Minnie Maddern Fiske, born as Marie Augusta Davey with some sources quoting December 19, 1864, as her date of birth, but often billed simply as Mrs. Fiske, was one of the leading American actresses of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Background
Minnie Maddern Fiske was born Mary Augusta Davey in New Orleans on December 19, 1865. Her father was the theatrical manager Thomas Davey, and her mother, Lizzie Maddern, was an actress whose surname the young "Minnie" adopted for her own stage name.
Education
As a child, Minnie played, under her mother's name of Maddern, with several well-known actors. She toured extensively as a child and was educated in many convent schools.
Career
Minnie debuted in New York as a four-year-old in the play A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing.
By the time she was 16, she was a leading lady and was cast in the leading role of Chip in the play Fogg's Ferry. She was recognized for her unique beauty and singing voice.
she returned to the theatre in 1893 as a playwright and director, having written one-act plays such as A Light for St. Agnes, The Rose, and The Eyes of the Heart. She wrote several plays and collaborated with her husband in writing Fontenelle. Mr. Fiske directed virtually all of his wife's plays after their marriage.
After her husband's unsuccessful production of Hester Crewe, Minnie Maddern debuted as Nora in A Doll's House by Henrick Ibsen, at the Empire Theatre in New York, launching Ibsen's career because of her outstanding performance. She is perhaps most famous for starring as Becky Sharp in the original 1899 production of Langdon Mitchell's Becky Sharp, a play based on William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair. Among her many triumphs on the Broadway stage were: Becky Sharp (1899, revivals 1904, 1911), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1897, revival 1902), A Doll's House (1902), Hedda Gabler (1903, revival 1904), Leah Kleschna (1904–05), Salvation Nell (1908–09), The High Road (1912–13), Madame Sand (1917–18), a play about George Sand; Mis' Nelly of N'Orleans (1919), Helena's Boys (1924), Ghosts (1927), Ladies of the Jury (1929–30), as well as her self-written plays The Rose (1905), The Eyes of the Heart (1905), A Light from St. Agnes (1906). Mrs. Fiske starred in everything from farce to tragedy and even appeared in a comedy with puppets Wake Up, Jonathan! (1921). Her final appearance on Broadway was in 1930 in an acclaimed production of The Rivals cast as Mrs. Malaprop.
In the mid-1910s, Mrs. Fiske starred in two feature film adaptions of two of her greatest stage triumphs, Tess Of the d'Urbervilles in 1913 and Vanity Fair in 1915, both of which were surprisingly successful with moviegoers, although she herself felt she was not at her best in the medium and declined further film work.
She was a pioneer for realism in acting, also supporting Ibsen's works for their honest portrayals of humanity. Her love for performing Ibsen over Shakespeare, and her position that Ibsen is the better study for actors, can not be overstated.
Although she was highly praised as an actor, she died poverty-stricken, having fought against a group of producers that organized the Theatrical Trust or Syndicate.
Achievements
Personality
Fiske's sensitivity was evident both on and off the stage. The intensity of her performances was such that she was easily distracted by any noise in the house and thus found it necessary to forbid the presence of babies and the eating of peanuts in her audiences. Outside of the theater she was well known for her support of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and she often cared for stray animals herself. She was devoted to a number of humane causes throughout her life, and she was a protester against the killing of animals solely for their fur, against bull-fighting, and against President Theodore Roosevelt's hunting expedition to Africa. She also helped to save the egret from extinction.
Connections
In 1882 Fiske fell in love with and married Legrand White, a vaudeville musician. Their quarrels over the financing of Caprice initiated the break-up of their brief union.
At the age of 25 Fiske married Harrison Grey Fiske (1861-1942), four years her junior and the editor of the New York Dramatic Mirror. Harrison Fiske provided life-long support of all of his wife's theatrical ventures, serving in a variety of capacities: business manager, director, producer, dramaturg, critic. He remained her devoted "righthand man" until her death.