Ellis, Mary (1897–2003)

views updated

Ellis, Mary (1897–2003)

American-born stage and screen actress and musical star. Born May Belle Elsas, June 15, 1897 in New York, NY; died Jan 31, 2003, in London, England; m. Edwin Knopf (div.); m. Basil Sydney (actor), 1929 (div.); m. Jock Muir Stewart Roberts (pilot, skier and climber), 1938 (died in a climbing accident, 1950).

Joined the Metropolitan Opera (1918), appearing as Mityl in Blue Bird; made musical debut on Broadway in operetta Rose-Marie (1924), which was produced by Arthur Hammerstein, written for her by Rudolf Friml, and ran for 558 performances (when, after one year, Ellis left the show to appear in The Dybbuk, with a weekly reduction in pay from $500 to $10, Hammerstein made her agree to only sing in US under his management); began to appear in England, often with 3rd husband Basil Sydney; with help of such shows as Jerome Kern's Music in the Air and Ivor Novello's Glamorous Night and The Dancing Years, became known as the queen of London musicals but never sang in US again; also appeared in such dramas as Strange Interlude, Point Valaine and The Browning Version; films include All the King's Horses; on tv, appeared in the Sherlock Holmes tv series starring Jeremy Brett.

See also autobiography Those Dancing Years (Murray, 1982).