imported>BritFlicks1 at 23:39, 23 September 2025

2025-09-23T23:39:26Z

New page

{{Short description|English actress (1894–1978)}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2021}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Fay Compton
| image = Fay Compton.jpg
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}}
| caption =
| birth_name = Virginia Lilian Emmeline Compton-Mackenzie
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1894|9|18}}
| birth_place = [[Fulham]], London, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1978|12|12|1894|9|18}}
| death_place = [[Hove, Sussex]], England
| occupation = Actress
| years_active = 1911–1977
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[H. G. Pelissier]]|1911|1913|end=died}}
* {{marriage|[[Lauri de Frece]]|1914|1921|end=died}}
* {{marriage|[[Leon Quartermaine]]|1922|1942|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|[[Ralph Michael]]|1942|1946|end=divorced}}
}}
| children = 1
| relations = [[Compton Mackenzie]] (brother)<br/>[[Viola Compton]] (sister)<br/>[[Edward Compton (actor)|Edward Compton]] (father)<br/>[[Henry Compton (actor)|Henry Compton]] (grandfather)<br>[[Anthony Pelissier]] (son)}}

'''Virginia Lilian Emmeline Compton-Mackenzie''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ʌ|m|p|t|ən}}; 18 September 1894 – 12 December 1978), known professionally as '''Fay Compton''', 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 [[Henrik Ibsen|Ibsen]] and [[Anton Chekhov|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.

==Life and career==
===Early years===
Compton was born in [[Fulham]], London, the sixth and youngest child and fourth daughter of [[Edward Compton (actor)|Edward Compton]] (1854–1918), actor and [[Actor-manager|manager]] (whose real surname was Mackenzie), and his wife, the actress [[Virginia Frances Bateman]] (1853–1940) daughter of the actor [[H. L. Bateman|Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman]], of [[Baltimore]], US. One of her brothers became well known as the author [[Compton Mackenzie]].<ref name=dnb>{{cite web |author=[[Trewin, J. C.]] |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30957 |title=Compton, Fay (real name Virginia Lilian Emmeline Compton-Mackenzie) (1894–1978), actress |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=12 February 2019}} {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

Compton 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 39, leaving his young widow with an infant son, who would become the producer and director [[Anthony Pelissier]].<ref name=dnb/> In 1914, at [[Maidenhead]], as Fay C. Pellissier, she married secondly the young singer [[Lauri de Frece]].<ref>"Pelissier, Fay C. & Frece, Lauri de" in ''Register of Marriages for Maidenhead Registration District'', vol. 2c (1914), p. 1004</ref> In 1914, she 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 and Wendy|Peter Pan]]'' in 1917.<ref name=who>Parker, pp. 502–504</ref>

===1920s and 30s===
[[File:Fay Compton, actor, 1938 - unknown photographer (6497584343).jpg|left|alt=Fay Compton, actor, 1938|thumb|197x197px|Fay Compton, actor, 1938]]
In 1921 she was the eponymous star of the play [[Mary Rose (play)|''Mary Rose'']] written especially for her by [[J. M. Barrie]]. This work was partly inspired by Compton's own tragic marriage to the West End satirist [[H. G. Pélissier]] and her subsequent youthful widowhood.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Binns |first=Anthony |title=The funniest man in London: the life and times of H.G. Pélissier (1874-1913): forgotten satirist and composer, founder of "The follies" |last2=Pélissier |first2=Jaudy |date=2022 |publisher=Edgerton Publishing Services |isbn=978-0-9933203-8-5 |location=Pett, East Sussex}}</ref> In the 1920s her parts included the first of many Shakespeare roles, Ophelia, to the Hamlet of [[John Barrymore]].<ref name="who" /> The critic [[James Agate]] wrote of her performance, "She was fragrant, wistful, and had a child's importunacy unmatched in my time."<ref name="dnb" /> Compton's second husband, the actor [[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 (play)|Quality Street]]''.<ref name="dnb" />

Compton had a reputation for versatility,<ref name=dnb/> and in 1931 she appeared successively in the title role of the pantomime ''Dick Whittington'' and Ophelia to [[Henry Ainley]]'s Hamlet.<ref name=who/> Throughout the 1930s Compton moved between [[West End theatre|West End]] plays, mostly ephemeral, pantomime and Shakespeare – [[Titania (A Midsummer Night's Dream)|Titania]], [[Love's Labour's Lost|Lady Rosaline]], [[Julius Caesar (play)|Calpurnia]], and Paulina in ''[[The Winter's Tale]]'', one of her favourite parts<ref name=who/> – and toured in Australia and New Zealand in ''[[Victoria Regina (play)|Victoria Regina]]'', ''[[Tonight at 8.30]]'' and ''[[George and Margaret]]''.<ref name=who/> In 1939 she played Ophelia to the Hamlet of [[John Gielgud]], first at the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum]] and then at [[Elsinore Castle]].<ref name=who/>

In 1927 Compton opened an acting school in London, the Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art, which continued in business up to the start of World War II. Notable alumni included [[Alec Guinness]] and [[John Le Mesurier]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gale |first1=Maggie B. |title=A Social History of British Performance Cultures 1900-1939 |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-1351397193 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ME7ADwAAQBAJ&q=faye++compton+studio+of+dramatic+art&pg=PT99 |access-date=20 November 2020}}</ref>

===1940s to 1960s===
During the 1940s Compton appeared at the [[The Old Vic|Old Vic]] as Regan in ''[[King Lear]]'', played Ruth in [[Noël Coward]]'s ''[[Blithe Spirit (play)|Blithe Spirit]]'' for 15 months, Regina in ''[[The Little Foxes]]'', toured for the [[British Council]], in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland, in ''[[Othello]],'' ''[[Candida (play)|Candida]]'' and ''Hamlet'', and made her first appearance in an [[Henrik Ibsen|Ibsen]] play as Gina Ekdal in ''[[The Wild Duck]]''.<ref name=who/> 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 of Compton's last three marriages.<ref name=dnb/>

In the 1950s 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]]''; Constance of Bretagne in ''[[King John (play)|King John]]''; Volumnia in ''[[Coriolanus (play)|Coriolanus]]''; and Juno in ''[[The Tempest]]''.<ref name=who/> With the same company she played Queen Margaret in ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]'' in 1957, to the Richard of [[Robert Helpmann]], and Lady Bracknell in ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest]]'' in 1959.<ref name=who/>

At the first Chichester Festival, from July to September 1962, Compton played Grausis in ''The Broken Heart'', and Marya in ''[[Uncle Vanya]]''.<ref name=who/> Her other stage roles of the 1960s included Mrs Malaprop in ''[[The Rivals]]'', and her last Barrie role, the Comtesse in ''[[What Every Woman Knows (play)|What Every Woman Knows]]''.<ref name=who/>

Compton was awarded the [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] in 1975. She died on 12 December 1978 in Hove at the age of 84.<ref name=dnb/>

==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 film)|Othello]]'' (1952), ''[[The Haunting (1963 film)|The Haunting]]'' (1963) and ''[[I Start Counting]]'' (1969).

Among her television performances, she 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 (1967 TV series)|The Forsyte Saga]]'',<ref name=who/> and Mrs Brown the old rag dealer in a BBC adaptation of Dickens' ''[[Dombey and Son (1969 TV series)|Dombey and Son]]'' in 1969.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b70d81744 |title=BFI Archive - BBC series Dombey and Son (1969) |website=www.bfi.org.uk |access-date=26 February 2020 |archive-date=5 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505052636/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b70d81744 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>

==Filmography==
===Film===
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* ''[[She Stoops to Conquer (1914 film)|She Stoops to Conquer]]'' (1914, Short) - Barmaid
* ''[[The Labour Leader]]'' (1917) - Diana Hazlitt
* ''[[One Summer's Day]]'' (1917) - Maisie
* ''[[Judge Not (1920 film)|Judge Not]]'' (1920) - Nelly
* ''[[A Woman of No Importance (1921 film)|A Woman of No Importance]]'' (1921) - Rachel Arbuthnot
* ''[[The Old Wives' Tale (film)|The Old Wives' Tale]]'' (1921) - Sophie Barnes
* ''[[The House of Peril]]'' (1922) - Sylvia Bailey
* ''[[Diana of the Crossways (film)|Diana of the Crossways]]'' (1922) - Diana
* ''[[A Bill of Divorcement (1922 film)|A Bill of Divorcement]]'' (1922) - Margaret Fairfield
* ''[[This Freedom]]'' (1923) - Rosalie Aubyn
* ''[[The Loves of Mary, Queen of Scots]]'' (1923) - Mary Stuart
* ''[[Claude Duval (film)|Claude Duval]]'' (1924) - Duchess Frances
* ''[[The Eleventh Commandment (1924 film)|The Eleventh Commandment]]'' (1924) - Ruth Barchester
* ''[[The Happy Ending (1925 film)|The Happy Ending]]'' (1925) - Mildred Craddock
* ''[[Settled Out of Court (film)|Settled Out of Court]]'' (1925) - The Woman
* ''[[London Love]]'' (1926) - Sally Hope
* ''[[Robinson Crusoe (1927 film)|Robinson Crusoe]]'' (1927) - Sophie
* ''[[Somehow Good]]'' (1927) - Rosalind Nightingale
* ''[[Zero (1928 film)|Zero]]'' (1928) - Mrs. Garth
* ''[[Fashions in Love]]'' (1929) - Marie De Remy
* ''[[Cape Forlorn]]'' (1931) - Eileen Kell
* ''[[Uneasy Virtue]]'' (1931) - Dorothy Rendell
* ''[[Tell England (film)|Tell England]]'' (1931) - Mrs. Doe
* ''[[Autumn Crocus (film)|Autumn Crocus]]'' (1934) - Jenny Gray
* ''[[Waltzes from Vienna]]'' (1934) - Countess Helga von Stahl
* ''[[Song at Eventide]]'' (1934) - Helen d'Alaste
* ''[[Wedding Group]]'' (1936) - Florence Nightingale
* ''[[The Mill on the Floss (film)|The Mill on the Floss]]'' (1936) - Mrs. Tulliver
* ''[[So This Is London (1939 film)|So This Is London]]'' (1939) - Lady Worthing
* ''[[The Prime Minister (film)|The Prime Minister]]'' (1941) - [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]]
* ''[[Odd Man Out]]'' (1947) - Rosie
* ''[[Nicholas Nickleby (1947 film)|Nicholas Nickleby]]'' (1947) - Madame Mantalini/Mme Mantalini
* ''[[London Belongs to Me]]'' (1948) - Mrs. Josser
* ''[[Esther Waters (film)|Esther Waters]]'' (1948) - Mrs. Barfield
* ''[[Britannia Mews]]'' (1949) - Mrs. Culver
* ''[[Blackmailed (1951 film)|Blackmailed]]'' (1951) - Mrs. Christopher
* ''[[Laughter in Paradise]]'' (1951) - Agnes Russell
* ''[[Othello (1952 film)|Othello]]'' (1951) - Emilia
* ''[[Lady Possessed]]'' (1952) - Mme. Brune
* ''[[I Vinti]]'' (''The Vanquished'') (1953) - Mrs. Pinkerton
* ''[[Aunt Clara (film)|Aunt Clara]]'' (1954) - Gladys Smith
*''[[Doublecross (1956 film)|Doublecross]]'' (1956) - Alice Pascoe
*''[[Town on Trial]]'' (1957) - Mrs. Crowley
*''[[The Story of Esther Costello]]'' (1957) - Mother Superior
*''Il fiore e la violenza'' (1962) - Mrs. Pinkerton (segment "Il delitto")
*''[[The Haunting (1963 film)|The Haunting]]'' (1963) - Mrs. Sanderson
*''[[Uncle Vanya (1963 film)|Uncle Vanya]]'' (1963) - Marya, the mother
*''[[Journey to Midnight]]'' (1968) - Queen Victoria (episode 'Poor Butterfly')
*''[[I Start Counting (film)|I Start Counting]]'' (1969) - Mrs. Bennett
*''[[The Virgin and the Gypsy (film)|The Virgin and the Gypsy]]'' (1970) - Grandma
{{div col end}}

===Television===
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* ''[[Douglas Fairbanks Presents]]'' (1955, 1 episode) - Mrs. Saunders
* ''[[London Playhouse]]'' (1955, 1 episode) - Adeline Girard
* ''[[Nicholas Nickleby (1957 TV series)|Nicholas Nickleby]]'' (1956, 2 episodes) - Mrs. Squeers
* ''[[BBC Sunday-Night Theatre]]'' (1955-1959, 4 episodes) - Kate / Fanny Cavendish / Emmie Rockley / Mary
* ''[[ITV Television Playhouse]]'' (1956-1961, 3 episodes) - Great Aunt Julia / Nannie / Mrs. Gillis
* ''[[Armchair Theatre]]'' (1957-1964, 3 episodes) - Victoria / Angelica
* ''[[Our Mutual Friend (1958 TV serial)|Our Mutual Friend]]'' (1958, 3 episodes) - Mrs. Betty Higden
* ''[[The Widow of Bath (TV series)|The Widow of Bath]]'' (1959, 5 episodes) - Mrs. Leonard
* ''[[BBC Sunday-Night Play]]'' (1960-1962, 2 episodes) - Mrs. Umney / Mrs. Flint / Mrs. Sarah Victoria Marryot
* ''[[ITV Play of the Week]]'' (1961, 2 episodes) - Victoria Verity
* ''[[No Hiding Place]]'' (1961-1962, 3 episodes) - Mrs. Halfpenny / Mrs. Haven / Mrs. Palmer
* ''[[Dixon of Dock Green]]'' (1962-1965, 3 episodes) - Nelly Cook / Sarah Conroy / Mrs. Binney
* ''[[Maigret (1960 TV series)|Maigret]]'' (1962, 1 episode) - Jaquette
* ''[[Call Oxbridge 2000]]'' (1962, 1 episode) - Miss Effie Tavener
* ''[[First Night (TV series)|First Night]]'' (1964, 1 episode) - Alice Walmer
* ''[[Dr. Finlay's Casebook]]'' (1964, 1 episode) - Mrs. Tennant
* ''[[Story Parade]]'' (1965, 1 episode) - Miss Babbage
* ''[[Our Man at St. Mark's]]'' (1965, 1 episode) - Edie Russell
* ''[[Knock on Any Door (TV series)|Knock on Any Door]]'' (1965, 1 episode) - Hester Warren
* ''[[The Forsyte Saga (1967 TV series)|The Forsyte Saga]]'' (1967, 6 episodes) - 'Aunt Ann' Forsyte
* ''[[Sanctuary (1967 TV series)|Sanctuary]]'' (1967-1968, 4 episodes) - Sister Juliana
* ''[[Cold Comfort Farm (TV series)|Cold Comfort Farm]]'' (1968, 3 episodes) - Aunt Ada Doom (Starkadder)
* ''[[Journey to the Unknown]]'' (1969, 1 episode) - Queen Victoria
* ''[[Dombey and Son (1969 TV series)|Dombey and Son]]'' (1969, 7 episodes) - Mrs. Brown
* ''[[Fraud Squad (TV series)|Fraud Squad]]'' (1970, 1 episode) - Lady Flanders (final appearance)
{{div col end}}

==Publications==
* ''Rosemary: some remembrances'' (1926), introduction by Compton Mackenzie

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |editor-last=Parker |editor-first=John |display-editors=etal | year=1978 | title= Who Was Who in the Theatre | location=Detroit | publisher=Gale | oclc=310466453}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|id=0174029}}
*[http://www.bris.ac.uk/theatrecollection/search/people_sub_plays_all?forename=Fay&surname=COMPTON&job=Actor&pid=1274&image_view=Yesamp;x=19amp;y=17 Fay Compton performances in The Theatre Collection, University of Bristol]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Compton, Fay}}
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1978 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century English actresses]]
[[Category:Actresses from London]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:English film actresses]]
[[Category:English silent film actresses]]
[[Category:English stage actresses]]
[[Category:Actors from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham]]
[[Category:People from Fulham]]

Fay Compton - Revision history

imported>BritFlicks1 at 23:39, 23 September 2025