Grace Henderson

Grace Henderson (January 1861, Ann Arbor, Michigan – October 30, 1944, Bronx, New York) was a stage actress and prolific performer in silent motion pictures. She made her professional debut at McKiver's Theatre in Chicago in 1877.

Theatre Magazine 1904

Career

A decade later she began a successful run at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City. She originated the role of "Lucille Ferrand" in The Wife. In 1896, she starred in Under the Polar Star, an elaborate play complete with a facsimile of a large sailing ship and real on-stage sled dogs. Under Southern Skies followed in 1901. She played in The Marquis, and received acclaim for her performance as "Phyliss Lee" in The Charity Ball. Later, Grace Henderson supported Nance O'Neill in Peter Pan, with Maude Adams' company. This production was staged at the Empire Theatre.

In 1903 Henderson was interviewed by a reporter and came off something of a racist embarrassing herself when she refused to act with a black player in the rehearsals of the Broadway cast of My Wife's Husband. The black player Moses Fairfax had a part that was important to the play. Having been raised in the South, she explained that blacks and whites did not socialize to the point of a black calling a white woman by her first name.[1]

She toured in Lightnin. The actress' final stage appearance came in the Theatre Guild production of Green Grow the Lilacs.

Henderson participated in more than 120 silent films, starting in 1909 with Lucky Jim. She was in His Trust (1911), which was directed by D. W. Griffith, and Trying To Fool Uncle (1912), a production of Mack Sennett. Her last film was Day Dreams, directed by Clarence G. Badger, in which she played "Grandmother Burn".

Personal life

Grace was the widow of David Henderson, a Chicago newspaper man, who managed the Chicago Opera House. In November 1896 David Henderson obtained a divorce decree from her. He charged her with infidelity. George Alexander Ballantine of New York was named as co-respondent. The theatrical manager alleged that Grace visited Paris with Ballantine. On the trip George created a sensation by applying in the French courts for a divorce from his wife. Henderson did not request custody of their son.

Grace was his second wife. He married a third time the same month the divorce was granted from Grace. David Henderson's third wife was Frankie Raymond, formerly a burlesque performer for the Henderson Burlesque Company. During this time Grace was appearing in New York in Under the Polar Star.

George Ballantine lastly married Minnie Howe Parry on August 28, 1896, at the Waldorf. The announcement of their engagement caused a rift between Grace and Ballantine, in which a revolver played a significant part .

Grace allegedly had an affair with actor Maurice Barrymore in the late 1880s and bore a son who was mentally unstable. The son was confined to institutions and was virtually unknown to outside sources until Grace started appearing in early movies and devoting a lot of her salary to his upkeep.[2]

Grace Henderson died in 1944 in Morrisania Hospital, Bronx, New York, aged 83. She was survived by a son, Edwin L. Henderson, of Schenectady, New York.

Partial filmography

References

  1. ↑ Thanhouser Players Biographies volume 3: Grace Henderson
  2. ↑ Good Times, Great Times: The Odyssey of Maurice Barrymore by James Kotsilibas Davis c.1977 Doubleday

External links

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