Florence Nash (née Ryan) (October 2, 1888 — April 2, 1950) was an American

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. She was sister to theater and movie actor Mary Nash.

Early life

Florence was born to James H. and Ellen Frances (née McNamara) Ryan. She and her sister adopted the surname of their stepfather, Philip F. Nash, a vaudeville booking executive, who married their mother after the death of their father, a lawyer. Nash was

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and a lifelong

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

Career

She began her acting career in 1907 and had her first hit in 1912 as Aggie Lynch in ''Within the Law''. She was a noted theater actor and comedian in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

until the 1930s (appearing in sketches including '' In 1999''), when she moved to Hollywood to try her luck with films. Her most notable role was as "Nancy Blake" in the 1939

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

blockbuster '' The Women''.Florence Nash profile at IBDb
(Accessed November 21, 2007)''New York Times'', April 3, 1950, page 23, column 2, "Florence Nash, 60, Stage Comedienne; Retired Actress Who Scored First Hit in 'Within the Law' in 1912 Dies in Hollywood." She also was the author of a book of verse, ''June Dusk'', published in 1918.Nash, Florence. ''June Dusk, and Other Poems''. Publisher New York: G.H. Doran Company, 1918; accessible onlin
here
(accessed November 21, 2007)

Death

After her retirement from acting in 1939, she spent the next decade living comfortably in

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

where she died on April 2, 1950. She was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...

Filmography

* ''Springtime'' (1914) * ''It's a Great Life'' (1935) * '' The Women'' (1939)

References

External links

* *
Florence Nash
portrait gallery NY Public Library Billy Rose collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Nash, Florence 1888 births 1950 deaths Actresses from New York (state) American women writers American film actresses American silent film actresses American stage actresses Vaudeville performers Actors from Troy, New York 20th-century American actresses Writers from Troy, New York American Roman Catholics California Democrats New York (state) Democrats