Evie Greene

Edith Elizabeth Greene, known professionally as Evie Greene, was an English actress and singer born on 14 January 1875 at 82 Fratton Road in Portsmouth, England. The daughter of Richard Bentley Greene, a retired naval officer, and his wife Edith, she appeared in the 1881 census at age six and was recorded in the 1891 census as a sixteen-year-old teacher of music. She died on 11 September 1917 at her parents' home at Parnholt, Southsea, Hampshire, at the age of 42.

Greene began performing as a dancer while still a young teenager, joining a touring production of Walter Slaughter's medieval comic opera Marjorie. Her early career also included pantomime work in the provinces. She went on to become a prominent figure in Edwardian musical comedy, performing extensively in London's West End and on Broadway, and was widely photographed throughout her career.

Her most celebrated role came in Florodora, in which she starred as Dolores at the Lyric Theatre in London beginning in 1899. The production was an international hit, and Greene also participated in what is recognized as the world's first original cast album, recorded for that musical. She returned to the role in a 1915 revival, again receiving favorable notices. Among her other leading roles, she played the title part in Kitty Grey at the Apollo Theatre in 1900 and 1901, a production that also featured Mabel Love and Edna May, and starred in A Country Girl at Daly's Theatre in 1903.

Greene played Madame Sans-Gêne in The Duchess of Dantzic, appearing first at the Lyric Theatre in London in 1903 and subsequently bringing the role to Broadway in 1905. She also appeared in operettas beyond that production, including Les Merveilleuses in 1906 at Daly's Theatre and L'Amour Mouillé at the Lyric Theatre. That same year she took the role of Molly Montrose in The Little Cherub at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, alongside Lily Elsie, Gabrielle Ray, and Zena Dare. In 1908 she starred in Havana at the Gaiety Theatre in London.

Outside of musical comedy and operetta, Greene sang the role of the Plaintiff in a 1902 benefit performance of Trial by Jury, appearing alongside Hayden Coffin and members of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, with Lionel Monckton in the mute role of the Associate. She continued performing into the mid-1910s, with documented appearances at the London Palladium as late as 22 November 1916.

Greene married twice. Her first marriage, in 1896, was to Richard Temple, Jr., son of the D'Oyly Carte principal bass Richard Temple; that marriage ended in divorce on grounds of abandonment. In 1910 she married Captain Ernest Kennaway Arbuthnot, who later became Chief Constable of Oxfordshire in 1921. Her nephew was the actor Richard Greene, best known for portraying Robin Hood in the 1950s British television series The Adventures of Robin Hood.