Elsie Mackay (actress)

Elsie Gertrude MacKay was born on February 20, 1893, in Roebourne, Western Australia,[1] to Samuel Peter Mackay and his wife Florence Gertrude Mackay of Mundabullangana Station.[2][3] Mackay made a name for herself performing on stage in the United States and Britain between 1914 and the early 1930s and after 1935, performing on radio in Australia.[3][4]

For the English aviator and actress known as Poppy Wyndham, see Elsie Mackay.
Elsie Mackay
Elsie Mackay with Lionel Atwill in 1922, in a Vanity Fair photo for The White-Faced Fool
Born1894
Roebourne, Western Australia
Died1963
Melbourne, Australia
Occupationstage and screen actress
Spouse(s)Lionel Atwill(1920–1928) (divorced)
Max Montesole(1933–1942) (his death)

Career on stage

The daughter of wealthy pastoralists, Mackay's education was completed at a finishing school in Switzerland. According to Hal Porter, she made her first appearance on stage in a minor role in Pygmalion in 1914 at His Majesty's Theatre, London. She took over the role of Virginia Bullivant from Margery Maude in the play Grumpy later the same year. Her success was such that she became a leading player in the Cyril Maude Company, touring the United States in 1915. In 1916, she joined Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company on its tour of the United States, consistently taking the role of leading ladies and acting under the direction of the likes of David Belasco.[3]

Mackay's US stage career included:

On Broadway she performed in:[6]

  • Another Man's Shoes, 1918, where she replaced Alma Tell as Lionel Atwill's leading woman,[7]
  • As You Like It, as Rosalind 1919,
  • Clarence, as Violet Pinney 1919,
  • Poldekin, as Maria 1920,
  • Deburau, as Marie Duplessis, 1921,
  • The White-Faced Fool, 1922,
  • The Comedian, as Jacqueline, 1923.

In 1934, after her minor role in the George Cukor film Sylvia Scarlett, apparently her only film, Mackay returned to Australia. Thereafter, she often performed with her English-born second husband Max Montesole.[8]

Private life

In 1920 Mackay became the second wife of actor Lionel Atwill,[9] but they divorced in March 1928, after he had detectives raid an apartment on Manhattan's 68th Street in 1925, where Mackay was found with actor Max Montesole. Mackay and Montesole married in 1933 and moved to Australia in late 1934 where they worked together, often on radio. Montesole died in Perth in 1942.[10] Mackay died in Hawthorn, Victoria in 1963.[3]

References
  1. Government of Western Australia, Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Accessed 4 April 2018
  2. "Inherits £10,000". The Daily News. LXIII (21, 961). Western Australia. 27 August 1945. p. 14 (CITY FINAL). Retrieved 4 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. Hal Porter (1965),Stars of Australian Stage and Screen. p 166. Rigby Limited, Adelaide. Porter gives a birth date of 1894
  4. There were two actresses by the name of Elsie Mackay in the 1920s, but the English actress and aviator was known on stage (London and Broadway) and film as Poppy Wyndham. Poppy Wyndham at "Find a Grave" Many sources conflate the careers of these two actresses, but Elsie Mackay was still performing in 1935, whilst Poppy Wyndham died in an air accident in 1928.IMDB - Disambiguation page for Elsie Mackay
  5. The Forum - Ephemera, Theatre poster. Archived 2012-09-13 at Archive.today
  6. Elsie Mackay at the Internet Broadway Database
  7. New York Times Published: May 30, 1918 - PDF Archive Theatrical Notes
  8. "CHIT CHAT". Western Mail. 50 (2, 592). Western Australia. 24 October 1935. p. 30. Retrieved 4 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. "Condé Nast". Archived from the original on 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
  10. "OBITUARY". The Age (27, 276). Victoria, Australia. 19 September 1942. p. 3. Retrieved 4 April 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
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