Alice Ellen Russon was an Irish actress, singer, and dancer in musical comedies and in silent films.
Early life Alice Russon was born Alice Ellen Russon (or O'Connor) in Dublin."Miss Russon of 'The Arcadians' is an O'Connor of Dublin" San Francisco Chronicle (19 February 1911): 23. via Newspapers.com
Career On stage, Russon appeared in The Girl from Kay's (1904),"Prince's Theatre: The Girl from Kay's" The Guardian (22 November 1904): 6. via Newspapers.com Cinderella (1907), The Belle of Mayfair (1907),"Gaiety Theatre" The Guardian (19 February 1907): 9. via Newspapers.com Mr. George (1907),"Mr. George, a Comedy by Louis N. Parker, at the Vaudeville Theatre" Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (18 May 1907): 452. Little Red Riding Hood (1908),"Little Red Riding Hood" The Observer (27 December 1908): 7. via Newspapers.com The Arcadians (1911),Edward F. O'Day, "In Arcady and Elsewhere" San Francisco Daily Times (19 February 1911): 18. Ready Money (1912-1913),J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1910-1919: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Scarecrow Press 2013). Something Simple (1916), and Anthony in Wonderland (1917). She was on a variety show bill with Will Rogers headlining, at the Palace Theatre in Oklahoma in 1906.Richard Irving Dodge and Will Rogers, The Indian Territory Journals of Colonel Richard Irving Dodge (University of Oklahoma Press 2000): 297 note 1. In 1912 and 1913, she was in Australia,Dria, "A Chat with Miss Alice Russon (Principal Girl)" Critic (3 September 1913): 17. via Trove where she starred in a pantomime show, Puss in Boots, in Melbourne.C. R. B., "Greenroom Gossip" Punch (12 December 1912): 42. via Trove A reviewer in Atlanta, Georgia in 1910 described her as "one of the daintiest and most winsome little women who ever trod the land that lies beyond the footlights in Atlanta.""Arcadian Music Draws Big Crowds to Orpheum" Atlanta Constitution (27 December 1910): 2.
In 1911, while working in San Francisco, California, she submitted a proposal for a "theatorium" at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition to be held in that city in 1915."Stage Topics" Des Moines Register (16 April 1911): 22. via Newspapers.com
British silent films featuring Alice Russon include All Men Are Liars (1919), After Many Days (1918) and Democracy (1918).Denis Gifford, ed., British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set - The Fiction Film/The Non-Fiction Film (Routledge 2016).
Personal life She married a fellow actor, Vernon Davidson, in 1907. They had at least one child by 1913, a son."Miss Alice Russon" Barrier Miner (8 September 1913): 8. via Trove"Fact and Rumour" Punch (13 February 1913): 26. via Trove She owned a camera and enjoyed taking photos when she was travelling for work."Alice with her Camera" The Sun (16 March 1913): 15. via Trove
References
External links
Alice Russon at the British Film Institute The collection of the National Portrait Gallery (UK) includes seven photographs of Alice Russon, all by Bassano Ltd. "Alice Russon in Cinderella, Edinburgh" (1904), photograph in the National Archives (UK)