Mary Brough(1863-1934)
- Actress
Mary Brough was born Mary Bessie Brough in
London in 1863 from a long theatrical family, eldest daughter of
well-known stage actor Lionel Brough. Mary made her first professional
stage appearance in 1881, her roles varied from the classics to light
comedies and popular melodramas at the Drury Lane Theatre, which
include 'Henry IV', 'David Copperfield', 'Oliver Twist', 'The Brass
Bottle', 'Mr. Wu', 'Lord and Lady Algy', and many more, Mary became
better known at the age of 60 when she appeared in many farces at the
Aldwych Theatre for actor/manager Tom Walls from 1922 such as 'Tons of
Money' alongside Ralph Lynn and Robertson Hare, she made a great
success in the part and became a key member of the team that ran nearly
continuously from 1922 to 1934. Brough appeared in more than 66 movies,
where she was best known for her comic characters often seen as
fearsome cockney women and sometimes aristocratic occasionally
sympathetic and sometimes monstrous, making her film debut in Sidney
Morgan's 'The Brass Bottle' in 1914, her most notable film roles as
Mrs. Cratchit in 'A Christmas Carol' with Charles Rock for the London
Film Co in 1914, as Mrs. Lee in George Pearson's 'Squibs' with Betty
Balfour in 1921, as Mrs. Mullet in 'Ton of Money' with Leslie Henson in
1926 and as Mrs. Spoker in 'A Cuckoo in the Nest' with Ralph Lynn in
1933. In 1934 Mary played in a new farce, 'Indoor Fireworks' at the
Aldwych when she was taken ill in her dressing room, she was nursed at
her home in Southwell, South London, where she died at the age of 71.
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