Daisy Belmore

Daisy Belmore, born Daisy Gertrude Garstin on 30 June 1874 in St Marylebone, Westminster, England, was an English stage and film actress whose Broadway career spanned from 1910 to 1951. Baptised on 27 September 1874, she was one of seven children born to George Benjamin Garstin and Alice Maud Mary Ann Garstin. Her father performed under the stage name George Belmore and was a prominent comedian who acted alongside Sir Henry Irving. Her paternal grandmother and great-grandparents were all actors on the London stage, and her godmother was the celebrated actress Ellen Terry. Her brother Lionel Belmore became a film director.

Belmore began acting around the age of eight, initially taking on child roles alongside her brother, including a production of The Silver King. After a brief pause to attend school, she returned to the stage at fifteen, by which point she had established herself as a leading comedienne. Her early experience was daunting — she recalled having only two lines in her first appearance and being too nervous to deliver them above a whisper, prompting her mother to doubt her future on stage. She went on to tour globally with the Wilson Barrett Company, visiting America multiple times and making her debut tour of Australia in 1898, where she found audiences enthusiastic and emotionally responsive. During a subsequent Australian tour in 1901, she played Dacia in The Sign of the Cross.

Belmore arrived in New York on 29 July 1910, having sailed from Southampton, England, to appear in the musical comedy Our Miss Gibbs, produced by Charles Frohman. This marked the beginning of her permanent residence in the United States, where she would later obtain citizenship in December 1939 after petitioning in the state of New York. In 1911, she worked with William Faversham in a production of The Faun, appearing alongside her brothers. Her Broadway credits during this period included Out There and the play One, among other productions.

Her most acclaimed stage performance came in 1921, when she took on the role of Old Sweetheart in Three Live Ghosts, portraying a gin-drinking, lovable old mother. The role required a dramatic physical transformation, and the change in her appearance was so complete that audiences who had seen the play failed to recognise her on the street. The performance earned her widespread praise and was considered her breakthrough. Belmore was also known for her good looks, which stood in sharp contrast to the character's appearance.

Beyond performing, Belmore directed and toured for forty weeks with The Vagabond King, primarily in Chicago. In 1932, she toured with what was described as the largest dramatic road show in a production of George Bernard Shaw's The Apple Cart. Other productions she was involved in as an actress or director included Angel Street, Best of Spirits, and His Makers. She also appeared in the plays Tiger! Tiger! and The Faithful Heart during her Broadway career. By the late 1940s, she served as director of New York's American Theater, and in 1947 she presented Little Women at Huntingdon College as a public service. In June 1935, she starred in a joint production of the Vine Street Theatre and Harold Lloyd's Beverly Hills Little Theatre for Professionals in The Widow in Green, directed by Dickson Morgan and featuring Grace Stafford, Alden Chase, Colin Campbell, and Viola Moore.

Belmore's work extended to film as well. In 1928, she joined the cast of the silent film We Americans, described at the time as featuring a strong ensemble. She appeared in the drama Seven Days Leave in 1930, and in 1931 was part of the supporting cast of My Past, which starred Joan Blondell and Virginia Sale. Away from her own career, she helped arrange Shakespearean acting classes for Nellie Bramley, an emerging Australian stage actress. She returned to Australia in 1927 after seventeen years in New York, during which time she had gained considerable recognition in America.

On 19 April 1902, Belmore married Melbourne-born Samuel Waxman, born in April 1869. The couple had two children: a son, Eric, born in 1905, and a daughter, Ruth, born in 1906. They separated in 1923, and Waxman died in March 1942. Ruth also pursued a career as a stage actress and musician, occasionally appearing alongside her mother. Belmore stood five feet eight inches tall and had blue eyes. She played tennis and football with her brothers during her years in America.

Her final Broadway appearance was in the 1951 play The Rose Tattoo. Her brother Herbert died that same year, and her brother Lionel died in Hollywood in 1953. Belmore spent her later years living alone. She died on 12 December 1954 in her apartment at the Wellington Hotel in New York from a heart attack, at the age of eighty, having suffered from a heart condition for several years. She was survived by her two children, Ruth and Eric.