Elsie Louise Ferguson (August 19, 1883 – November 15, 1961) was an American stage and film actress. Seen by some as an early feminist, she promoted suffrage, which she discussed in interviews, and supported animal rights.

Early life

Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Hiram and Amelia Ferguson. Her father was a successful attorney. Raised and educated in Manhattan, she became interested in the theater at a young age and made her stage debut at 17 as a chorus girl in a musical comedy. For almost two years, from 1903 to 1905, she was a cast member in The Girl from Kays. In 1908, she was leading lady to Edgar Selwyn in Pierre of the Plains. By 1909, after several years apprenticeship under several producers, including Charles Frohman, Klaw & Erlanger, Charles Dillingham and Henry B. Harris, she was a major Broadway star, starring in Such a Little Queen. In 1910, she spent time on the stage in London. Actresses Evelyn Nesbit and Ethel Barrymore were friends of hers.

During World War I, a number of Broadway stars organized a campaign to sell Liberty Bonds from the theatre stage before the performance as well as at highly publicized appearances at places such as the New York Public Library. On one occasion, Ferguson is reputed to have sold $85,000 worth of bonds in less than an hour.

Stardom

left|200px|thumb|The Theatre pub. 1913

At the peak of her popularity, several film studios offered her a contract but she declined them all until widely respected New York-based French director Maurice Tourneur proposed she appear in the lead role as a sophisticated patrician in his 1917 silent film Barbary Sheep. She also may have consented to films because she no longer had the protection of her Broadway employers Henry B. Harris, who died on the Titanic in 1912, and Charles Frohman, who perished on the Lusitania in 1915. Producer and director Adolph Zukor then signed her to an 18-film, three-year, $5,000-per-week contract.

Following this first film, Ferguson was billed prominently in promotional campaigns, and starred in two more films directed by Tourneur under a lucrative contract from Paramount Pictures that paid her $1,000 per day of filming in addition to her weekly contract income. Her only surviving complete silent film is The Witness for the Defense (1919), co-starring Warner Oland and performed as a play in 1911 by her friend Ethel Barrymore.

Well known as difficult to work with, temperamental, and argumentative, she married four times. Following her final marriage at age 51, she and her husband acquired a farm in Connecticut and divided their time between it and her home in Cap d'Antibes.

Ferguson made her final appearance on Broadway in 1943, at the age of 60, that met with critical acclaim. She played in Outrageous Fortune, On May 5, 1924, in Great Neck, Long Island, she married Frederick Worlock. She died in Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut, in 1961. She lived on an estate called White Gate Farms. She was interred in the Duck River Cemetery in Old Lyme, Connecticut. A very wealthy woman with no heirs and a lover of animals, she left a large part of her considerable estate to a variety of charities, including several for animal welfare.

Filmography

right|thumb|Paramount-Artcraft lantern slide announcing Ferguson as an Artcraft player.

thumb|Elsie Ferguson in [[Footlights (1921 film)|Footlights]]

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Year

! Title

! Role

! Notes

|-

| 1902 || Jack and the Beanstalk || Fairy ||

|-

| 1917 || Barbary Sheep || Lady Katherine 'Kitty' Wyverne || Lost film <br /> Eight minutes survive

|-

| 1917 || The Rise of Jennie Cushing || Jenny Cushing || Lost film

|-

| 1918 || Rose of the World || Rosamond English ||

|-

| 1918 || The Song of Songs || Lily Kardos || Lost film

|-

| 1918 || The Lie || Elinor Shale || Lost film

|-

| 1918 || A Doll's House || Nora Helmer || Lost film

|-

| 1918 || The Danger Mark || Geraldine Seagrave || Lost film

|-

| 1918 || Heart of the Wilds || Jen Galbraith || Lost film

|-

| 1918 || The Spirit That Wins || Elsie || Short <br /> Lost film

|-

| 1918 || Under the Greenwood Tree || Mary Hamilton || Lost film

|-

| 1919 || His Parisian Wife || Fauvette || Lost film

|-

| 1919 || The Marriage Price || Helen Tremaine || Lost film

|-

| 1919 || Eyes of the Soul || Gloria Swann || Lost film

|-

| 1919 || The Avalanche || Chichita / Madame Delano / Helene || Lost film

|-

| 1919 || A Society Exile || Nora Shard, aka Christine || Lost film

|-

| 1919 || The Witness for the Defense || Stella Derrick ||

|-

| 1919 || Counterfeit || Virginia Griswold || Lost film

|-

| 1920 || His House in Order || Nina Graham || Lost film

|-

| 1920 || Lady Rose's Daughter || Julie le Breton / Lady Rose / Lady Maude || Lost film

|-

| 1921 || Sacred and Profane Love || Carlotta Peel || Lost film

|-

| 1921 || Footlights || Lisa Parsinova / Lizzie Parsons || Lost film

|-

| 1921 || Forever || Mimsi || Lost film

|-

| 1922 || Outcast || Miriam || Lost film

|-

| 1922 || A Trip to Paramountown || Herself || Documentary short <br />

|-

| 1924 || Broadway After Dark || Herself || Short <br /> Lost film

|-

| 1925 || The Unknown Lover || Elaine Kent || Lost film

|-

| 1930 || Scarlet Pages || Mary Bancroft ||

|}

References

  • Elsie Ferguson photographic gallery NYP Library
  • Elsie Ferguson at Virtual History
  • Elsie Ferguson in scenes from many of her lost films and stage scene with husband Frederick Worlock (Univ of Washington Sayre collection)
  • Elsie Ferguson and Nance O'Neil in the 1927 play The House of Women
  • portrait of Ferguson in 1924(WaybackMachine),..flip side text(Wayback)
  • PeriodPaper
  • Ferguson and namesake niece, 1933
  • back Ferguson and niece 1933
  • Broadway Photographs(University of South Carolina)