Henderson, Grace

Autor: Henderson, Grace
Rok: 1860-1944

Biogr./Hist. údaje: Americká divadelní herečka.
Zdroj: Autoritní databáze Národní knihovny ČR

Grace Henderson (January 1861, Ann Arbor, Michigan – October 30, 1944, Bronx, New York) was a stage actress and prolific performer in silent motion pictures. She made her professional debut at McKiver's Theatre in Chicago in 1877. A decade later she began a successful run at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City. She originated the role of "Lucille Ferrand" in The Wife. In 1896, she starred in Under the Polar Star, an elaborate play complete with a facsimile of a large sailing ship and real on-stage sled dogs. Under Southern Skies followed in 1901. She played in The Marquis, and received acclaim for her performance as "Phyliss Lee" in The Charity Ball. Later, Grace Henderson supported Nance O'Neill in Peter Pan, with Maude Adams' company. This production was staged at the Empire Theatre.In 1903 Henderson was interviewed by a reporter and came off something of a racist embarrassing herself when she refused to act with a black player in the rehearsals of the Broadway cast of My Wife's Husband. The black player Moses Fairfax had a part that was important to the play. Having been raised in the South, she explained that blacks and whites did not socialize to the point of a black calling a white woman by her first name.She toured in Lightnin. The actress' final stage appearance came in the Theatre Guild production of Green Grow the Lilacs.Henderson participated in more than 120 silent films, starting in 1909 with Lucky Jim. She was in His Trust (1911), which was directed by D. W. Griffith, and Trying To Fool Uncle (1912), a production of Mack Sennett. Her last film was Day Dreams, directed by Clarence G. Badger, in which she played "Grandmother Burn".