Dorothy Ward

Dorothy Ward (26 April 1890 – 30 March 1987) was an English actress who specialised in pantomimes, playing the principal boy roles, while her husband Shaun Glenville would play the dame roles. She had a successful 52 year career and played in over 40 pantomimes between 1905 and 1957.

Early career

Ward was born in Aston (now part of Birmingham), Warwickshire, on 26 April 1890, to Eliza (née Millichamp, 1867–1946) and Edwin Ward (1866–), a wholesale bottler. The Christmas season of 1906 saw her as Dandini in the pantomime Cinderella at Edinburgh, where she understudied the role of Prince Charming; when the principal player fell ill Ward had her first opportunity to play principal boy. She next created the non-speaking role of Etoff in Edward German's comic opera Tom Jones at the Apollo Theatre in London (1907), and in 1908 she played Princess Helene in the operetta A Waltz Dream at the Hicks Theatre. This was followed by George Edwardes's production of Havana at the Gaiety Theatre Their son was actor/director Peter Glenville (1913–1996). Thus, for 50 years they often played mother and son. Another critic wrote that Ward's was the season's 'most astonishing piece of casting' and that she approached her role in the 'dainty' operetta 'in the frenzied manner usually reserved for the mad scenes in Italian opera'. Her husband fared little better.

Ward and Glenville had been cast in Mother Goose at the Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow for the Christmas pantomime in 1921. At the last minute, however, Ward was called to replace Clarice Mayne in Jack and the Beanstalk at the London Hippodrome opposite George Robey. In 1926 the couple were in The Apache at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle before taking it on tour and then opening at the London Palladium in 1927. Next they were next on tour in The Blue Train. She was Cora Angélique in a revival of The Belle of New York at Daly's Theatre in London (1931), and followed this as Lady Holyrood in a revival of Florodora. Next she was Nan in A Country Girl, followed by The Duchess of Dantzic. With Glenville she ended the 1932 season in La poupée.

From October 1944 to January 1945 Ward played Loretta Zelma in Meet Me Victoria at the Victoria Palace Theatre opposite Lupino Lane. By the 1950s Ward was beginning to wonder if she could still carry off the principal boy roles. In an interview in 1954 while appearing as Dick Whittington at the Kingston Empire she was reluctant to discuss her date of birth, saying, "I want audiences to enjoy the pantomime – not to wonder if I’ve got my own teeth!" In 1957 she made her last appearance as principal boy at the age of 66 playing the lead in Dick Whittington at the Pavilion Theatre in Liverpool, bringing to an end a career in which she had played principal boy almost continuously since 1905.

Later years She was interviewed as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 23 December 1954. She and her husband jointly retired to London in 1957, where Glenville died in 1968.

Music hall historian W. Macqueen-Pope called her:

Dorothy Ward died aged 96 in Hendon in London on 30 March 1987.