User:Rachel Murrell/Sandbox

== Nora Kerin == From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nora Kerin (October 22, 1881- February 21st, 1970) was an English actress who appeared in Shakespearean comedies and tragedies produced by Herbert Beerbohm Tree, George Alexander (actor) and George Musgrove, and in popular melodramas by Walter and Frederick Melville. She became a favourite at the Lyceum Theatre, London.

Born in Bloomsbury, Nora was one of seven acting cousins who included the actor-manager Julia Neilson, the sisters Lily Hanbury and Hilda Hanbury, Hilda Jacobson, Florence Jamieson, and Nora’s own sister, Eileen. She is related by marriage to several of the leading theatrical dynasties in British film and theatre, and was a cousin of the Anglican healer, Dorothy Kerin.

Nora Kerin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nora Kerin (October 22, 1881- February 21st, 1970) was an English actress who appeared in Shakespearean comedies and tragedies produced by Herbert Beerbohm Tree, George Alexander (actor) and George Musgrove, and in popular melodramas by Walter and Frederick Melville. She became a favourite at the Lyceum Theatre, London. Born in Bloomsbury, Nora was one of seven acting cousins who included the actor-manager Julia Neilson, the sisters Lily Hanbury and Hilda Hanbury, Hilda Jacobson, Florence Jamieson, and Nora’s own sister, Eileen. She is related by marriage to several of the leading theatrical dynasties in British film and theatre, and was a cousin of the Anglican healer, Dorothy Kerin.

Professional career
Nora relates how, in 1899, she was spotted by the actor-manager Dion Boucicault Jr while visiting a friend at the theatre. She was offered a job straight away in his production of A Royal Family by Capt. Robert Marshall.

Following this debut, she had a number of minor roles in London and Manchester in the early years of the 20th century before appearing as Esther in Arthur Collins' spectacular production of Ben Hur - which featured live horses galloping towards the audience - 1902 at Drury Lane.

In 1903 she toured Australia and New Zealand with ‘Mr George Musgrove’s English Shakespearean Company’, appearing in elaborately staged productions of Twelfth Night, As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream in both countries.

Between 1905 and 1908, Nora played the lead in The Midnight Wedding, Romeo & Juliet and The Prince & The Beggarmaid, and she became a regular on the Lyceum stage.

Nora appeared in two Walter/ Frederick Melville productions at The Lyceum, including The Women of France in 1912. This ran for 126 performances, and Nora was on the front cover of The Playgoer and Society Illustrated magazine, and was interviewed and photographed in her role as Valerie de Brissac. In the interview, she speaks warmly of her fans:

“I love being here, the audiences are so much alive, besides taking a real personal interest in the company. One working girl wrote to say she came every week to see me act – a very pleasant thing for any actress to hear.” (H.V.M., 1912)

In this magazine, Nora’s photograph also appears in an advertisement for Helena Rubenstein make-up. By now, she was a much-photographed personality, beloved of theatre fans and postcard collectors alike. She would often autograph postcards with the phrase ‘Very truly yours, Nora Kerin’. A signed photograph given to the actor and physical therapist F. Matthias Alexander bears a more personal message. It shows Nora in the role of Juliet and is inscribed with the words ‘To my good friend M. Alexander, with many grateful thanks, Nora Kerin.’ Alexander treated - or as he would have it, 'trained' - many actors of the period, though in Nora's case, it is not known whether she consulted him for voice coaching or back pain.

After The Women of France, the work began to taper off, and by the outbreak of WW1, Nora had all but retired. And although she continued to move in theatrical circles, she rarely acted again. She came briefly out of retirement to appear in The Orphans in 1923, but that appears to have been her last appearance.

Personal Life
The 1909 edition of The Green Room Book gives Nora's date of birth as 1883, rather than 1881. Whether that was an error introduced by the typographer or by Nora herself, we do not know, but in a magazine interview in 1912 she claims to be two years younger than she is, so it seems likely that it was Nora’s idea.

During her Antipodean tour, members of the New Zealand press speculated about a presumed romance between Nora and her leading man, Norman Partriege. One columnist went so far as to claim they were engaged (Otago Witness, Issue 2602, 27 January 1904, Page 57).

But 18 months later came a new report: Dainty Nora Kerin, who was so sweet a Rosalind in "As You Like It" when the Musgrove Company was last here, has given up her profession, and, when the latest mail left England, was deeply engrossed in trousseau thoughts, but Mr. Norman Partriege was not the lucky man after all. The bridegroom's name is Mr. Cyril Michael. (New Zealand Free Lance, Volume VI, Issue 280, 11 November 1905, Page 8)

Nora married Cyril Michael in 1905. The son of a wealthy Jewish Londoner, Cyril studied medicine as a young man, but by the time of his marriage, he worked for The Times Furnishing Co.

Their two daughters, Joan and Daphne, were born within three years. Nora quickly returned to the stage. In their first few years, Joan and Daphne were largely brought up by their grandmother Jane, then sent to boarding school.

Between the wars Nora lived in the country, again holidaying by the sea in Kent with her children, and those of her sister and brothers, which by then included another well-known actor: Eileen's son, Desmond Walter-Ellis.

In the early 1930s, Nora’s daughters got married. Joan – who had converted to Christianity at the age of 18 – married an Anglican priest, Francis Wheeler, and settled down to the life of a vicar’s wife. Meanwhile her sister Daphne married Michael Sieff, a member of the wealthy Jewish family that owned and ran Marks & Spencer.

By now Nora’s own marriage had broken down, and she is believed to have began a relationship with Sidney Dark, a prominent journalist and critic, and the editor of the independent Anglican weekly, the Church Times. Dark appears in numerous photographs in Nora’s family albums between 1930 and 1936.

Nora lived in various houses during the war years, sometimes in London, sometimes in the countryside around it. Although herself not rich, her needs were taken care of by her daughter Daphne until her death in a South London nursing home in February 1970, aged 88.

Nora's ashes are scattered in Golders Green crematorium.