Nellie Stewart
Eleanor Towzey "Nellie" Stewart (born November 20, 1858 in Woolloomooloo , Sydney , † June 21, 1931 in Sydney) was an Australian actress and singer.
Life
Nellie Stewart was the daughter of actor Richard Stewart Towzey and singer Theodosia Stewart , a descendant of Richard and Mary Ann Yates and widow of actor James Guerin . She appeared at the age of five on the side of Charles Kean in The Stranger . In 1877 she played with her family in Garnet Walch's Rainbow Revels . In 1879 the Stewarts toured India, England and the USA. The following year George Coppin engaged Nellie Stewart for the pantomime Sinbad the Sailor at the Theater Royal in Melbourne.
There she met George Musgrove , who hired her for the lead role in Jacques Offenbach's The Daughter of the Drum Major and with whom she remained privately and professionally connected until his death. She played in more than twenty comic operas between 1883 and 1887 and toured with the triumvirate George Musgrove, James Cassius Williamson and Arthur Garner . In 1888 she played Margaret in Charles Gounod's Faust , with 24 performances in a row so overexerting her voice that she had to give up her career as a singer.
In 1889 Stewart went to England with Musgrove, where their daughter Nancye was born in 1893 . From 1893 to 1895 she led an open company on a tour of Australasia. She returned to the stage in 1898 in the pantomime The Forty Thieve at the Drury Lane Theater . In Australia she appeared in the pantomime Cinderella from 1900 to 01 . The greatest success of her career she had in 1902 as Nell Gwynne in Sweet Nell of Old Drury by Paul Kester ; Australian audiences remembered her as Sweet Nell .
In 1905 she traveled to San Francisco with the piece, further performance plans in the USA were ruined by the 1906 earthquake . She had further success in 1910 in Sweet Kitty Bellairs and in 1911 in What Every Woman Knows , When Knighthood was in Flower and Trilby . In 1911 she starred in the film adaptation of Sweet Nell of Old Drury , directed by Raymond Longford .
After Musgrove's death, she was greatly assisted by Hugh D. McIntosh , who brought a new production of Sweet Nell to the stages of his theaters in Sydney and Melbourne. He hired her as a coach for his productions The Lilac Domino and Chu Chin Chow and sponsored her Nellie Stewart School of Acting in Sydney. She had her last appearance in 1930 in Melbourne at the Comedy Theater in Edward Sheldon's play Romance , which was later filmed with Greta Garbo in the lead role. A few months before her death, she recorded three scenes from Sweet Nell and Address to Her Public with her daughter Nancye and her son-in-law Mayne Lynton . In April 1931, she participated in a charity event at Mosman Town Hall .
Nellie Steward died in June 1931 and her ashes were buried in the family grave at Boroondara Cemetery in Melbourne. Stewart's friends and fans founded the Nellie Stewart Old Drury Club , which worked for charitable purposes and created the Nellie Stewart Garden of Memory with 2500 rose bushes in the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens .
swell
- Australian Dictionary of Biography - Stewart, Eleanor Towzey (Nellie)
- Live Performance Australia - Hall of Fame - Nellie Stewart
Web links
- Nellie Stewart in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Stewart, Nellie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Stewart, Eleanor Towzey (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Australian actress and singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 20, 1858 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Woolloomooloo , Sydney |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 21, 1931 |
| Place of death | Sydney |