Zena Dare

".

Life and career

Dare was born Florence Hariette Zena Dones in Chelsea, London, England. Her father, Arthur Albert Dones, was a divorce clerk, and his wife was Harriette Amelia Wheeler. Dare was the oldest of three children. Her sister, Phyllis, three and a half years her junior, also became a well-known musical comedy actress. They had a brother named Jack. [http://www.philcoradio.com/zena/zenabio.htm Biographical information from the Zena Dare Pages website] ]

Early career

Dare was educated at Maida Vale high school. She had her first performance on stage in 1899, at the age of 12, in the Christmas pantomime "Babes in the Woods" at the Coronet Theatre in London. Her sister Phyllis was also cast in this production, and they both adopted the stage name of Dare. From 1900, she played in various pantomimes produced by F. Wyndham in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In 1902, at the age of 15, Dare was hired by Seymour Hicks to tour as Daisy Maitland in "An English Daisy", and to play the title role in "Cinderella" in 1903-04 at the Shakespeare Theatre in Liverpool. She spent much of 1904 touring but returned to London to play Aurora Brue in "Sergeant Brue" for Frank Curzon's theatre company. She left the company to create the role of Angela on in September 1904 in "The Catch of the Season" at the Vaudeville Theatre opposite Hicks. The role would have gone to Ellaline Terriss, Hicks' wife, but she was pregnant. Dare left "Catch of the Season" in 1905 to play Beauty in "Sleeping Beauty" in Bristol. Terriss later assumed the role of Angela, and Dare's sister Phyllis took over the role from Terriss. [http://www.dgillan.screaming.net/stage/th-main.html Information from the Stage Beauty website] ]

In 1906, Dare was hired by producer George Edwardes to play three roles at The Prince of Wales's Theatre in London: the title role in "Lady Madcap", Lady Elizabeth Congress in "The Little Cherub" and the title role in "The Girl on Stage". Dare left Edwardes' company in 1906 to play Betty Silverthorne in Hicks' "The Beauty of Bath" at the Aldwych Theatre. Later that year, she reprised her role in the touring production of "The Catch of the Season" and ended the year starring as Peter Pan in a Christmas pantomime of "Peter Pan" in Manchester. In 1907, she returned to the Aldwych as Victoria Siddons in "The Gay Gordons" and spent the rest of the year in a tour of one act plays with Hicks' company. She spent 1908 and the beginning of 1909 touring both in "The Gay Gordons", this time in the lead role of Peggy Quainton, and in "Sweet and Twenty", among other pieces. In March 1909, she starred in "Papa's Wife" at the Colliseum and then played Princess Amaranth in "Mitislaw or The Love Match" at the Hippodrome. She spent the better part of 1910 touring as Duc de Richelieu in "The Dashing Little Duke", before returning to the Hippodrome to perform in "The Model and the Man".

The original production of "The Dashing Little Duke" was a financial disaster. When Dare joined the tour, business picked up, but the tour did not solve Hicks' financial problems, and he announced that he would take his company to South Africa. Dare did not join them. During "The Catch of the Season", she had met and subsequently become engaged to Maurice Vyner Baliol Brett (1882-1934), the second son of the 2nd Viscount Esher. They married in January 1911, and, at age 23 and the top of her glittering career, Dare retired from the theatre. She and Brett moved to rural Chilston, near Ascot and raised a son and two daughters. [http://www.collectorspost.com/cgi-bin/ShopLoader.cgi?Actors/zena_dare.html Information from the Collectorspot website] ]

Later years

During World War I, Dare nursed soldiers for three years at Mrs. Vanderbilt's American Hospital in France, and a thoroughbred horse was named after her. [ [http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/zena+dare Zena Dare, thoroughbred] ]

. During 1932, she toured as Leslie in "Counsel's Opinion".

In 1933, Dare began her long association with Ivor Novello, playing his mother in "Proscenium" at the Globe Theatre. In 1934, she played Mrs. Sherry in Novello’s "Murder in Mayfair" at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Her husband died that year. In 1936, she played Phyllida Frame in Novello's long-running musical "Careless Rapture". In 1938, she went on to play Tiny Fox-Coller in Farrell and Perry's Irish comedy, "Spring Meeting", at the Ambassadors Theatre, which was directed by John Gielgud. She then toured in this role in 1939. [http://www.cyranos.ch/spdarz-e.htm Information from the international silent movie index] ]

In 1940, for the first time in over four decades, Zena and Phyllis Dare shared the stage in a tour of "Full House", in which Dare played Frynne Rodney. In 1941 at the Globe Theatre, Dare played Lady Caroline in a revival of "Dear Brutus". At Christmas of the same year, she again played the part of Mrs. Darling in "Peter Pan". In 1943 she played Fanny Farrelly in a tour of "The Watch on the Rhine", followed by the Red Queen in Gielgud's revival of "Alice Through the Looking Glass" at the Scala Theatre in London. In 1944, she played Elsie in "Another Love Story" at the Phoenix Theatre. She rejoined Novello at the Hippodrome in 1945, taking over the part of Charlotte Fayre in "Perchance to Dream". In 1949, she appeared as the royal mother in Novello's musical "King's Rhapsody" at the Palace Theatre, again with her sister Phyllis. The show ran for two years, surviving Novello's death.

" by Noel Coward. Dare's last theatrical role was as Mrs. Higgins, Henry Higgins' mother, in the original London production of "My Fair Lady" beginning in 1958 and running for five and a half years. Dare was the only one of the principal performers to stay for the complete run, followed by a season on tour. At its conclusion, she retired from the stage.

In addition to her stage career, Dare made several appearances on television and in films. Her films included the silent films "No. 5 John Street"(1921) and, "A Knight in London" (1928). Her "talkies" included "The Return of Carol Deane" (1938) and "Over the Moon" (1939). She also appeared in several television movies in England including: "Spring Meeting" (1938), "Barbie" (1955), "The Burning Glass" (1956) and "An Ideal Husband" (1969). In 1963, she was the special guest on an episode of "This is your Life" on the BBC. [ [http://www.tv.com/this-is-your-life/zena-dare/episode/761623/summary.html Information about Dare on This is Your Life"] ]

Dare's career spanned over six decades. She died in 1975 at the age of 87, and her sister died only six weeks later.

References

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0201147/ Zena Dare at the IMDB database]
* [http://www.webshots.com/search?query=CORONET+ON+STAGE Numerous photos of Dare]
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp58042 Photos of Dare at NPG.org]
* [http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=509841&word= Photos of Dare at the NYPL digital gallery]
* [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=194065763 Numerous photos and information about Dare]