:Gwladys Evan Morris
{{Short description|British actress}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gwladys Evan Morris
| image = GwladysEvanMorris1929.png
| alt = A newspaper photograph of a white woman with dark hair
| caption = Gwladys Evan Morris, from a 1929 Welsh newspaper
| birth_date = 7 June 1879
| birth_place = Wrexham, Denbighshire, Wales, U.K.
| death_date = 6 March 1957 (age 77)
| death_place = Notting Hill, London, U.K.
| occupation = Actress, writer
}}
Gwladys Evan Morris (7 June 1879 – 6 March 1957) was a Welsh stage actress and writer.{{cite news |title=Obituary: Gwladys Evan Morris |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001179/19570314/118/0010 |accessdate=5 July 2018 |work=The Stage |date=14 March 1957 |page=10}}
Early life
Morris was born in Wrexham, Denbighshire, Wales, one of the six daughters of Sir Evan Morris and the former Frances Elizabeth Rowland.England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915{{Cite news |date=1929-08-21 |title=Shaws Plays in Allegories; Work by Welsh Actress |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/western-mail-shaws-plays-in-allegories/170960645/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |work=Western Mail |pages=5 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her father, a prominent solicitor, was mayor of Wrexham and chair of the general committee of the National Eisteddfod in 1888, died in 1890.{{Cite news |date=1890-04-26 |title=Death of Sir Evan Morris |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/wrexham-advertiser-death-of-sir-evan-mor/170970823/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |work=Wrexham Advertiser |pages=6 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her maternal grandfather, Thomas Rowland, also served a term as mayor of Wrexham.{{Cite web |title=Sir Evan Morris (1888 – 1889) |url=https://wrexhamcemeterystories.com/story/824 |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=Wrexham Cemetery Stories}}
Career
= Acting =
Morris's acting career began in 1903, when she went on a tour to the West Indies and India with Frank Benson's company. She also travelled to the United States, Ireland, Nova Scotia, and New Zealand. She mainly acted in plays by George Bernard Shaw, whom she greatly admired.
From 1916 to 1920, Morris appeared in Shakespearean plays with the Henry Jewett Players, and then in London theatres from 1920 on. In 1929, Morris toured with the Macdona Company. In 1931, she played Vera Lyndon in Rodney Ackland's Strange Orchestra at the Embassy Theatre,{{Cite news |date=1931-07-14 |title=A Playwright and His Leading Lady |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/western-mail-a-playwright-and-his-leadin/170968903/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |work=Western Mail |pages=10 |via=Newspapers.com}} in 1933 she was in the cast of Richard Hughes' The Comedy of Good and Evil with the Welsh National Theatre Players,{{Cite news |date=1933-01-10 |title=Welsh National Theatre; Players to Stage 'The Comedy of Good and Evil' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/western-mail-welsh-national-theatre-pla/170969016/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |work=Western Mail |pages=8 |via=Newspapers.com}} and in 1936 was in Ackland's After October at the Criterion Theatre and the Aldwych Theatre.{{Cite news |date=1936-02-22 |title=£250 Subscribed for Play; Rodney Ackland's Story of Home Life |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-herald-250-subscribed-for-play-r/170969764/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |work=Daily Herald |pages=11 |via=Newspapers.com}} She retired in 1939.
= Writing and other activities =
Morris wrote Tales from Bernard Shaw, which was first published in 1929 by George G. Harrap and Co. of London, and was printed by H & J Pillans & Wilson of Edinburgh. An American edition was published in 1929 by Frederick A. Stokes of New York.{{Cite news |date=1929-11-09 |title=A Guide to Shaw and Tales from his Dramatic Pieces |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-a-guide-to-sha/170967402/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |pages=15 |via=Newspapers.com}} The book, written with Shaw's permission, was an attempt to retell the stories of Shaw's plays as fairy tales or fables, many of them with animal characters.{{Cite news |date=1929-09-07 |title=Two 'Lions' and Some Others |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/manchester-evening-news-two-lions-and/170966446/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |work=Manchester Evening News |pages=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |last=Way |first=Oliver |date=1929-09-07 |title=Modern Life in Books |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-graphic-an-illustrated-weekly-newsp/170968388/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |work=The Graphic: An Illustrated Weekly Newspaper |pages=26 |via=Newspapers.com}} For example, Morris explains that the character of Jack (a chattering monkey in her story of Man and Superman) is Shaw himself, and that the woman's part in another of her stories (based on Captain Brassbound's Conversion) is written "expressly for and round the personality of Ellen Terry", a famous actress of the day who had died, a year before publication, in 1928. Morris's book, illustrated by Phyllis Amelia Trery, was described as "a work of imagination and insight"; the same reviewer said that Morris's "humour is both piquant and delightful."{{Cite news |last=Mathias |first=Frederick J. |date=1929-09-06 |title=Exponent of Shaw's Plays; 'Tales' by a Welsh Actress |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/western-mail-exponent-of-shaws-plays/170966849/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |work=Western Mail |pages=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Morris also invented a "fob comb"--a small comb with its own carrying purse.{{Cite news |date=1928-02-12 |title='Tales from Shaw'; English Girl's Success |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sun-tales-from-shaw-english-girl/170967919/ |access-date=2025-04-24 |work=The Sun |pages=5 |via=Newspapers.com}} During World War II, she was churchwarden at St. George's in Campden Hill.
Personal life
References
{{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Gwladys Evan}}
Category:19th-century Welsh people
Category:19th-century Welsh actresses
Category:20th-century Welsh actresses
Category:20th-century Welsh writers
Category:20th-century Welsh women writers
Category:Welsh stage actresses
Category:19th-century Welsh women writers
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