Maude Fealy was an American stage and silent film actress whose career survived into the sound era.
Early life
Maude Mary Hawk was born on March 4, 1883 in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of James Hawk and actress and acting coach, Margaret Fealy. Her mother remarried to Rafaello Cavallo, the first conductor of the Pueblo, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and Fealy lived in Colorado off and on for most of her life. At the age of three, Maude made her first stage appearance in her mother's 1884 production of "Faust" and made her Broadway debut in the 1900 production of Quo Vadis, again with her mother. Fealy toured England with William Gillette in Sherlock Holmes from 1901 to 1902. Between 1902 and 1905, she frequently toured with Sir Henry Irving's company in the United Kingdom and by 1907 was the star in touring productions in the United States.
Career
Fealy appeared in her first silent film in 1911 for Thanhouser Studios, making another 18 between then and 1917, after which she did not perform in film for another 14 years. During the summers of 1912 and 1913, she organized and starred with the Fealy-Durkin Company that put on performances at the Casino Theatre at Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver and the following year began touring the western half of the U.S. Fealy had some commercial success as a playwright-performer. She co-wrote The Red Cap with Grant Stewart, a noted New York playwright and performer, which ran at the National Theatre in Chicago in August 1928. Though she was not in the cast of that production, the play's plot revolves around the invention of a wheeled luggage carrier ostensibly invented by Fealy. A newspaper article reporting on the invention may be genuine, or may be a publicity stunt created to promote the play. Other plays written or co-written by Fealy include At Midnight, and with the highly regarded Chicago playwright Alice Gerstenberg, The Promise. Throughout her career, Fealy taught acting in many cities where she lived; early on with her mother, under names which included Maude Fealy Studio of Speech, Fealy School of Stage and Screen Acting, Fealy School of Dramatic Expression. She taught in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Burbank, California; and Denver, Colorado. By the 1930s, she was living in Los Angeles where she became involved in the Federal Theatre Project and at age 50 returned to secondary roles in film, including a credited appearance in The Ten Commandments. Later in her career, she wrote and appeared in pageants, programs, and presented lectures for schools and community organizations.
Personal life
In Denver, Colorado, she met a drama critic from a local newspaper named Louis Hugo Sherwin. The two married in secret on July 15, 1907 because, as they expected, her domineering mother did not approve. The couple soon separated, and divorced in Denver in 1909. Fealy then married an actor named James Peter Durkin. He was a silent film director with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company. This marriage ended in divorce for non-support in 1917. Soon after this Fealy married John Edward Cort. This third marriage ended in a 1923 annulment and was her last marriage. She bore no children in any of the marriages.
