Margaret Scudamore (13 November 1881 – 5 October 1958) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
theatre and film actress who began in ''
ingenue'' roles before achieving a prolonged career in stage and screen support roles. She and her first husband,
Roy Redgrave
George Ellsworthy "Roy" Redgrave (26 April 1873 – 25 May 1922) was an English stage and silent film actor. Redgrave is considered to be the first member of the Redgrave acting dynasty.
Early life
Born George Edward Redgrave in 122 Kenningt ...
(1873-1922), are considered to be the first members of the now renowned
Redgrave acting dynasty.
Life and career
Margaret was born Daisy Bertha Mary Scudamore in
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
, she was the youngest of five children of William George,
a shipwright at HM Portsmouth, and Clara (''née'' Linington), all residing at 7 Melbourne Place,
Southsea
Southsea is a seaside resort and a geographic area of Portsmouth, Portsea Island in England. Southsea is located 1.8 miles (2.8 km) to the south of Portsmouth's inner city-centre. Southsea is not a separate town as all of Portsea Island's s ...
. She left home at the age of 18 and found her way to the London offices of theatrical agent, Sir John Denton. Mistaking her for Mary Scudamore, the young daughter of a well-known actor-playwright-manager Fortunatus Augustine Davis who had added "Scudmore" to his surname many years before, Sir John gave Daisy the unrelated Scudamore's address at Castelnau Mansions, Barnes. Fortunatus, a "most cheerful" man,
welcomed Daisy into the household and she lived with his wife and children for a time until he found work for her as an actress in London.
Over half a century later, an erroneous report that she was the daughter of Fortunatus in her
Times
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems.
Time or times may also refer to:
Temporal measurement
* Time in physics, defined by its measurement
* Time standard, civil time speci ...
obituary of 8 October 1958 was frequently repeated in other articles, even as late as 2003 in
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
until new Scudamore family research a few years after.
While appearing in repertory at the Grand Theatre,
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, she met the divorced actor
Roy Redgrave
George Ellsworthy "Roy" Redgrave (26 April 1873 – 25 May 1922) was an English stage and silent film actor. Redgrave is considered to be the first member of the Redgrave acting dynasty.
Early life
Born George Edward Redgrave in 122 Kenningt ...
who had just returned from an initial period in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. Still called Daisy, she married Redgrave at
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
Register Office
A register office or The General Register Office, much more commonly but erroneously registry office (except in official use), is a British government office where births, deaths, marriages, civil partnership, stillbirths and adoptions in England ...
in 1907 while they were touring in the north, and on 20 March 1908 she gave birth to a son,
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author. He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Mourning Becomes Elec ...
, who went on to be knighted during a distinguished
cinema
Cinema may refer to:
Film
* Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography
* Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image
** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking
...
and
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
career.
Six months after Michael's birth, Redgrave left Daisy (Margaret) and returned to Australia again, this time permanently. After the dissolution of her marriage to Redgrave – about four years after Michael's birth – she adopted the stage name of Margaret Scudamore and continued acting in character roles.
As Margaret she later married Captain James P. "Andy" Anderson, a tea planter formerly employed by the Ceylon and Eastern Agency, in London in 1922.
They had a daughter together, Peg.
Following Redgrave's departure, Margaret Scudamore achieved a successful career as a supporting actress in films as well as the theatre, beginning screen roles during the silent film era and culminating with character parts in two notable
Powell and Pressburger
The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell (1905–1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)—together often known as The Archers, the name of their production company—made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. ...
films.
Her grandchildren
Corin Redgrave
Corin William Redgrave (16 July 19396 April 2010) was an English actor and left-wing socialist activist.
Early life
Redgrave was born on 16 July 1939 in Marylebone, London, the only son and middle child of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kem ...
,
Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Rachel Redgrave (8 March 1943 – 2 May 2010) was an English actress. She won two Golden Globe Awards throughout her career.
A member of the Redgrave family of actors, Lynn trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962. B ...
and
Vanessa Redgrave
Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, tw ...
and great-grandchildren
Jemma Redgrave
Jemima Rebecca Redgrave (born 14 January 1965), known as Jemma Redgrave, is a fourth-generation British actress of the Redgrave family. She played the title character in four series of '' Bramwell'', and has a recurring role in ''Doctor Who'' as ...
,
Joely Richardson
Joely Kim Richardson (born 9 January 1965) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Julia McNamara in the FX drama series ''Nip/Tuck'' (2003–10) and Katherine Parr in the Showtime series ''The Tudors'' (2010). She has also appeared ...
,
Natasha Richardson
Natasha Jane Richardson (11 May 1963 – 18 March 2009) was an English actress of stage and screen. A member of the Redgrave family, Richardson was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaugh ...
and
Carlo Nero have successfully followed the family tradition into acting.
Selected theatre work
*1921 (23 April - 21 May) - At the Stratford Birthday Festival at the
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) (originally called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) is a grade II* listed 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the English playwright and poet William Shakesp ...
in
Stratford-Upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...
, England, in plays directed by W. Bridges-Adams, with fellow cast members
Baliol Holloway, Percy Rhodes, Dorothy Green, Arthur Keane, Edmund Willard, George Zucco, Gwen Richardson, Mabel Todd, Maurice Colbourne, Vivienne Bennett, Rosa Burgess and Natalie Moya,
performing in:
**Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
[
**Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor".][
**Shakespeare's "King Richard III".][
**Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play, "The School for Scandal".][
**Shakespeare's "Macbeth".][
*1922-23 (7 September - February) - In Rudolf Besier and May Edginton's play "]Secrets
Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret.
Secrecy is often controvers ...
," at the Comedy Theatre in London, with Fay Compton, Henry Vibart, Dorothy Holmes-Gore, Louise Hampton, Leon Quartermaine, Tom Reynolds, and Helen Haye in the cast.[
*1923 - In Rudolf Besier and May Edginton's play "Secrets," at the Comedy Theatre in London, with Fay Compton, Doris Mansell, Fabia Drake, Bobbie Andrews, Cecil Trouncer, Hubert Harben, Louise Hampton, Dorothy Holmes-Gore, Ian Fleming, and Mary Clare in the cast.][
*1930 (1 February - April) - In A.A. Milne's play " Michael and Mary", at the St. James's Theatre in London, with Herbert Marshall, Edna Best, Olwen Brookes, Elizabeth Allan and Frank Lawton in the cast.][
*1936 (October) - In the play "Plot Twenty-One", at the Embassy Repertory Theatre in London, with Molly Rankin, Avice Landone, Clare Greet, John Ruddock, and Jack Livesey in the cast. Rodney Ackland and Harold Clayton were directors.][
*1938 - In St. John Ervine's play "Robert's Wife", at the Globe Theatre in London, with Edith Evans, Owen Nares, and Robert Holmes in the cast. Murray Macdonald was director.][
* 1949 - In Ronald Jeans play '']Young Wives' Tale
''Young Wives' Tale'', also known as ''Fun for Four'', is a 1951 British comedy film directed by Henry Cass and starring Joan Greenwood, Nigel Patrick, Derek Farr, and Guy Middleton. The film is based on the 1949 play ''Young Wives' Tale'' by Ron ...
'', at the Savoy Theatre in London
*1952 - In Jennette Dowling Letton's play "The Young Elizabeth", at the Criterion Theatre in London, with Mary Morris, Joseph O'Conor, Margaretta Scott, Peggy Thorpe-Bates, Godfrey Kenton, and Basil Dignam in the cast. Charles Hickman was director.[
]
Selected filmography
* ''And Then He Woke Up'' (1909) - as The Girl:
* ''Vengeance of the Air'' (1915) - as Enid Mortimer[
* ''Arms and the Man'' (1932) - as Catherine Petkoff][
* '' Double Alibi'' (1937) - as Mrs. Havilland][
* '' Beauty and the Barge'' (1937) - as Mrs. Smedley][
* '']Melody and Romance
''Melody and Romance'' is a 1937 British musical comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Hughie Green, Margaret Lockwood and Jane Carr. It was made at Beaconsfield Studios with sets designed by Norman G. Arnold, and features an uncredi ...
'' (1937) - as Mrs. Hawkins[
* '' My Wife's Family'' (1941) - as Arabella Bagshott][
* '']A Canterbury Tale
''A Canterbury Tale'' is a 1944 British film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger starring Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price and Sgt. John Sweet; Esmond Knight provided narration and played two small roles. For the post-war American ...
'' (1944) - as Mrs. Colpeper[
* '']Black Narcissus
''Black Narcissus'' is a 1947 British Psychological fiction, psychological drama film written, produced, and directed by Powell and Pressburger, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu Dastagir, S ...
'' (1947) - as Clodagh's Grandmother (in flashback - uncredited)[
]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scudamore, Margaret
1880s births
1958 deaths
English stage actresses
English film actresses
Actresses from Portsmouth
20th-century English actresses
Redgrave family