Born in New Orleans on December 19, 1865, Marie Augusta Davey was the daughter of a theatrical manager. She made her stage debut at the age of three under her mother╒s maiden name as ╥Little Minnie Maddern.╙ In May 1870 she first appeared in New York in A Sheep in Wolf╒s Clothing at the French Theatre. She later played Little Eva in Uncle Tom╒s Cabin, in 1871 supported Laura Keene in Dion Boucicault╒s Hunted Down, and won considerable acclaim in Kit, the Arkansas Traveller. After a decade more of playing children╒s roles around the country she appeared as an adult in Fogg╒s Ferry at the Park Theatre, New York City, in May 1882. Another success in New York and on tour was Caprice in 1884. She was established as a star by 1890, when she married Harrison Grey Fiske, a playwright and editor of the New York Dramatic Mirror, and retired from the stage for a time.
In retirement Fiske wrote several one-act plays. She returned to the stage in November 1893 in her husband╒s Hester Crewe and subsequently appeared in A Doll╒s House, La Femme du Claude, and other plays, scoring a great success in Tess of the D╒Urbervilles at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in March 1897. She was unable to obtain road bookings during the later 1890s because of a dispute between her husband and Charles Frohman╒s powerful Theatrical Syndicate and so remained in New York. After appearances in Magda, Frou Frou, and, with Maurice Barrymore and Tyrone Power, in Becky Sharp, she joined her husband in forming their own company and renting the Manhattan Theatre in 1901 in order to be completely independent. Although they lost money in the enterprise, for six years they provided New York with outstanding theater in performances of such modern dramas as Miranda of the Balcony, 1901, Mary of Magdala, 1902, Hedda Gabler, 1903, Leah Kleschna, 1904, The New York Idea, 1906, and Rosmersholm, 1907. The theater closed in 1907 and over the next several years Fiske appeared elsewhere in Salvation Nell (the first play to reach Broadway from George P. Baker╒s famous 47 Workshop at Harvard), Pillars of Society, Hannele, The High Road, Erstwhile Susan, Madame Sand, and others.
Fiske also made numerous successful tours on which she presented her earlier and much acclaimed interpretations of lbsen and Shakespeare and in 1924 a very popular revival of The Rivals. She made two films, Tess, 1913, and Vanity Fair, 1915, with little success. A brilliant performer, a gifted director, and a forceful pioneer in theatrical realism, she gave great encouragement to other actors and to young playwrights and was as popular with her colleagues as with her audiences. Throughout her career she shunned personal publicity, and she was ever opposed to the star system. She was nevertheless named one of the twelve greatest living American women by the League of Women Voters in 1923 and again by Good Housekeeping magazine in 1931. The extended tours of her later years were exhausting; she collapsed after a final performance of Against the Wind in Chicago in November 1931, and she died on February 15, 1932, in HolIis, New York.
«styl ` H ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ ' !I & !I @ !I x !I ë !I ¥ !I ▐ ¿ !I ╛ !I ╔ !I δ !I !I h !I t !I ╙ !I ┌ !I Q !I i !I ö 5¬ ò !I !I !I - !I ; !I = !I O !I } !I û !I æ !I û !I ÿ !I í !I ╘ !I ▀ !I · !I !I !I ' !I / !I ; !I C !I P !I X !I i !I u !I Ç !I α !I ε !I H !I Z !I \ !I c !I e !I r !I t !I â !I à !I É !I á 5¬ í !I P !I Z !I q !I u !I ü !I î !I j !I { !I ± !I !I link ` HYPR ¥ ¿
