Maggie Knight
{{Short description|19th century New Zealand-Australian actor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Margaret "Maggie" Knight (c. 1857 – 20 October 1917) was a New Zealand actress who had a significant career on the Australian stage.
History
Knight was born Margaret Harkness in Auckland, New Zealand around 1857.{{cite web|url=https://theatreheritage.org.au/on-stage-magazine/1st-read/itemlist/tag/Maggie%20Knight |title=Knight, Maggie (c. 1857–1916) |publisher=Theatre Heritage Australia Inc. |accessdate=20 April 2021 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}
She played leading lady to Wybert Reeve in many productions at the Sydney Opera House, in 1883, and also at the Gaiety Theatre. Among her roles were:
- Lady Henry Fairfax, in Diplomacy, based on Sardou's Dora,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article204441006 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Evening Journal (Adelaide) |volume=XI |issue=3168 |location=South Australia |date=2 June 1879 |accessdate=18 April 2021 |page=1|via=National Library of Australia}} in 1879.
- Polly Eccles in Robertson's Caste.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15751681 |title=Death of Maggie Knight |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=24,897 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=22 October 1917 |accessdate=18 April 2021 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}} in 1878 and 1880, when she took her benefit and gave a retirement speech.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article94757886 |title=Music and the Drama. |newspaper=South Australian Chronicle and Weekly Mail |volume=XXIII |issue=1,155 |location=South Australia |date=9 October 1880 |accessdate=20 April 2021 |page=24 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Maggie Knight must be one of the most popular members of the dramatic company who are now closing their season at the Theatre Royal, as the house was crammed on Wednesday night . . . We believe it to be as much for Miss Knight's pleasing face and pleasant manners as for her ability as an actress that she is so highly esteemed by the play-going public
She did return however, playing many character parts for the J. C. Williamson organization, also for Bland Holt and George Rignold.
- Nellie Denver in Henry Arthur Jones and Henry Herman's The Silver King in 1885.
- Kate Verity in Pinero's The Squire in 1888
- the old Scotch peasant in Clarke and Meynell's production of Seymour Hicks' The Gay Gordons in 1910.
- supporting Cyril Maude as the Marquise, in a charity production of Robertson's Caste, September 1917.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221396375 |title=Actors' Matinee in Aid of Benevolent Fund |newspaper=The Sun (Sydney) |issue=2241 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=4 September 1917 |accessdate=20 April 2021 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Personal
Knight married Henry R. Jewett (died 1930) on 2 March 1888 and had a son, Eric. They divorced in 1891 and the following year he left for America, where he had a successful stage and directorial career in Boston.
Knight married again in 1893 to Henry William Henderson, general manager of the German-Australian Steamship Company. They had a waterside home at Darling Point.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Maggie}}
Category:19th-century Australian actresses