Ffrangcon-Davies, Dame Gwen (1891–1992), English actress of Welsh extraction, who trained as a singer and appeared with great success as Etain in Rutland Boughton's ‘music drama’
The Immortal Hour (1920). She was however drawn to straight acting, and already had considerable experience when she appeared as Phoebe Throssel in a revival of
Barrie's Quality Street in 1921. She then joined the
Birmingham Repertory Theatre company, where she played many roles, including Eve and the Newly Born in Shaw's
Back to Methuselah (1923). She was much admired as Juliet to
Gielgud's Romeo in London in 1924, and was with him again as Anne of Bohemia in Gordon Daviot's
Richard of Bordeaux (1932), as Olga in
Chekhov's Three Sisters in 1937, as Gwendolen in his memorable production of
Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest in 1939, and as Lady Macbeth to his Macbeth in 1942. Other outstanding roles were Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett in Rudolf Besier's
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1930) and Mrs Manningham in Patrick Hamilton's
Gaslight (1939). In 1950, after several years in South Africa, she was with the
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre company, and three years later with the
Old Vic company. Among the best of her later roles were Ranevskaya in Chekhov's
The Cherry Orchard in 1954, Mary Tyrone in O'Neill's
Long Day's Journey into Night in 1958, and Amanda in Tennessee
Williams's The Glass Menagerie in 1965. Her New York début was in 1963 in Sheridan's
The School for Scandal. She made her last appearance on the stage in 1970, in Chekhov's
Uncle Vanya, giving a beautifully controlled and moving performance as Madame Voynitsky at the
Royal Court Theatre.
