Ola Humphrey

Ola Humphrey, from a 1906 publication.
Ola Humphrey, from a 1911 newspaper.

Ola Humphrey (July 16, 1884 — 1948) was an American actress who was briefly married to a diplomat, Prince Ibrahim Hassan.

Early life

Pearl Ola Jane Humphrey was born in Iowa[1] and raised in Oakland, California, the daughter of Thomas Marshall Humphrey and Minnie J. Paschal Humphrey. Her father owned a furniture store. Her brother Orrall Humphrey was an actor and film director.[1]

Career

Humphrey toured in stage companies in Australia, New Zealand,[2] and Great Britain, in The Empress,[3] The Prodigal Son (1906),[4] The Little Gray Lady (1906),[5] The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, The Thief, and Another Woman's Window (1918),[6] among others.[7] She appeared in three silent films: Under the Crescent (1915, now lost; a highly-fictionalized serialized version of Humphrey's own story, [8] written by Nell Shipman).[9][10] The first of six two-reel chapters was entitled The Purple Iris. Other films were Missing (1918), and Coax Me (1919).

Personal life

Ola Humphrey married three times. Her first husband was Edwin Mordant, a fellow actor; they divorced.[1] She was acting in London when she met Ibrahim Hassan.[11] Hassan was a cousin to Abbas II of Egypt.[7] They married in 1911, and she converted to Islam.[12] The marriage soon foundered, and they separated;[13] the complicated matter of divorce was resolved when she was widowed, in 1918 (though her legal troubles related to the marriage continued through at least 1923).[14][15] She remarried to John Henry Broadwood, an English military officer, in 1920.[1] Widowed again, she lived in Los Angeles in 1935, and donated Egyptian artifacts to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.[16] Late in life, she was living in an apartment in New York,[17] her fortune lost or withheld by the Prince's relatives.[18] Ola Humphrey died in California in 1948, aged 64 years.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Born at Cairo, Ia., Reigned in Cairo, Egypt" Des Moines Register (June 11, 1922): 27. via Newspapers.com
  2. ↑ "Ola Humphrey Married; An Egyptian Princess" Otago Daily Times (June 2, 1911): 6. via Papers Past
  3. ↑ "An Experiment" The Argonaut (December 21, 1918): 406.
  4. ↑ "Miss Ola Humphrey as Helga in 'The Prodigal Son'" The Bohemian (February 1906): 239.
  5. ↑ "Ola Humphrey in The Little Grey Lady'" The Bohemian (June 1906): 576.
  6. ↑ "The Players' Club" The Argonaut (December 7, 1918): 363.
  7. 1 2 "Khedive's Cousin Marries Actress" San Francisco Call (April 16, 1911): 1. via California Digital Newspaper Collection
  8. ↑ "Princess Hassan Enacts Her Life Story for the Films" Atlanta Constitution (April 25, 1915): a11. via ProQuest
  9. ↑ Kay Armatage, The Girl from God's Country: Nell Shipman and the Silent Cinema (University of Toronto Press 2003): 57. ISBN 9780802085429
  10. ↑ Nell Shipman, Under the Crescent (Grosset & Dunlap 1915).
  11. ↑ Edgeworth Downer, "One American Girl's Oriental Marriage" Detroit Free Press (September 14, 1919): 90. via Newspapers.com
  12. ↑ "Actress Weds a Prince" New York Times (April 16, 1911): 1. via ProQuest
  13. ↑ "Universal's Harem Film" Motography (May 8, 1915): 731.
  14. ↑ "Sues Actress for Fortune" Washington Post (April 2, 1922): 41. via ProQuest
  15. ↑ "Princess Answers Roth" New York Times (September 7, 1923): 15. via ProQuest
  16. ↑ "Princess to Reside Here" Los Angeles Times (March 27, 1935): A1. via ProQuest
  17. ↑ Gwen Brewster, "Bitter Brew of Cairo" Philadelphia Inquirer (August 10, 1947): 127. via Newspapers.com
  18. ↑ Igor Cassini, "Beggared by a Prince" The Honolulu Advertiser (October 19, 1947): 9, 15. via Newspapers.com
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