Helen Maud Holt

Helen Maud Holt (5 October 1863 – 7 August 1937), professionally known as Mrs Beerbohm Tree and later Lady Tree, was an English actress. She was the wife of the actor Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and the mother of Viola Tree, Felicity Tree and Iris Tree.

After early stage appearances beginning in 1883, Mrs Tree married and established a theatrical partnership with her husband, in which they appeared in revivals of classic plays and productions of new plays, first at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket and then at Her Majesty's Theatre. Her performances in serious roles were well received, but she was most celebrated for her work in comedy, from Shakespeare to new works by Wilde and others.

After her husband's death in 1917, Lady Tree continued to act steadily for almost two decades more until towards the end of her life, in plays and some films, making her last stage appearance in 1935.

Life and career

Early years

Holt was born in London, the daughter of William Holt. She was educated at Queen's College, London, taking high honours in classics, and making her stage debut in a student production of a Greek drama.

Partnership with Tree

For the next four years, Mrs Tree appeared in a range of roles, including that of Maud in Tree's one-act play Six and Eightpence, but husband and wife did not appear in the same plays. I

Her husband opened the rebuilt Her Majesty's Theatre in 1887, where she then appeared under his direction, also assisting him in theatre management. In 1893, she created the role of Mrs Allonby in Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, opposite Tree's Lord Illingworth.

Although most celebrated for her performances in contemporary comedies, Mrs Tree appeared with success in more serious roles, including Ophelia in Hamlet (1891, 1882, and 1905), Lady Percy in Henry IV, Part 1, Calpurnia in Julius Caesar (1900), Gertrude in Hamlet (1905), and Portia in Julius Caesar (1911).

In Shakespearean comedy she was well known for her appearances in The Merry Wives of Windsor, in which at various stages in her career she played the juvenile lead, Ann Page, and then both of the merry wives in different productions. Other Shakespeare roles were Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1900), Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (1905), and Mistress Quickly in Henry IV, Part 1 (1935).

Lady Tree's last stage appearances were in 1935, as Mistress Quickly to George Robey's Falstaff at His Majesty's Theatre, and as the Duchess of Stroud in Our Own Lives at the Ambassadors Theatre, with Irene Vanbrugh.

She died at University College Hospital, London, after an operation, at age 73.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes1916 Still Waters Run Deep Mrs. Sternhold 1920 Little Dorrit Mrs. Clenman 1930 Such Is the Law Granny 1932 Wedding Rehearsal the Countess of Stokeshire 1933 The Private Life of Henry VIII The King's Nurse 1933 The Girl from Maxim's Madame Petypon 1933 Early to Bed Widow Seidelblast 1933 Her Imaginary Lover Grandma 1936 The Man Who Could Work Miracles Grigsby's Housekeeper (final film role)