Mary Ellis

Mary Ellis, born Mary Belle Elsas on June 15, 1897, in Manhattan, New York City, was an American actress and singer whose career extended across more than half a century. The daughter of German parents, Herman Elsas and Caroline Elsas, née Reinhardt, a pianist, Ellis trained her lyric soprano voice under Belgian contralto Freida de Goebele and Italian operatic coach Fernando Tanara, having first developed an interest in performing around 1910.

Ellis launched her professional career at the Metropolitan Opera, making her debut on December 14, 1918, in the world premiere of Puccini's Il trittico. She created the role of Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, the second of the evening's three one-act operas, and later in the same run took on the role of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. In 1919 she sang Mytyl in the premiere of Albert Wolff's L'oiseau bleu. During her time with the Metropolitan company she also sang Giannetta in L'elisir d'amore opposite Enrico Caruso's Nemorino and Fyodor in Boris Godunov opposite Feodor Chaliapin's Boris.

Her Broadway career began in 1921, when she played a street urchin and errand girl in Louis. The following year she appeared as Nerissa in the 1922 production of Merchant of Venice, and in 1923 she played The Dancer from Milan in Casanova. Ellis gained significant recognition in 1924 by originating the title role in Rudolf Friml's operetta Rose-Marie at the Imperial Theatre. In 1925 she played Leah in The Neighborhood Playhouse's adaptation of The Dybbuk. Subsequent Broadway credits included Anna in The Crown Prince in 1927 and Kate in a long-running revival of The Taming of the Shrew from 1927 to 1928. She appeared as The Baroness of Spangenburg in 12,000 in 1928 and as Jennifer in Meet the Prince. In 1929 she took the title role in Becky Sharp, a Players' Club adaptation of Vanity Fair, and in 1930 she played Laetitia in Children of Darkness. Her Broadway appearances spanned the years 1922 to 1932 and also included the play Jewel Robbery.

Ellis emigrated to England in 1930 with her third husband, actor Basil Sydney, whom she had married in 1929. She quickly established herself in London's West End, starring in Jerome Kern's Music in the Air in 1933. Her most enduring stage fame came through her leading roles in Ivor Novello operettas: she starred in Glamorous Night in 1935, The Dancing Years in 1939, and Arc de Triomphe in 1943. A film version of Glamorous Night followed in 1937, and her other film credits from the 1930s included Bella Donna in 1934, All the King's Horses and Paris in Spring in 1935, and Fatal Lady in 1936.

During most of World War II, Ellis stepped away from the theatre to perform welfare work in hospitals and give concerts for members of the armed forces. Returning to the stage after the war, she appeared in the 1944 and 1947 British productions of Noël Coward's Point Valaine, playing a hotel keeper in a clandestine relationship with her head waiter. In 1948 she delivered a widely praised performance as the embittered Millie Crocker-Harris in Terence Rattigan's The Browning Version. In 1952 she played Volumnia in Coriolanus during the nine-month Stratford season. She was cast as Mrs. Erlynne in Coward's musical After the Ball in 1954, though much of her music was cut due to a significant deterioration in her singing voice.

Ellis continued working in film and television in later decades. She appeared in the 1949 film The Astonished Heart and The Magic Box in 1951, and played a role in the 1960 film The 3 Worlds of Gulliver. In 1993 and 1994 she appeared in two episodes of the television series Sherlock Holmes. Her final stage appearance came in 1970, when she played Mrs. Warren in Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.

Ellis published her memoirs in 1982 under the title Those Dancing Years, followed by a further autobiography, Moments of Truth, in 1986. She was the last surviving performer to have created a role in a Puccini opera and the last to have sung opposite Caruso. Having become a centenarian in 1997, she died at her home in Eaton Square, London, on January 30, 2003, at the age of 105.