(c) 2017 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Mary Wyndham

London, 1861 - 1931

BiographyWyndham, Mary (1861–1931)
Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Research Inc.
Wyndham, Mary (1861–1931)
English actress and co-founder of Wyndham's Theaters . Born Mary Moore in London, England, on July 3, 1861; died on April 6, 1931; daughter of Charles Moore; attended Warwick Hall, Maida Vale; married James Albery (a playwright), in 1878 (died 1889); married Sir Charles Wyndham, in 1916 (died 1919); children: (first marriage) son Bronson.

Mary Wyndham was born in London, England, in 1861. Her first stage appearance was at the Gaiety Theater, under the direction of John Hollingshead. She retired from acting in 1878 upon marrying playwright James Albery, with whom she would have one son Bronson before Albery's death in 1889. In 1885, Mary joined Sir Charles Wyndham's company, appearing as Lady Dorothy in The Candidate in the Theater Royal, Bradford. Charles also managed the Criterion, and Mary acted there in 1885 as well. Wyndham, whose claim to fame was playing silly yet attractive women, appeared in command performances at Windsor Castle for King Edward VII in both 1903 and 1907. At one time, she was president of the Actors' Benevolent Fund.

Mary partnered with Sir Charles in the Criterion, beginning in 1897, and together they built Wyndham's Theater in 1899, on Charing Cross Road in London. They opened with David Gar-rick, a proven success for the two performers, and later partnered to build the New Theater. Although they had an established professional relationship, they were not married until 1916. When Charles died in 1919, Mary maintained her positions as co-proprietor of Wyndham's Theater and the New Theater and co-lessee of the Criterion in conjunction with Sir Charles' executors. When Lady Mary Wyndham died in 1931, the theater continued under the management of her son Bronson Albery and Howard Wyndham, the son of Sir Charles by a previous marriage.

Richard Wasowski , freelance writer, Mansfield, Ohio

"Wyndham, Mary (1861–1931)." Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. . Encyclopedia.com. (August 2, 2018). http://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wyndham-mary-1861-1931 I.S. 8/2/2018

THE TIMES
Tuesday April 7, 1931
OBITUARY
Lady WYNDHAM
A DISTINGUISHED COMEDY ACTRESS
We record with regret that Lady Wyndham (Miss Mary Moore), the distinguished actress and widow of Sir Charles Wyndham, not less distinguished as an actor, died yesterday at her home in York-terrace, Regent's Park.
The daughter of a Parliamentary Agent named Charles Moore, she was born in London on July 3, 1861. She went first on the stage at the Gaiety Theatre, under the management of John Hollingshead, but soon retired into private life on her marriage in 1878 to James Albery, the author of Two Roses and other successful plays. In 1885 she returned to the stage under the management of Charles Wyndham, who had taken the Criteron Theatre, and under that management she acted throughout the remainder of her long professional career. The year 1886 was that in which she began to emerge from the crowd. In that year she first played Ada Ingot in David Garrick, and a little later she played it before the Prince of Wales at Sandringham, and in Berlin and St, Petersburg, where she and Wyndham acted in German.
The successful association between these two was thenceforward established. In all Wyndham's productions Miss Mary Moore took the leading feminine parts When Wyndham began to produce the plays of Mr. Henry Arthur Jones Miss Mary Moore was there to play the heroines in The Bauble Shop, in The Case of Rebellious Susan, in The Liars.

Hubert Henry Davies was another dramatist who wrote first-rate parts for her: Miss Mills in Captain Drew on Leave; best of all, Mrs. Baxter in The Mollusc. She accompanied Wyndham on all his American Tours, and continued to act with him until his retirement, after which she occasionally appeared on her own account. The partnership was financially very profitable, thanks partly to Miss Mary Moore's excellent head for business; and she was Wyndham's partner in the Criteron, the New, and Wyndham's Theatres, all three very remunerative investments. After James Albery's death, which was followed by that of the first Lady Wyndham, Sir Charles Wyndham and Miss Mary Moore were married in March, 1916.
Miss Moore's forte, especially in the last half of her career, was the acting of pretty and alluring fools. She knew to a shade how to make them foolish without making them tiresome, and helpless without being intolerably silly. Contrasted with the voluble wisdom of the characters chiefly affected by Sir Charles Wyndham, these alluring fools made good material for any number of plays, and Miss Moore succeeded in varying the comedy of the type so that each was distinguished from the others, She kept her youthful looks till well past middle age, and could play young women almost to the last. After Wyndham's death, in 1919, she appeared as Lady Bagley in Our Mr. Hepplewhite, but since then only in charity performances. She was president of the Actors' Benevolent Fund. She leaves, by her first marriage, three sons - namely, Mr. Irving James Albery, M.C., Unionist member for Gravesend, who married Jill, daughter of Mr Henry Arthur Jones, Mr. Bronson Albery, theatre manager, and Mr. Wyndham Albery, an Accountant.
http://ghgraham.org/text/ladywyndham1861_obit.html I.S. 8/2/2018

Person TypeIndividual

Last Updated8/7/24

Terms