Connie Ediss

Connie Ediss (born Ada Harriet Whitley;[1] 11 August 1870 – 18 April 1934)[2] was an English actress and singer best known as a buxom, good-humoured comedian in many of the popular Edwardian musical comedies around the turn of the 20th century.

During World War I, she began a long tour in Australia, returning to London in 1919 to play in farces and comedies.

[2] Shortly after Ediss's birth Jane Whitley left her husband[3] to live with Charles Coates (1850–1910), a house painter, and took her youngest daughter with her.

[9] She made her first appearance on a London stage in 1893 singing and dancing in variety shows at Albert Chevalier's Trocadero music hall.

[11] She received a lucky break in 1895 when she was asked to fill in for an ailing Nellie Farren at the Gaiety Theatre, London.

[6] She next appeared in A Runaway Girl (1898) as Carmenita,[14] The Messenger Boy (1900) as Mrs. Bang,[15] The Silver Slipper, The Toreador (1901) as Amelia, The Orchid (1903) as Caroline Twining, The Spring Chicken (1905) as Mrs. Girdle and The New Aladdin (1906) as Spirit of the Ring.

[8] The New York Times commented on her "use of a grotesque costume, a good Cockney accent, and a prodigious sense of humor".

In The Sunshine Girl (1912), as Brenda Blacker, the Daily Mail said that Ediss "revels in the reckless drollery of" the role.

[8] She continued her career in West End theatre, playing in a long-running farce, Lord Richard in the Pantry, with Cyril Maude and Lydia Bilbrook (1919),[22] and then the comedy-thriller The Ghost Train (1923).

Ediss, who was known as being charitable and gave away thousands of pounds, died a "poor woman" with an estate of £300, which she left to her sister.