Nell Emerald
{{Short description|English actress (1882–1969)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Nell Emerald
| image = NellEmerald.tiff
| caption = Nell Emerald in 1908
| birth_name = Ellen Maud O'Shea
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1882|10|29|df=y}}
| birth_place = Westminster, London, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1969|06|21|1882|10|29|df=y}}
| death_place = Epsom, Surrey, England
| occupation = Actress, film producer
| relatives = {{Plainlist|
- Connie Emerald (sister)
- Ida Lupino (niece)
}}
}}
Ellen Maud O'Shea (29 October 1882 – 21 June 1969), known professionally as Nell Emerald, was an English-born actress and film producer.
Early life and education
Emerald was born in London, England to Irish parents in 1882. All five of the O'Shea sisters were on the music hall stage from an early age, with their mother as their manager.Fletcher, Tony. [https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-nell-emerald/ "Nell Emerald"] In Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, eds. Women Film Pioneers Project, Center for Digital Research and Scholarship. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2013. Web. September 27, 2013.
Career
After her marriage in 1910, she moved from the music hall to the film studio, first as an actress in silent films, and by 1913 as a co-director of the Brightonia Film Company, based in Brighton, England. Nell Emerald appeared in Brightonia films as well as working behind the camera as producer.[https://books.google.com/books?id=3Ew_AAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Nell+Emerald%22&pg=PA192 "Foreign Trade Notes"] The Moving Picture World 17(July 12, 1913): 192.
Nell Emerald acted in silent films through the 1910s and 1920s, including a 1921 adaptation of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge; Hardy himself visited the set of this production, though he never saw the finished work.Paul J. Niemeyer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3hfCCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA251 Seeing Hardy: Film and Television Adaptation of the Fiction of Thomas Hardy] (McFarland 2003): 250-252. {{ISBN|9780786414291}} Among her other silent films were The Grip of Iron (1914), A Bold Adventuress (1915),R. G. Young, ed., [https://books.google.com/books?id=QoJ4jTghUPYC&pg=PA68 The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film: Ali Baba to Zombies] (Hal Leonard Company 2000): 68. {{ISBN|9781557832696}} Fires of Innocence (1922), Chester Forgets Himself (1924, and adaptation of a story by P. G. Wodehouse),Brian Taves, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8UsfvxcEAssC&pg=PA154 P. G. Wodehouse and Hollywood: Screenwriting, Satires, and Adaptations] (McFarland 2006): 154. {{ISBN|9780786484430}} and A Girl of London (1925).Robert B. Connelly, [https://books.google.com/books?id=K7tPAAAAYAAJ The Silents: Silent Feature Films, 1910-36] (December Press 1998): 83, 94, 324. {{ISBN|9780913204368}}
Emerald produced sound films in the 1930s. Among the titles she produced were Murder at the Cabaret (1936), Terror on Tiptoe (1936), and Dr. Sin Fang (1937), all low-budget thrillers.Sue Harper, [https://books.google.com/books?id=lIyvAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA155 Women in British Cinema: Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know] (A&C Black 2000): 155. {{ISBN|9781441134981}} She also produced and appeared in Chinatown Nights (1938), a film later called "indescribably bad" by one critic.Michael R. Pitts, [https://books.google.com/books?id=PKxN1as8XOMC&pg=PA34 "Chinatown Nights"] in Columbia Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1928-1982 (McFarland 2010): 34. {{ISBN|9780786457663}} She also co-wrote at least one screenplay that was produced, This Week of Grace (1933), a recently rediscovered comedy starring Gracie Fields.
Personal life
Nell O'Shea married David George Beattie in 1910. Her niece was actress and film director Ida Lupino (Lupino's mother was Nell's sister, actress Connie Emerald). Emerald died in 1969, age 86.
A minor character in Willa Cather's A Lost Lady (1923) is named "Nell Emerald," but is more likely based on a Colorado madam named Fannie Fernleigh.Willa Cather, [https://books.google.com/books?id=AWF1LlkPF6gC&pg=PA313 Obscure Destinies] (University of Nebraska Press 1998): 313, note 179. {{ISBN|9780803214309}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://wakespace.lib.wfu.edu/handle/10339/29957 An image of Nell Emerald in her music-hall days], in the G. Sykes Theatre Actor Postcard Collection at Wake Forest University.
- [http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nell-emerald-the-actress-and-sister-to-connie-emerald-the-news-photo/3265146 An image of Nell Emerald later in her acting career], from Getty Images.
- {{IMDb name|0256158}}
- [https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-nell-emerald/ Nell Emerald] at the Women Film Pioneers Project
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Emerald, Nell}}
Category:English stage actresses
Category:English film actresses
Category:English people of Irish descent
Category:Actresses from London