Fanny Davenport

Who was Fanny Davenport?

Fanny Lily Gipsy Davenport was an Anglo-American stage actress. The daughter of Edward Loomis Davenport and Fanny Vining, she was born in London, England, but was brought to America when a child and educated in the Boston public schools. When seven years old she appeared at the Howard Athenæum in Boston, as the child of Metamora, but her real début occurred in 1862.

In February, 1862, she appeared in New York at Niblo's Garden at the age of twelve as the King of Spain in Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady. Later she was a member of Augustin Daly's company; and afterwards, with a company of her own, acted with especial success in Sardou's Fedora, Cleopatra, and similar plays. She took over emotional Sardou roles that had been originated in Europe by Sarah Bernhardt. Her last appearance was in Chicago at the Grand Opera House on the 25th of March 1898, shortly before her death.

Her first husband was Edwin B. Price, an actor. They married in 1879 and later divorced. She was the wife of Mr. Melbourne MacDowell, her second husband, whom she married in 1889. She died in Duxbury, Massachusetts. She was the aunt of actress Dorothy Davenport.