Laura Cowie (7 April 1892 – 11 February 1969) was a Scottish

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 ...

actress.

Early life

Cowie was born on 7 April 1892 in

Milltown of Rothiemay Milltown of Rothiemay (Scottish Gaelic: ''Ràth a' Mhuigh'') is a small inland village, built mostly of granite, in the north-east of Scotland and is within the Moray council area bordering neighbouring Aberdeenshire across the river to the sou ...

, Banffshire,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. She was the daughter of farmer Alexander Cowie and his wife Anna Hutcheon. After her parents had married in 1889, they took up a lease on Turtory farm near Marnoch. In 1893, Laura's older brother Alexander was born. When the father died in 1900, following a sudden heart attack, the remaining family moved to Aberdeen, where they lived with two of Laura's cousins and earned some money by taking in two female students as boarders. Laura went to school in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

. In 1902, her mother married her second husband, the elderly Alexander Reid Craib, the Minister of the parish of

New Pitsligo New Pitsligo ( sco, Pitsligae), also known as Cavoch (locally ''Cyaak''),
He was 61 at the time. As a young girl, Laura wished to become a professional dancer. She was already taking dancing lessons at a local institute in Aberdeen. Both her mother and her step-father decided that she was indeed talented and needed proper training. So Anna took her daughter as well as her son Alexander to London, where Laura gained a place at the Academy of Dramatic Arts (later RADA) which had been founded in 1904.

Career

The academy's founder, theatre director

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 ...

, saw great potential in Laura Cowie, but convinced her that she would make a better actress than a dancer. While the young woman embarked on her career, she was chaperoned by her mother, who had decided to stay in London, opening up an agency for housemaids. While Anna Cowie took a flat in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, Laura shared an apartment in Great Smith Street with her brother Alexander, who had found a good job in the automobile industry. After appearing in various stage productions, Laura's first role in a film was in William Barker's ''Henry VIII'' (1911). She would later play major parts in ''Anne de Boleyn'' (1914) and ''Queens of France'' (1938). Laura Cowie played alongside famous actors like Sir John Gielgud, Alec Guinness,

Mrs Patrick Campbell Beatrice Rose Stella Tanner (9 February 1865 – 9 April 1940), better known by her stage name Mrs Patrick Campbell or Mrs Pat, was an English stage actress, best known for appearing in plays by Shakespeare, Shaw and Barrie. She also toured th ...

George Fawcett George Fawcett (August 25, 1860 – June 6, 1939) was an American stage and film actor of the silent era. Biography Born in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1860, Fawcett graduated from the University of Virginia. His initial inclination was to ...

. In 1934 she starred as

Katherine Parr Catherine Parr (sometimes alternatively spelled Katherine, Katheryn, Kateryn, or Katharine; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until ...

Winifred Carter :''not to be confused with Winifred S Carter, an American celebrity chef and cookery author also active from the 1920s–40s''. Winifred Carter (c. 1883–1949) was an English author and playwright, who was particularly active from the 1920s– ...

's ''

The Queen Who Kept Her Head ''The Queen Who Kept Her Head'' is a 1934 historical play by the British writer Winifred Carter. It is based on the life of Catherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, who outlived him. It ran for twenty two performances at the Kin ...

''. On 20 June 1918 she married

scriptwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. T ...

and

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

John Hastings Turner. After the marriage, she mostly retired and only occasionally appeared in film productions by the Rank studios.

Final years and death

In 1939, both Laura's mother and her brother died, the latter leaving behind a wife and a young son. After their marriage, John Hastings Turner and Laura bought Blue Tile Farm in Fakenham, Norfolk. Here Turner wrote many of his scripts and novels, and here he died in 1956. Laura died on 11 February 1969 in the small coastal town of

Wells-next-the-Sea Wells-next-the-Sea is a port town on the north coast of Norfolk, England. The civil parish has an area of and in 2001 had a population of 2,451,Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001). Census population and household c ...

, Norfolk, England.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cowie, Laura 1892 births 1969 deaths 20th-century Scottish actresses Scottish silent film actresses Scottish stage actresses People from Moray