Christine Silver
{{Short description|British actress and playwright (1883–1960)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Christine Silver
| image = ChristineSilver1910.jpg
| alt = A young white woman wearing a large plumed hat, in an oval frame.
| caption = Silver, from a 1910 publication
| other_names =
| birth_name = Christine Isie Silver
| birth_date = 17 December 1883
| birth_place = Fulham, London
| death_date = 23 November 1960
| death_place = Kensington, London
| nationality =
| occupation = Actress, playwright
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Christine Isie Silver (17 December 1883 – 23 November 1960) was a British stage, film and television actress, and a playwright.
Early life
Christine Isie Silver was born in 1883 (some sources give 1884) in Fulham, London, the daughter of Arthur Silver and Isabella Charlotte Walenn Silver. Her father was a textile designer. Her maternal grandfather was scientist William Henry Walenn, and her uncles included singer and actor Charles Walenn and composer Gerald Walenn.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qyk_AQAAMAAJ&dq=Theatre+Christine+Silver&pg=PA560|title=Who's who in the Theatre|date=1922|publisher=Pitman|pages=560, 733|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Museum of London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FsxNAAAAYAAJ|title=Silver Studio Collection: a London design studio, 1880-1963 ; foreword by John Brandon-Jones ; introd. by Mark Turner ; with a contribution by William Ruddick|date=1980|publisher=Lund Humphries, in association with Middlessex Polytechnic|isbn = 9780853314318|language=en}}
Career
Silver began acting as a teenager, working on the London stage by 1902. She appeared in Peter Pan (1904), The Lion and the Mouse (1907),{{Cite journal|date=13 March 1907|title=The Theatre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DFnnAAAAMAAJ&dq=Christine+Silver&pg=PA283|journal=The Oxford Magazine|volume=25|pages=283}} Diana of Dobson's (1908),{{Cite journal|date=19 February 1908|title=The Dormitory Scene in 'Diana of Dobson's'|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dYI4AQAAMAAJ&dq=Christine+Silver&pg=RA1-PA167|journal=The Sketch|volume=61|pages=167}} An Englishman's Home (1909),{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48914808/wyndhams-an-englishmans-home/|title=Wyndham's; An Englishman's Home|date=1909-01-31|work=The Observer|access-date=2020-04-17|pages=5|via=Newspapers.com}} The Speckled Band (1910), George Bernard Shaw's Fanny's First Play (1911), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1913), The Sister-in-Law (1916),{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48913703/wyndhams-theatre-the-sister-in-law/|title=Wyndham's Theatre; 'The Sister-in-Law'|date=1916-08-06|work=The Observer|access-date=2020-04-17|pages=5|via=Newspapers.com}} Betty at Bay (1918),{{Cite news|last=M. A. L.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48914576/princes-theatre-betty-at-baym-a/|title=Prince's Theatre; 'Betty at Bay'|date=1918-09-03|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-17|pages=3|via=Newspapers.com}} The Mayor of Casterbridge (1926),{{Cite news|last=Ervine|first=St John|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48913520/at-the-playst-john-ervine/|title=At the Play|date=1926-09-12|work=The Observer|access-date=2020-04-17|pages=13|via=Newspapers.com}} and the title role in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.{{Cite book|last=Wilson|first=K.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=juaGDAAAQBAJ&q=Theatregoers+Christine+Silver&pg=PA200|title=Thomas Hardy on Stage|date=1994-12-19|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-230-37228-3|pages=152|language=en}} Later roles included parts in The Cathedral (1930),{{Cite news|last=I. B.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48914328/the-cathedrali-b/|title='The Cathedral'|date=1930-12-11|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-17|pages=7}} The Cradle Song (1931),{{Cite news|last=H. H.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48913971/everyman-the-cradle-songh-h/|title=Everyman; 'The Cradle Song'|date=1931-09-06|work=The Observer|access-date=2020-04-17|pages=11|via=Newspapers.com}} Barnet's Folly (1935){{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48913873/haymarket-barnets-folly-by-jan/|title=Haymarket; 'Barnet's Folly' by Jan Stewer|date=1935-04-07|work=The Observer|access-date=2020-04-17|pages=20}} The Unveiling (1938),{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48914107/untitled-theatre-item/|title=Untitled theatre item|date=1938-01-02|work=The Observer|access-date=2020-04-17|pages=13|via=Newspapers.com}} and A Trip to Scarborough (1944).{{Cite book|last=Wearing|first=J. P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mreCBAAAQBAJ&q=Theatregoers+Christine+Silver&pg=PA152|title=The London Stage 1940-1949: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel|date=2014-08-22|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8108-9306-1|pages=152|language=en}}
Silver was in several silent films, including The Pleydell Mystery (1916), The Labour Leader (1917), The Little Welsh Girl (1920), and Judge Not (1920). She made the transition to sound films as a character actress, with roles in Dead Men Tell No Tales (1938), Salute John Citizen (1942), Those Kids from Town (1942), Heaven is Round the Corner (1944), Room to Let (1950),{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/Hammers_House_of_Horror_019|title=Hammer's House of Horror 019|date=April 1978|pages=29}} and Companions in Crime (1954), and The Hornet's Nest, in 1955, as Becky Crumb, which was her last feature film rôle, with Nora Nicholson.
She was heard on radio programmes in the 1920s and 1930s,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48913350/pick-of-the-programmes/|title=Pick of the Programmes|date=1929-04-29|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-17|pages=12|via=Newspapers.com}} and seen on television in the 1940s and 1950s.
Silver also wrote a play, Doorsteps (1915), which was adapted into a silent film, Chicken Casey (1917).
Personal life
Silver married twice. Her first husband was her manager, Walter Maxwell; they married in 1908, and had a daughter Ellen Barbara Maxwell Sturgis (1912-2004), before they divorced. Her second husband was Roland Sturgis, the son of American-born writer Julian Russell Sturgis and brother of government official Mark Grant-Sturgis. They married in 1918.{{Cite book|last=Sturgis|first=Francis Shaw|url=http://archive.org/details/descendantsofnat00stur_0|title=The descendants of Nath'l Russell Sturgis : with a brief introductory sketch of his ancestors in England and in the Massachusetts colony|date=1925|publisher=Boston : Geo. Ellis|others=Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center|pages=12}} She died in 1960, aged 76 years, in Kensington, London.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp67971/christine-isie-silver-mrs-roland-sturgis|title=Christine Silver - Person|website=National Portrait Gallery|accessdate=30 September 2024}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDB name|0798667}}
- [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp67971/christine-isie-silver-mrs-roland-sturgis Portraits of Christine Silver] mostly by the Bassano studio, 1913–1917, in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
- [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw165382/Christine-Silver-Mrs-Roland-Sturgis?LinkID=mp67971&wPage=1&role=sit&rNo=25 Portrait of Christine Silver with cat in the 1950s], by Anthony Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowdon, in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver, Christine}}
Category:20th-century English actresses
Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights
Category:Actors from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Category:Actresses from London
Category:English silent film actresses
Category:English stage actresses
Category:English women dramatists and playwrights
Category:Writers from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham