Elisabeth Risdon

Elisabeth Risdon (born Daisy Cartwright Risdon; 26 April 1887 – 20 December 1958) was an English film actress. She appeared in over 140 films between 1913 and 1952. A beauty in her youth, she usually played in society parts. In later years in films she switched to playing character parts.[1]

Elisabeth Risdon
Risdon in G. B. Shaw's Heartbreak House (1920)
Born
Daisy Cartwright Risdon

(1887-04-26)26 April 1887
London, England
Died20 December 1958(1958-12-20) (aged 71)
Santa Monica, California, US
OccupationActress
Years active1913–1956
Spouse(s)
George Loane Tucker
(m. 1916; died 1921)

Brandon Evans
(m. 1938; died 1958)

Biography

Born in London, England, Risdon was the daughter of John Jenkins Risdon and Martha Harrop Risdon.[2] She graduated from the Royal Academy of Arts in 1918 with high honours. She attracted the attention of George Bernard Shaw and was cast as the lead in his biggest plays. Besides her performances for Shaw, she was leading lady for actors including George Arliss, Otis Skinner,[3] and William Faversham. She was also under contract to the Theatre Guild for many years.

Risdon's film debut came in England, where she made 13 silent films. She came to the United States in 1912,[3] and her first film with sound was Guard That Girl (1935).[2]

Her Broadway credits include Laburnum Grove (1935), Big Hearted Herbert (1934), Uncle Tom's Cabin (1933), For Services Rendered (1933), We Never Learn (1928), The Springboard (1927), Right You Are If You Think You Are (1927), The Silver Cord (1926), A Proud Woman (1926), Lovely Lady (1925), The Enchanted April (1925), Thrills (1925), Artistic Temperament (1924), Cock O' the Roost (1924), The Lady (1923), The Nightcap (1921), Heartbreak House (1920), Footloose (1920), Dear Brutus (1918), Humpty Dumpty (1918), Muggins (1918), Seven Days' Leave (1918), Misalliance (1917), The Morris Dance (1917), The Poetasters of Ispahan (1912), Beauty and the Jacobin (1912), and Fanny's First Play (1912).[4]

In later years, she taught drama to patients at a veterans administration hospital near her Brentwood home. In 1916, she married silent film director George Loane Tucker, who died in 1921. In 1938, she married actor Brandon Evans, who died in April 1958.[3] She was the great-aunt of actress Wendy Barrie-Wilson.[5]

Risdon died in December 1958 in St John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, from a cerebral haemorrhage. Her body was donated to medical science.

Partial filmography
Mother (1917)

References
  1. Elizabeth Risdon - North American Theatre Online site offered to most colleges and universities for free
  2. Nissen, Axel (2007). Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties. McFarland. p. 167. ISBN 9780786427468. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  3. Gordon, Dr Roger L. (2018). Supporting Actors in Motion Pictures: Volume II. Dorrance Publishing. p. 38. ISBN 9781480958418. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  4. "Elisabeth Risdon". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on 13 November 2018. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  5. "Wendy Barrie-Wilson". English Theatre. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
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