Fanny Brough

Frances Whiteside Brough was born in Paris on 7 July 1852 and baptised on 23 February 1853 at the Parish Church of St. Peter in Liverpool. A French-born British stage actress, she built a career spanning four decades and became widely recognized for her comedy roles. Her father, Robert Barnabas Brough, was a journalist, poet, and librettist who died shortly before her eighth birthday. Her mother, Elizabeth, née Romer, was an actress and a cousin of the soprano Emma Romer. Among her paternal uncles were the writer William Brough, the science writer John Cargill Brough, and the actor-comedian Lionel Brough. Her brother was the actor and manager who performed under the stage name Robert Brough, born Lionel Barnabas Brough.

Brough made her professional stage debut in 1869 with Charles Calvert's company at the Prince's Theatre in Manchester. In March 1870 she appeared there as Ophelia opposite Barry Sullivan in Hamlet. Her London debut followed on 15 October 1870 at the St James's Theatre, where she took the title role in Southerland Edwards's adaptation of Sardou's Fernande. She subsequently performed with the Bancrofts in a revival of Money. By 1878 she had found success as Mary Melrose in provincial productions of Henry James Byron's Our Boys, and in 1886 she played Norah Fitzgerald in Henry Hamilton's Harvest at London's Princess's Theatre. That same year, 1878, she married Richard Smith Bull, an actor and stage manager who performed under the name Richard Smith Boleyn.

Among her notable role creations was Petrella in The Passion Flower; or, Woman and the Law, adapted from Leopoldo Cano-y-Masas's La Pasionaria. The production first appeared in England at the Theatre Royal in Hull on 28 July 1884 and subsequently opened at London's Olympic Theatre on 13 March 1885. In 1888 she played the Irish servant Mary O'Brien in The Real Little Lord Fauntleroy, drawn from Frances Hodgson Burnett's book, which opened on 23 February at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Through much of the 1880s and into the 1890s, Brough toured in road productions led by Kyrle Bellew and Cora Urquhart Brown-Potter. On 3 January 1895 she appeared as Lady Markby in Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband at the Haymarket Theatre in London.

In 1891 Brough became the first president of the Theatrical Ladies' Guild, an organization founded by actress Kittie Carson to assist actresses who became pregnant and lost their employment. The guild raised and distributed funds, arranged medical services, and organized the loan and creation of clothing for mothers and children, including through weekly sewing bees.

The high point of Brough's career came in 1902 when she created the title role of Kitty Warren in George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession. The following year she traveled to America with Charles Hawtrey, appearing in productions of F. Anstey's The Man from Blankley's and F. C. Burnand's Saucy Sally. Her Broadway appearances between 1900 and 1904 included The Duke of Killicrankie, Saucy Sally, The Man from Blankley's, and My Daughter-in-law. Back in London, she produced and played the lead in R. V. Harcourt's comedy An Angle Unawares, which opened at Terry's Theatre on 12 September 1905. She is reported to have performed the role of O'Mara in Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton's Sealed Orders at Drury Lane Theatre in the latter part of 1913, a production that may have marked the conclusion of her career. Brough died in London on 30 November 1914 at the age of 62.