Actress/dramatic teacher Maude Fealy, the daughter of actress
Margaret Fealy, was born in Memphis,
Tennessee, on March 3, 1881. Maude made her acting debut at three years
of age in one of her mother's productions, "Faust". She was quite
successful over the next few years, appearing in productions all over
the US and Canada. In 1901 she toured England and was rumored to be
engaged to actor
William Gillette, but she
denied the story and there was never any marriage. In 1907 she married
a young Englishman, Louis Sherwin, who was
a drama critic for a Denver newspaper. However, her parents were dead
set against the marriage and took every opportunity to break it up.
They eventually succeeded, and the couple divorced in 1909. Later that
year she married an actor, James Durkin,
who was more acceptable to her parents. The couple later formed the
Fealy-Durkin Stock Co., a traveling acting troupe.
She agreed to make films with the Thanhouser Co. in 1911, and appeared
in a few films in between her stage work. In 1913 she signed a
three-year contract with the studio, appearing in such films as
Moths (1913) and
The Legend of Provence (1913).
Her husband was hired by Thanhouser as a director. However, both she
and Durkin left the company in 1914, before her contract ended, and
they returned to the stage. In 1916 she appeared in
The Immortal Flame (1916) for
low-budget Ivan Films. In December of that year she signed with Jesse
Lasky Picture Co., and stayed with them for a year. She then returned
to the stage, starting her own stock company in Denver, Colorado, and
touring the US in various productions well into the 1920s.
In the 1930s she returned to Hollywood and resumed her friendship with
director Cecil B. DeMille, with whom
she had worked when De Mille was a stage actor. He, in turn, gave her
parts in many of his films. She stayed in Hollywood until the early
1940s, when she returned to Denver and began an acting school. Later
she returned to Hollywood and opened an acting school there
(Nanette Fabray was one of her students).
She still made occasional appearances in films, mainly those of her
friend De Mille
(Die zehn Gebote (1956)
was one of them).
In 1957 she finally retired and moved back to Denver, but still kept
her hand in the theater, appearing in the occasional play and lecturing
at a local college.
She died on November 8, 1971, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in
Woodland Hills, California, where she had been getting treatment for
arteriosclerosis. Her funeral and burial expenses were paid by her
longtime friend, Cecil B. De Mille. When he died in 1959, he left a
provision in his will for her funeral expenses when they were needed.
