Dorothy Minto
Dorothy Minto was a prominent actress on the London stage between 1905 and the mid-1930s, notably appearing in the first runs of several plays written by George Bernard Shaw. She also featured in a small number of films between 1916 and 1936. While her early stage career concentrated on classical plays and serious new work, from 1912 onwards she devoted herself more to musicals and comedies.
Early life
Many references to Dorothy Minto state or imply that she was born in 1891. This is based on the assumption that she was just 14 years old when playing Juliet in a 1905 production of Romeo and Juliet. However, she was born in 1886 and raised as Dorothy Scott. She was very probably the daughter of Harriett Chambers of Edinburgh, a member of the publishing family that produced the Chambers Dictionary.Dorothy Scott grew up in Acton, Middlesex and the Kensington area of London. In the 1891 and 1901 censuses she was living with Harriett Chambers, described as a 'visitor' born in Edinburgh. She took acting tuition at an establishment run by Mrs. Crowe. A photograph taken by Window & Grove of Baker St, probably while she was at acting school, is labelled "Miss Dorothy Minto Scott". She was known by the stage name of Dorothy Minto throughout her career.
Stage career
First phase
In 1903/4 Dorothy Minto worked with F. R. Benson's company, beginning with small parts. Her breakthrough came in 1905 when she worked with William Poel's Elizabethan Stage Society and was cast as Juliet alongside Esmé Percy's Romeo. Subsequent legend put their ages at the time of the performance as 14 and 17, though a contemporary report in the London Daily Chronicle gave more realistic ages of 19 and 21. The production and the leading performances were critical successes and Minto went on to secure a number of prestigious roles in leading productions, including classical works by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Ben Jonson and Aristophanes and plays by new authors, most notably George Bernard Shaw but also John Galsworthy, J. M. Barrie and Harley Granville Barker amongst others. In 1907 she played in Elizabeth Robins' play "Votes for Women", the first suffragist play to be performed on the London stage, and she later became a member of the suffragist Actresses' Franchise League.Second phase
From 1912 onwards, possibly influenced by her relationship with Morris Harvey, Minto turned more to lighter - and perhaps more lucrative - roles, taking part in a series of musicals, reviews and comedies. These included productions by Irving Berlin and Nat Ayer, with whom she and Harvey appeared in Pell Mell in 1916. In 1920 she was a member of the London offshoot of the Grand Guignol company. During the 1920s she mixed lighter and more serious roles before retiring from the stage in the mid-1930s.From the 1920s she regularly toured with new productions before they were brought to London. In 1923 she was described in print as an "Actress Manageress", a position shared at the time with only two others in London. In 1927 she starred in Wild-Cat Hetty in a title role that had echoes of Eliza Doolittle in Shaw's Pygmalion, a role for which she might have been considered if she had not changed direction in 1912. In 1927 the Lord Chamberlain deemed it necessary to inspect the pyjamas she was wearing in the production of P. G. Wodehouse's Good Morning, Bill. After suitably close scrutiny the pyjamas were passed fit for public viewing. In 1930-31 she did a season in repertory at the Ambassadors Theatre, Southend. She toured in Canada in 1932, performing in Shaw's Too True to be Good and Robert E. Sherwood's The Queen's Husband. Throughout her career she received good reviews, with reviewers often praising her attractiveness as well as her acting skills.
Film career
In 1913 Minto appeared as herself, modelling clothes in a short film called Kinemacolour Fashion Gazette. She played roles in a small number of feature films from 1916 onwards, including in several silent films directed by British director Kenelm Foss. The last of the firms she made with Foss was The Glad Eye, an adaptation of a play by Paul Armont that she had acted in eight years previously. She played no film parts between 1922 and 1930 when she acted in her first 'talkie', a musical comedy directed by Walter Summers called Raise the Roof. Her final film part was in Broken Blossoms which was a remake of a D. W. Griffith classic.Personal life
In 1907 Dorothy Minto married the actor Shiel Barry, with whom she had appeared the previous year in the play Robin Hood. Barry was the son of one of the main actors in Dion Boucicault's company. "The wedding was known only to a few persons, and the bride and bridegroom continued to appear at their respective theatres without indulging in a honeymoon." In 1908 they had a daughter, Moira. By 1913, though, Minto was listed in the London phone book as living at the same address as the actor Morris Harvey, and in 1914 Barry filed divorce proceedings citing Harvey as the co-respondent. However, these proceedings were withdrawn before Barry joined the armed forces to take part in the First World War: he was killed at the Somme in October 1916.In 1921 Minto married Capt. Robert Geoffrey Buxton, whose family had interests in the Malayan rubber industry. As with her first wedding, the groom's family knew nothing about the wedding until it had taken place. In June 1922 she had to postpone an extensive tour of the far east with her husband after an operation to remove her appendix. They had no children, and Buxton divorced her in 1928 on grounds of infidelity.
In 1930 she was fined for contempt of court after failing to appear at a hearing relating to non-payment of a tradesman's bill. There is little record of her life after the mid-1930s. She died in Chelsea on 6 December 1957.
Selected stage roles
ca. 1903/4Hamlet Second Gravedigger1904The Power of Darkness Nan
1905The First Franciscans Peasant GirlRomeo and Juliet JulietThe Wild Duck Hedwig EkdalMajor Barbara Jenny HillThe Faithful Lover ?
1906 The School for Husbands Clarissa HuntleighPrunella PrunellaOlf and the Little Maid KittyTribute to Ellen Terry French court ladyYou Never Can Tell Dolly ClandonRobin Hood Adela
1907The Philanderer Sylvia CravenVotes For Women! Ernestine BluntThe Return of the Prodigal Stella FaringfordMr. Steinmann's Corner NoraDavid Ballard Mercy HaintonJoy Joy
1908The Merchant of Venice NerissaThe Dog Between wifeThe Duke's Motto FloraPeter Pan Tootles
1910 Old Friends CarryChains Sybil FrostVision of Delight ?Lysistrata MyrrhinaJust To Get Married Daphne GrayleThe Merciful Soul Fiordelisa
1911An Episode BiancaFanny's First Play Dora DelaneyThe First Actress Mrs. Kitty Clive
1912The Grass Widows Betty BakerWhere There's A Will Dolly GrahamHullo, Rag-Time! ?
1913 8d-a-Mile, 8d-a-Mile ?The Real Thing Lulu
1914Things We'd Like to Know Dorothy GedgeAn Indian Summer UrsulaThe Glad Eye Kiki
1915A Chinese Honeymoon FifiWatch Your Step Iona Ford
1916School For Scandal ?More ?Pell Mell Typist, office boy, mother, etc.
1917 Double Dutch MienaWild Heather Dolly ThompsonThe Admirable Crichton GladysThe Happy Family Melisande Stubbins
1918Nothing But The Truth Mabel Jackson
1920 Husbands For All JemimaG.H.Q. Love LilyOh! Hell!! ?What Did her Husband Say? 'Her'A Man In Mary's Room VictoriaThe Tragedy of Mr. Punch - a fantastic play in prologue and one act Polly
1921 The Person Unknown Mary A Christmas Carol Sarah CratchitNightie Night Trixie LorraineThe Hotel Mouse Mauricette
1922Nightie Night Trixie Lorraine
1923 The Piccadilly Puritan AliceEliza Comes To Stay Eliza
1924The Blue Peter Rosie Callaghan
1925The Wishing Well 'vulgar Cockney'
1926His Wild Oat Dou Dou Delville
1927Wild-Cat Hetty HettyGood Morning, Bill! Lottie
1928Who's Who? Zita LortonQuest Alice Bolton
1930The Double Man ?Fourth Floor Heaven Stella DallasSearch Charlotte
1931Two Deep RosemaryPort Said Edith
1932 Too True to be Good ?
1933Vessels Departing Edith?
Filmography
1916Bored The Girl1918Once Upon a Time Lottie Price
1919A Little Bit of Fluff Mamie ScottI Will Mrs. Giles
1920The Glad Eye Kiki
1922The Game of Life Betsy Rudd
1930Raise the Roof JuanitaChildren of Chance Sally
1935Inside the Room Lilian Hope
1936Broken Blossoms Woman