory Pictures banner and released by the Vitagraph Company of America, soon to become part of Warner Bros. ...
''. In 1930, she made her first sound film that also would be her final film, titled ''
Scarlet Pages
''Scarlet Pages'' is a 1930 pre-Code American crime drama film with songs starring Elsie Ferguson and directed by Ray Enright. It was produced and distributed by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. The film stars Elsie Fergu ...
'', which is now preserved in the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
.
The film was based on a 1929 Broadway production of the same name that she also starred in. She was described as having a "pleasantly low-pitched voice with perfect diction."
Well known as difficult to work with, temperamental, and argumentative, she married four times. Following her final marriage at age 51, she and her husband acquired a farm in Connecticut and divided their time between it and her home in
Cap d'Antibes
Antibes (, also , ; oc, label= Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeastern France, on the Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice.
The town of Juan-les-Pins is in the commune of Antibes and the Sophi ...
.
Ferguson made her final appearance on Broadway in 1943, at the age of 60, that met with critical acclaim. She played in ''Outrageous Fortune'',
a play written by her neighbor
Rose Franken
Rose Franken (December 28, 1895 – June 22, 1988), was an American writer and playwright best known for her '' Claudia'' stories, plus the books, films, and plays based on them.
Early years
Born Rose Dorothy Lewin in Gainesville, Texas, Franken ...
. The play closed eight weeks after it opened. Critics hailed Ferguson's performance as "glowing" and having "the charm and winning manner of old."
Ferguson died in Lawrence Memorial Hospital in
New London, Connecticut
New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decade ...
, in 1961.
["Elsie Ferguson Is Dead at 76; Former Stage and Screen Star." ''New York Times''. November 16, 1961, Page 39.] She lived on an estate called White Gate Farms. She was interred in the
Duck River Cemetery
The Duck River Cemetery, also known as the Old Lyme Cemetery is the communal burying ground of the town of Old Lyme, Connecticut. Slater, James A. The Colonial Burying Grounds of Eastern Connecticut
and the Men Who Made Them. Memoirs of the Con ...
in
Old Lyme, Connecticut. A very wealthy woman with no heirs and a lover of animals, she left a large part of her considerable estate to a variety of charities, including several for animal welfare.
Filmography
References
External links
*
*
Elsie Fergusonphotographic gallery NYP Library
Elsie Fergusonat Virtual History
Elsie Fergusonin scenes from many of her lost films and stage scene with husband
Frederick Worlock (Univ of Washington Sayre collection)
* Elsie Ferguson and
Nance O'Neil
Gertrude Lamson (October 8, 1874 – February 7, 1965), known professionally as Nance O'Neil or Nancy O'Neil, was an American stage and film actress who performed in plays in various theaters around the world but worked predominantly in the Unite ...
in the 1927 play
The House of Women'
*
portrait of Ferguson in 1924WaybackMachine),
flip side textWayback)
PeriodPaperFerguson and namesake niece 1933
back Ferguson and niece1933
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Elsie
1880s births
1961 deaths
American film actresses
American silent film actresses
19th-century American actresses
American stage actresses
Actresses from New York City
People from Old Lyme, Connecticut
American women in World War I
20th-century American actresses
Paramount Pictures contract players