Maidie Andrews

Maidie Andrews (27 September 1893 – 13 October 1986) was an English actress and singer born in Camden Town, London, the only daughter and second eldest of four children of Ada Harriet Andrews (née Judd, 1873–1946) and Walter Andrews (1861–1935), who worked variously as a furniture remover, a horsebus inspector, and a refreshment attendant. Her younger brother Robert Andrews, born Reginald Frank Andrews (1895–1976), was also a stage and film actor, best known as the long-term partner of Ivor Novello. Andrews never married, and her career extended across six decades, encompassing work as a child actress, a stage performer in musical comedy and drama, and later a television and film actress.

Andrews made her professional stage debut in September 1903, shortly before her tenth birthday, playing Master Sterling in The Climbers at the Comedy Theatre in London. That same theatre hosted her during the Christmas season of 1903–04, when she played Alice in Alice in Wonderland, a performance that drew praise from the critic of Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper. She appeared as Cissie, one of the Babes, in the pantomime Babes in the Wood at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham (1904–05), opposite Phyllis Dare, and in July 1905 played Little Joan in Where the Crows Gathered at the Criterion Theatre. She toured as the Second Twin in Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up in early 1907, opposite Zena Dare, and reprised the role of Alice in a 1907–08 production of Alice in Wonderland at the Apollo Theatre in London, opposite Alice Barth as the Duchess and the Red Queen. She returned to Peter Pan for the 1909–10 national tour, this time as the First Twin opposite Pauline Chase, and in February 1910 appeared at the Duke of York's Theatre in the same production opposite Herbert Hollom, the first male Peter Pan, taking on both the role of Mrs Darling and the First Twin.

Her adult stage career included the national tour of the operetta The Count of Luxembourg (1911–12), appearances at venues including the Prince's Theatre, Bristol, and a national tour of Arnold Bennett's play Milestones (1912–13). She played Joan in Yes, Uncle! (1919) at the Shaftesbury Theatre and toured in the musical comedy The Cousin From Nowhere (1922–23). In 1925 she originated the role of Sue Smith in the London production of No, No, Nanette at the Palace Theatre, opposite Binnie Hale and George Grossmith Jr., and that same year appeared as Charlotte in The Three Graces, an English-language adaptation of Lehár's Der Libellentanz. In 1928 she was in the musical comedy That's A Good Girl, starring Jack Buchanan and Elsie Randolph. She played Rose Darling in the original production of Noël Coward's Cavalcade (1931) at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and reprised her role as Sue Smith in the 1936 revival of No, No, Nanette opposite Shaun Glenville at the London Hippodrome.

Andrews appeared on Broadway between 1930 and 1939. She was Miss Trebelly in the film Symphony in Two Flats (1930), opposite Ivor Novello. She played the maid Rose in the original West End production of Coward's musical play Conversation Piece (1934) at His Majesty's Theatre, opposite Coward and Yvonne Printemps, and subsequently brought the role to Broadway at the 44th Street Theatre. Her final Broadway credit was the original New York production of Coward's musical revue Set to Music (1939) at the Music Box Theatre, in which she played La Marquise De Sauriole.

Her later stage work included Nancy Collister in Cole Porter's Let's Face It! (1943) opposite Noele Gordon and Bobby Howes at the London Hippodrome, and appearances in Arc de Triomphe (1943–44) at the Phoenix Theatre. She was Mrs Stirling in Coward's Pacific 1860 (1946) opposite Mary Martin and Graham Payn, the first production to play the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane following World War II. She played the drama teacher Monica Stevens in Ivor Novello's final musical, Gay's the Word (1950–51), opposite Cicely Courtneidge and Thorley Walters at the Saville Theatre, and was La Toulouse in Wedding in Paris (1954) opposite Anton Walbrook and Evelyn Laye at the London Hippodrome. In 1959 she played Brigette Blair in a national tour of Fool's Paradise, again opposite Courtneidge. She was Bonita Belgrave in the original production of Coward's Waiting in the Wings, which premiered in Dublin at the Olympia Theatre on 8 August 1960 opposite Sybil Thorndike and Marie Lohr, before opening in the West End at the Duke of York's Theatre on 7 September 1960 and continuing on national tour.

Her television credits included ITV Play of the Week (1956), the BBC docudrama Ivor Novello (1956), the series Sunday's Child (1959), Gilbert and Sullivan: The Immortal Jesters (1961), and the role of Florrie Martin in the episode Sing Me the Old Song of the police series No Hiding Place (1966).

In 1939 Andrews was living with her widowed mother at Littlewick Green in Cookham, Berkshire, and by 1950 her youngest brother Cyril Walter Andrews had joined her there. She spent her final years at 37 St Mary's Mansions, St Mary's Terrace in Kensington, and died in October 1986 at the age of 93. Her estate was valued at £158,260.