{{short description|Actor}} {{Infobox person | name = Maudi Darrell | image = MaudiDarrell1908Bystander.tif | alt = Photograph of a young white woman, in a glamorous pose, with bare shoulders and voluminous wavy hair. | caption = Maudi Darrell, from a 1908 publication. | birth_name = Maud Rhoda Didcott | birth_date = 10 February 1882 | birth_place = London, England, U.K. | death_date = 31 October 1910 | death_place = | occupation = Actress, Gaiety Girl }} '''Maudi Darrell''' (born '''Maud Rhoda Didcott''', 10 February 1882 – 31 October 1910) was an English actress on the London and New York stages, and a performer in vaudeville. She was one of the fashionable young women known as "Gaiety Girls".
==Early life== Maud Rhoda Didcott was born in London in 1882, the daughter of Hugh Jay Didcott and Rose Fox. Her father was a theatrical agent, and her mother was a dancer who had a novelty act involving singing while skipping rope.<ref>Henry George Hibbert, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3B5KAQAAMAAJ&q=Didcott&pg=PA142 ''Fifty Years of a Londoner's Life''] (Dodd, Mead & Company 1916): 110, 145.</ref><ref>John Hollingshead, [https://books.google.com/books?id=k2suAAAAYAAJ&dq=Rose+Fox+%22skipping+rope%22&pg=PA345 ''Gaiety Chronicles''] (A. Constable & Company 1898): 345-347.</ref> Her father was Jewish, but Maudi Didcott was educated at the Sion House Convent at Bayswater.<ref name="Obit">[http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/64441186 "Actress's Sad Fate"] ''The Northwestern Advocate and Emu Bay Times'' (January 7, 1911): 2.via Trove{{open access}}</ref> Her sister Violet Raye was also an actress.<ref>Richard Anthony Baker, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WdWwBAAAQBAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell&pg=PA215 ''British Music Hall: An Illustrated History''] (Pen & Sword 2014): 215. {{ISBN|9781473837409}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=lnw4AQAAMAAJ&dq=Violet+Raye+Chart&pg=PA53 "A Chat with Miss Violet Raye"] ''The Sketch'' (October 31, 1894): 45.</ref>
==Career== thumb|Maudi Darrell in ''The Beauty of Bath'' (1906) Maudi Darrell appeared in popular musicals and comedies, including ''The Beauty of Bath'' (1906),<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=E9EUAAAAYAAJ&dq=Story+of+the+Beauty+of+Bath+Play+Pictorial&pg=PA142 "The Story of the Beauty of Bath"] ''The Play Pictorial'' 45(7)(1906): 141-143.</ref> ''Mrs. Ponderbury's Past'' (1907),<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=o6RFAQAAMAAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell&pg=PA1066 Photo caption], ''Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News'' (August 24, 1907): 1066.</ref> ''The Cassilis Engagement'' (1907),<ref name="Green">[https://books.google.com/books?id=BTVIAQAAMAAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell&pg=PA148 "Heard in the Green Room"] ''The Sketch'' (February 13, 1907): 148.</ref> ''The Gay Gordons'' (1908), and ''The Belle of Brittany'' (1908).<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zDZPAAAAYAAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell&pg=RA1-PA14 "It's Daffodil Time in Brittany"] ''New York Star'' (November 28, 1908): 14.</ref> Her signature song was "By the Side of the Zuyder Zee", from ''The Beauty of Bath''.<ref>Seymour Hicks, [https://books.google.com/books?id=L5INAAAAYAAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell+Bullough&pg=PA312 ''Twenty-Four Years of An Actor's Life''] (John Lane Co. 1911): 312.</ref> She was a popular "postcard actress", with portraits of her sold in postcard format.<ref name="Green" /> "Her appearance has the peculiar exotic beauty of a Beardsley drawing," noted one critic, "if she appealed to a boy at all, she would appeal with great force."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=LVs8AQAAIAAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell&pg=PA169 "Mr. St. John Hankins' Comedy at the Stage Society"] ''The Academy'' (February 16, 1907): 169.</ref> She had a valuable collection of diamonds, and the "Maharaja of Kuch Behar" (Sir Nripendra Narayan) presented Miss Darrell with "the finest emerald in England", in admiration for her beauty.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10295212/maudi_darrell_obit_1910/ "Maudi Darrell Dies in English Home"] ''The Inter Ocean'' (November 6, 1910): 9. via Newspapers.com{{open access}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1909-04-04|title=Actress Find a Way to Win Back Suitor|pages=17|work=The Inter Ocean|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50175101/actress-find-a-way-to-win-back-suitor/|access-date=2020-05-04|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==Personal life== Maudi Darrell married Scottish-born mill owner Ian Bullough in 1909.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=34A4AQAAMAAJ&dq=Maudi+Darrell&pg=PA367 "Maudi Darrell, Spinster No Longer"] ''The Sketch'' (March 31, 1909): 367.</ref><ref>[https://www.proquest.com/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/96986684/733A6D78A1404A2BPQ/1 "Wedding Interest London"] ''New York Times'' (March 28, 1909): C1.</ref> She died the following year, from complications of a paralysis of unknown origin and acute appendicitis, aged 28 years.<ref name="Obit" /> Her widower married again in 1911, to actress Lily Elsie.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10295336/lily_elsie_and_ian_bullough_1911/ "'The Dollar Princess' Who Took the Dollars"] ''Oregon Daily Journal'' (December 3, 1911): 65. via Newspapers.com{{open access}}</ref> There were reports that Elsie fell ill from the same illness as Maudi Darrell, almost immediately after marrying Bullough.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1912-08-31|title=Lily Elsie, Pet of the English Stage, Who is Dying|pages=10|work=The Buffalo Enquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50174689/lily-elsie-pet-of-the-english-stage/|access-date=2020-05-04|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *The National Portrait Gallery, London, has [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp101296/maudi-darrell-mrs-john-bullough three postcard portraits of Maudi Darrell].
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Darrell, Maudi}} Category:1882 births Category:1910 deaths Category:20th-century English actresses Category:Actresses from London Category:English expatriate actresses in the United States Category:Jewish English actresses Category:English vaudeville performers Category:Deaths from appendicitis