Fannie Ward (born Fannie Buchanan; February 22, 1872 – January 27, 1952), also credited as Fanny Ward, was an American actress of stage and screen. Known for performing in both comedic and dramatic roles, she was cast in '' The Cheat'', a sexually-charged 1915 silent film directed by

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

. Reportedly, Ward's ageless appearance helped her to achieve and maintain her celebrity. In its obituary for her, ''The New York Times'' describes her as "an actress who never quite reached the top in her profession ... nd whotirelessly devoted herself to appearing perpetually youthful, an act that made her famous"."Fannie Ward Dies; Perennial Flapper", ''The New York Times'', digital archives (1923-present), 28 January 1952, L17. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Early life and stage career

Born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, Ward was the only daughter of Eliza and John Buchanan, who was a dry goods merchant. She had one sibling, a brother, Benton. In 1890, "against the wishes of her parents", Ward made her stage debut as

Cupid In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, lust, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus (mythology), Venus and the god of war Mar ...

in ''Pippino'' with

vaudevillian Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

star

Eddie Foy Edwin Fitzgerald (March 9, 1856 – February 16, 1928Cullen, Frank; Hackman, Florence; and McNeilly, Donald. ''Vaudeville, Old and New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America''. Routledge Press, September 2006, . pp. 406–410), ...

. She soon became a success in 10 stage productions in New York City before sailing in 1894 to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where she performed in ''The Shop Girl''. Her performances there led critics to compare Ward favorably to actress

Maude Adams Maude Ewing Adams Kiskadden (November 11, 1872 – July 17, 1953), known professionally as Maude Adams, was an American actress who achieved her greatest success as the character Peter Pan, first playing the role in the 1905 Broadway production ...

. In 1898, however, she married a wealthy diamond merchant and retired from the stage. Ward resumed her career in 1905 after her husband suffered severe business losses that left him, according to news reports, "practically penniless". In April 1907, she returned to the

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 ...

stage to perform in ''A Marriage of Reason'' at the

Wallack's Theatre Three New York City playhouses named Wallack's Theatre played an important part in the history of American theater, as the successive homes of the Repertory theatre, stock company managed by actors James William Wallack, James W. Wallack and hi ...

."Fannie Ward"
''A Marriage of Reason'', April 1907, Wallack's Theatre, New York, N.Y.

Internet Broadway Database The Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It was conceived and created by Karen Hauser in 1996 and is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade assoc ...

(IBDB), The Broadway League. Retrieved September 30, 2019. She was then cast two years later in another Broadway production, ''The New Lady Bantock''; and after its run at Wallack's, she and other cast members took the play on tour to various cities during the latter half of 1909.''The New Lady Bantock''
February-March 1909, New York, N.Y. IBDB. Retrieved October 1, 2019. Yet another popular Broadway play in which she performed was the comedy ''Madam President'', which was presented at the

Garrick Theatre The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, named after the stage actor David Garrick. It opened in 1889 with ''The Profligate'', a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and another Pinero play ...

from September 1913 to January 1914.

Film

In 1915, around the time Ward's stage career was waning, American movie producer and director

convinced her to perform in '' The Cheat'', a

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, when ...

melodrama co-starring Japanese actor

Sessue Hayakawa , known professionally as , was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading man i ...

. The film proved to be a sensation due to its plot mingling of racial and sexual themes. In it Ward portrays a society woman who embezzles money and turns to an Asian ivory dealer (Hayakawa) for help, with brutal consequences. The movie launched the careers of DeMille and Hayakawa, who soon became Hollywood's first Asian star."Sessue Hayakawa Is Dead at 83", ''The New York Times'', 25 November 1973. In addition to starring in ''The Hardest Way'' in 1921, Ward also appears in several

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the human pelvis, pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" b ...

released in the 1920s: the

Phonofilm Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s. Introduction In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film process, ...

short ''Father Time'' (1924) in which she sings; another Phonofilm production, ''The Perennial Flapper'' (1924); and in the

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one th ...

short ''The Miracle Woman'' (1929). In 1926, trading on her ever-youthful public image, Ward opened a

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

beauty shop, "The Fountain of Youth".

Personal life and death

Fannie Ward was married twice. Her first husband was Joseph Lewis, a British money lender and diamond dealer. They married in 1898. In 1909, in an interview with newspaper reporter

Marguerite Martyn Marguerite Martyn (September 26, 1878 – April 17, 1948) was an American journalist and political cartoonist with the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' in the early 20th century. She was noted as much for her published sketches as for her articles. ...

, Ward stated, "My husband hates my work", and then she questioned why women are treated differently than men professionally: On January 14, 1913, less than four years after the noted interview, Ward and Lewis divorced. The following year she married her second husband, John Wooster Dean (born John H. Donovan, 1874–1950), an actor who had frequently co-starred with her on stage and in films. Ward's only child, Dorothé Mabel Lewis (1900–1938), was the result of an affair with the

Viscount Castlereagh A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judici ...

, who in 1915 became The Most Hon. The 7th Marquess of Londonderry (1878-1949), an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

aristocrat from

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

. On January 21, 1952, at age 79, Ward suffered a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

in her

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...

apartment and was found unconscious by a neighbor. She remained in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

until her death six days later at

Lenox Hill Hospital Lenox Hill Hospital (LHH) is a nationally ranked 450-bed non-profit, tertiary, research and academic medical center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, servicing the tri-state area. LHH is one of the region's many unive ...

. ''The New York Times'' reported that Ward died without a

will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

and left an estate with an estimated value of $40,000."Fannie Ward's Estate", ''The New York Times'', 5 February 1952, p. 23. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. The newspaper also reported that she was survived by "three English grandsons": Lord Patrick Plunkett, the Hon. Shaun Plunkett, and the Hon. Robin Plunkett.

Filmography

* ''The Miracle Woman'' (1929) - Ward stars in a

short film (survives) * ''The Perennial Flapper'' (1924) - Ward performs comedy sketch as the "perennial flapper" in a DeForest

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

* ''Father Time'' (1924) in a Phonofilm short film * ''La Rafale'' (1920) * '' Le Secret du Lone Star'' (1920) * '' Our Better Selves'' (1919) .... Loyette Merval (lost) * '' The Profiteers'' (1919) .... Beverly Randall (lost) * '' The Cry of the Weak'' (1919) .... Mary Dexter (lost) * '' Common Clay'' (1919) .... Ellen Neal (lost) * '' The Only Way'' (1919) (unknown status) * '' The Narrow Path'' (1918) .... Marion Clark (lost) * ''

A Japanese Nightingale ''A Japanese Nightingale'' is a 1918 American silent drama film adapted from the Onoto Watanna novel, directed by George Fitzmaurice and starring Fannie Ward, W.E. Lawrence and Yukio Aoyama.Motion Picture Guide Silent Film 1910-1936 p.368 Cast ...

'' (1918) .... Yuki (survives) * ''

The Yellow Ticket ''The Yellow Ticket'' is a 1931 pre-Code American drama film based on the 1914 play of the same name by Michael Morton, produced by the Fox Film Corporation, directed by Raoul Walsh, and starring Elissa Landi, Lionel Barrymore and Laurence Oli ...

'' (1918) .... Anna Mirrel (lost) * ''

Innocent Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. In other contexts, it is a lack of experience. In relation ...

'' (1918) .... Innocent (lost) * '' On the Level'' (1917) .... Merlin Warner, aka Mexicali May (lost) * ''

The Crystal Gazer ''The Crystal Gazer'' is a lost 1917 American drama silent film directed by George Melford, and written by Eve Unsell, Edna G. Riley, and Marion Fairfax. The film stars Fannie Ward, Jack Dean, Winifred Greenwood, Harrison Ford, Raymond Hatton ...

'' (1917) .... Rose Jorgensen/Rose Keith/Norma Dugan (lost) * '' Her Strange Wedding'' (1917) .... Coralie Grayson (lost) * '' Unconquered'' (1917) .... Mrs. Jackson (lost) * ''

A School for Husbands ''A School for Husbands'' is a lost 1917 American comedy silent film directed by George Melford, written by Hugh Stanislaus Stange and Harvey F. Thew, and starring Fannie Ward, Jack Dean, Edythe Chapman, Frank Elliott, Mabel Van Buren and James ...

'' (1917) .... Lady Betty Manners (lost) * '' The Winning of Sally Temple'' (1917) .... Sally Temple (survives) * '' Betty to the Rescue'' (1917) (lost) * ''

The Years of the Locust ''The Years of the Locust'' is a surviving 1916 American drama silent film directed by George Melford and written by Beatrice DeMille, Leighton Osmun, Albert Payson Terhune and Harvey F. Thew. The film stars Fannie Ward, Walter Long, Jack Dean, ...

'' (1916) .... Lorraine Roth (survives) * ''

Witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...

'' (1916) .... Suzette (lost) * '' Each Pearl a Tear'' (1916) .... Diane Winston, aka ''Each Hour a Pearl'' (USA: alternative title), ''Every Pearl a Tear'' (survives) * ''

A Gutter Magdalene ''A Gutter Magdalene'' is a lost 1916 American drama silent film directed by George Melford and written by Clinton Stagg. The film stars Fannie Ward, Jack Dean, Charles West, William Elmer, Gertrude Kellar and Ronald Bradbury. The film was relea ...

'' (1916) .... Maida Carrington (lost) * '' For the Defense'' (1916) .... Fidele Roget (survives) * ''

Tennessee's Pardner ''Tennessee's Pardner'' is a surviving 1916 American Western film directed by George Melford, written by Marion Fairfax, and starring Fannie Ward, Jack Dean, Charles Clary, Jessie Arnold, Ronald Bradbury, and Raymond Hatton. It was released Feb ...

'' (1916) .... Tennessee (survives) * '' The Cheat'' (1915) .... Edith Hardy (survives) * ''

The Marriage of Kitty ''The Marriage of Kitty'' is a lost 1915 American silent comedy film directed by George Melford. It was written by Francis de Croisset, Fred de Gresac, Cosmo Gordon Lennox and Hector Turnbull. The origin of the work was de Croisset, who wro ...

'' (1915) .... Katherine "Kitty" Silverton (lost)

Gallery

Actress_Fannie_Ward_as_sketched_by_Marguerite_Martyn_in_1909.jpg, Ward sketch by journalist

, 1909 A Gutter Magdalene 2.jpg, ''A Gutter Magdalene'' (1916) The Yellow Ticket.jpg, ''The Yellow Ticket'' (1918) Fannie Ward cinema chat.jpg, Ward, 1920 Fannie Ward.jpg, Ward, c. 1925

References

External links

Fannie Ward at Silents Are Golden
*

Fannie Ward scrapbooks, 1875-1954
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...

Fannie Ward
her stage years portrait gallery at NY Public Library Billy Rose collection
Rare portrait of Fannie Ward
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Fannie 1872 births 1952 deaths Vaudeville performers 19th-century American actresses American stage actresses American film actresses American silent film actresses Actresses from St. Louis People from Manhattan 20th-century American actresses