Ellen Maud O'Shea (29 October 1882 – 21 June 1969), known professionally as Nell Emerald, was an English-born actress and film producer.

Early life and education

Emerald was born in

London, England London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to Irish parents in 1882. All five of the O'Shea sisters were on the music hall stage from an early age, with their mother as their manager.

Career

After her marriage in 1910, she moved from the music hall to the film studio, first as an actress in silent films, and by 1913 as a co-director of the Brightonia Film Company, based in

Brighton, England Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

. Nell Emerald appeared in Brightonia films as well as working behind the camera as producer. Nell Emerald acted in silent films through the 1910s and 1920s, including a 1921 adaptation of

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

's ''

The Mayor of Casterbridge ''The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character'' is an 1886 novel by the English author Thomas Hardy. One of Thomas Hardy's Wessex, Hardy's Wessex novels, it is set in a fictional rural England with Casterbridge standing ...

''; Hardy himself visited the set of this production, though he never saw the finished work. Among her other silent films were ''The Grip of Iron'' (1914), ''A Bold Adventuress'' (1915), '' Fires of Innocence'' (1922), ''Chester Forgets Himself'' (1924, and adaptation of a story by

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse ( ; 15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Je ...

), and '' A Girl of London'' (1925). Emerald produced sound films in the 1930s. Among the titles she produced were '' Murder at the Cabaret'' (1936), ''Terror on Tiptoe'' (1936), and ''Dr. Sin Fang'' (1937), all low-budget thrillers. She also produced and appeared in '' Chinatown Nights'' (1938), a film later called "indescribably bad" by one critic. She also co-wrote at least one screenplay that was produced, '' This Week of Grace'' (1933), a recently rediscovered comedy starring

Gracie Fields Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 9 January 189827 September 1979) was a British actress, singer and comedian. A star of cinema and music hall, she was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the h ...

Personal life

Nell O'Shea married David George Beattie in 1910. Her niece was actress and film director

Ida Lupino Ida Lupino (4 February 1918Recorded in ''Births Mar 1918'' Camberwell Vol. 1d, p. 1019 (Free BMD). Transcribed as "Lupine" in the official births index – 3 August 1995) was a British actress, director, writer, and producer. Throughout her 48-y ...

(Lupino's mother was Nell's sister, actress Connie Emerald). Emerald died in 1969, age 86. A minor character in

Willa Cather Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', ''The Song of the Lark (novel), The Song of the Lark'', a ...

's '' A Lost Lady'' (1923) is named "Nell Emerald," but is more likely based on a Colorado madam named Fannie Fernleigh.Willa Cather
''Obscure Destinies''
(University of Nebraska Press 1998): 313, note 179.

References

External links

An image of Nell Emerald in her music-hall days
in the G. Sykes Theatre Actor Postcard Collection at

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The R ...

.
An image of Nell Emerald later in her acting career
from Getty Images. *
Nell Emerald
at the Women Film Pioneers Project {{DEFAULTSORT:Emerald, Nell English stage actresses English film actresses 1882 births 1969 deaths Women film pioneers English people of Irish descent Actresses from London People from Westminster Actors from the City of Westminster