Meggie Albanesi

Margherita Cecilia Brigida Lucia Maria Albanesi (8 October 1899 – 9 December 1923) was a British stage and film actress.

She was born in London on 8 October 1899. Her father was Italian-born Carlo Albanesi (1856–1926), a pianist and teacher at the Royal Academy of Music, while her mother was Effie Adelaide Rowlands (1859–1936), a writer who published over 250 romance novels and short stories.^[1]

Albanesi attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where she was awarded the Bancroft Medal.^[2] She enjoyed a short but successful theatre career, appearing in plays such as John Galsworthy's The First and the Last , opposite Owen Nares, and The School for Scandal and Mr. Todd's Experiment . She was soon being hailed by critics as one of the brightest prospects in British acting.^[3]

In 1920 she appeared as Jill in Galsworthy's play The Skin Game , and played the same role in the 1921 film of the play. In 1921 Albanesi starred as Sydney Fairfield in Clemence Dane's first and most famous play, A Bill of Divorcement, and in 1922 played Mabel Dancy in Galsworthy's play Loyalties which ran for nearly a year at the St Martin's Theatre. Albanesi appeared in six films^[4] between 1919 and 1922 including The Romance of Old Bill , Darby and Joan and Mr. Wu .^[1]

Albanesi died at the age of 24 in Broadstairs, Kent, on 9 December 1923, after emergency abdominal surgery^[5] caused by intestinal obstruction due to inflammatory adhesions. This was allegedly a consequence of an illegal abortion.^{[6] [7]} She was buried in St Pancras and Islington Cemetery in north London.^[8]

Albanesi had a relationship with the theatre and film producer Basil Dean, who continued to be obsessed with her after her death.^[9] Dean was first attracted to his wife, the actress Victoria Hopper, because of her physical resemblance to Albanesi and cast her in a number of his productions. His final film as a director 21 Days was based on a play, The First and the Last, on which he had worked with Albanesi.^[10]

Dean commissioned Eric Gill to create a memorial plaque to Albanesi, which can be seen in the foyer of the St Martin's Theatre, West Street, London.^[11] Her friend Noël Coward dedicated the first published text of his play The Rat Trap to the "dear memory of Meggie Albanesi" in 1924.^[1]

• Chambers, Colin (2002). Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. Continuum. ISBN 978-1847140012.
• Sweet, Matthew (2006). Shepperton Babylon: The Lost Worlds of British Cinema. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0571212989.

• Gray, Frances (2011). "Meggie Albanesi: A Life in the Theatre". The Society for Theatre Research.
• Meggie Albanesi at IMDb

• 1899 births
• 1923 deaths
• Actresses from London
• English stage actresses
• English film actresses
• English silent film actresses
• English people of Italian descent
• Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
• 20th-century English actresses

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