The Postcard
A postally unused postcard published by A. Vivian Mansell & Co., Fine Art Publishers of London. The card, which has a divided back, was printed in England.
Miss Fay Compton
Fay Compton was born Virginia Lilian Emmeline Compton-Mackenzie in Fulham, London on the 18th. September 1894.
Known professionally as Fay Compton, she was an English actress. She appeared in several films, and made many broadcasts, but was best known for her stage performances.
She was known for her versatility, and appeared in Shakespeare, drawing room comedy, pantomime, modern drama, and classics such as Ibsen and Chekhov.
In addition to performing in Britain, Compton appeared several times in the US, and toured Australia and New Zealand in a variety of stage plays.
Fay Compton - The Early Years
Fay was the fifth and youngest child and third daughter of Edward Compton (1854–1918), actor and manager (whose real surname was Mackenzie), and his wife, the actress Virginia Frances Bateman (1853–1940) daughter of the actor Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman, of Baltimore, US. One of her brothers became well known as the author Compton Mackenzie.
Fay made her first professional appearance in 1911 with the concert party 'The Follies' under the leadership of H. G. Pelissier, her first husband, whom she married while still in her teens. The marriage was short-lived: Pelissier died in September 1913 at the age of 31, leaving his young widow with an infant son. In 1914, at Maidenhead, as Fay C. Pellissier, she married the young singer Lauri de Frece.
In 1914 Compton made the first of many appearances on the American stage, at the Shubert Theatre, New York, in 'To-Night's the Night', subsequently touring in the same part. In London during the First World War she played a variety of roles, including the title role in 'Peter Pan' in 1917.
1920's and 30's
In the 1920's Fay's parts included the title role in J. M. Barrie's 'Mary Rose'; the first of many Shakespeare roles, Ophelia, to the Hamlet of John Barrymore. The critic James Agate wrote of her performance:
'She was fragrant, wistful, and
had a child's importunacy
unmatched in my time.'
Compton's second husband, Lauri de Frece, died in 1921, aged 41, and in February 1922 she married Leon Quartermaine, with whom she had acted in a revival of Barrie's 'Quality Street'.
In 1930 Fay played Ophelia to the Hamlet of John Gielgud, first at the Lyceum and then at Elsinore Castle.
Compton had a reputation for versatility, and in 1931 she appeared successively in the title role of the pantomime 'Dick Whittington' and Ophelia to Henry Ainley's Hamlet.
Throughout the 1930's Compton moved between West End plays, mostly ephemeral, pantomime and Shakespeare – Titania, Lady Rosaline, Calpurnia, and Paulina in 'The Winter's Tale', one of her favourite parts.
Fay also toured in Australia and New Zealand in 'Victoria Regina', 'Tonight at 8.30' and 'George and Margaret'.
1940's to 1960's
During the 1940's, Compton appeared at the Old Vic as Regan in 'King Lear', played Ruth in Noël Coward's 'Blithe Spirit' for 15 months, and Regina in 'The Little Foxes'.
Fay also toured for the British Council in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland, in 'Othello', 'Candida' and 'Hamlet', and made her first appearance in an Ibsen play as Gina Ekdal in 'The Wild Duck'.
Her third marriage was dissolved in 1942, and in that year she married the actor Ralph Michael; this marriage was dissolved in 1946. There were no children from Compton's last three marriages.
In the 1950's Compton rejoined the Old Vic company, appearing at the 1953 Edinburgh Festival, as Gertrude in 'Hamlet', and in London in the 1953–1954 season, as Gertrude; the Countess of Rossillion in 'All's Well That Ends Well'.
Fay also played Constance of Bretagne in 'King John'; Volumnia in 'Coriolanus'; and Juno in 'The Tempest'. With the same company she played Queen Margaret in 'Richard III' in 1957, and Lady Bracknell in 'The Importance of Being Earnest' in 1959.
At the first Chichester Festival, July to September 1962, Compton played Grausis in 'The Broken Heart', and Marya in 'Uncle Vanya'. Her other stage roles of the 1960's included Mrs Malaprop in 'The Rivals', and her last Barrie role, the Comtesse in 'What Every Woman Knows'.
Compton was awarded the CBE in 1975.
Film and television
Compton's film work is not as well known as her stage appearances. She appeared in more than 40 films between 1914 and 1970. Her most popular performances in films are 'Odd Man Out' (1947), 'Laughter in Paradise' (1951), Orson Welles' 'Othello' (1952), 'The Haunting' (1963) and 'I Start Counting' (1969).
Among her television performances, Fay appeared in 1965 with Michael Hordern in the television play 'Land of My Dreams' by Clive Exton. Among her last major roles were Aunt Ann in the BBC's 1967 television adaptation of 'The Forsyte Saga', and Mrs Brown the old rag dealer in a BBC adaptation of Dicken's 'Dombey and Son' in 1969.
The Death of Fay Compton
Fay died in London at the age of 84 on the 12th. December 1978.
