Elsie Ferguson

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

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 Victor Egan acquired an estate in Connecticut called White Gate Farms, 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, In 1924, in Great Neck, Long Island, she married fellow actor Frederick Worlock; they divorced in 1930. Her fourth and last husband was Victor A.S. Egan, whom she married in 1934; this marriage lasted until his death in 1956.

Ferguson died in Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut, in 1961. She was interred in 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 Paramount-Artcraft lantern slide announcing Ferguson as an Artcraft player.

Year Title Role Notes 1902 Jack and the Beanstalk Fairy 1917 Barbary Sheep Lady Katherine 'Kitty' Wyverne Lost film 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 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 1924 Broadway After Dark Herself Short Lost film 1925 The Unknown Lover Elaine Kent Lost film 1930 Scarlet Pages Mary Bancroft