Zena Dare

Zena Dare (born Florence Hariette Zena Dones; 4 February 1887 – 11 March 1975) was an English actress and singer, who was famous for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and other musical theatre and comedic plays in the first half of the 20th century.

In a career spanning more than six decades, Dare made her first appearance on stage in 1899, in the Christmas pantomime Babes in the Wood in London, where she performed under her real name Florence Dones. She starred alongside her sister Phyllis in the production, and they both adopted the stage name of Dare soon afterwards. In the first decade of the 1900s, she starred in pantomimes and various Edwardian musical comedy productions including An English Daisy, Sergeant Brue and The Catch of the Season, as well as the title roles in Lady Madcap and The Girl on Stage. She retired in 1911 and nursed soldiers in France during World War I.

Dare returned to the stage in 1926 where she played the title role in The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. This was followed with a role in The Second Man alongside Noël Coward. In 1928, she formed her own production company and, a year later, took over the management of the Haymarket Theatre. On stage, she starred in The First Mrs. Fraser, Other Men's Wives and Cynara, and she appeared in pantomime at the London Palladium. Late in her career, she had a big success as Mrs. Higgins in the long-running original London production of My Fair Lady.

In addition to her stage roles, Dare occasionally appeared in film and made her debut in the silent film No. 5 John Street in 1921. She made a successful transition to "talkies" appearing in The Return of Carol Deane in 1938 and Over the Moon a year later. She died in London in 1975 at the age of 88.

Dare was born in Chelsea, London, the oldest of three children of Arthur Albert Dones, a divorce clerk, and his wife Harriette Amelia (née Wheeler). Her sister, Phyllis, three and a half years her junior, also became a well-known musical comedy actress. They had a brother named Jack. Dare was educated at Maida Vale High School.

Dare had her first performance on stage in 1899, at the age of 12, in the Christmas pantomime Babes in the Wood at the Coronet Theatre in London. Her sister Phyllis was also cast in this production, and they both adopted the stage name Dare. From 1900, she played in various pantomimes produced by F. Wyndham in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

In 1902, at the age of 15, Dare was hired by Seymour Hicks to tour as Daisy Maitland in An English Daisy, and to play the title role in Cinderella in 1903–04 at the Shakespeare Theatre in Liverpool. She spent much of 1904 touring but returned to London to play Aurora Brue in Sergeant Brue for Frank Curzon's theatre company. She left the company to create the role of Angela on in September 1904 in The Catch of the Season at the Vaudeville Theatre opposite Hicks. The role would have gone to Ellaline Terriss, Hicks' wife, but she was pregnant. Dare left Catch of the Season in 1905 to play Beauty in Sleeping Beauty in Bristol. Terriss later assumed the role of Angela, and Dare's sister Phyllis took over the role from Terriss.

In 1905 to 1906, Dare was hired by producer George Edwardes to play three roles at The Prince of Wales Theatre in London: the title role in Lady Madcap, Lady Elizabeth Congress in The Little Cherub and the title role in The Girl on Stage. Dare left Edwardes' company in 1906 to play Betty Silverthorne in Hicks' The Beauty of Bath at the Aldwych Theatre. Later that year, she reprised her role in the touring production of The Catch of the Season and ended the year starring as Peter Pan, in J. M. Barrie's play, in Manchester.