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

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

and

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

. She was the sister of theater and movie actress, 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 List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and a lifelong Democrat.

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 which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

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, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

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.

Death

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

Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...

, where she died on April 2/3, 1950.

Filmography

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 American 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