Wright, Haidée (1868–1943)

English actress . Name variations: Haidee Wright. Born in London, England, on January 13, 1868; died on January 29, 1943; daughter of Fred Wright (an actor-manager) and Jesse (Frances) Wright (an actress); sister of Fred, Huntley, Bertie, and Marie Wright (all actors).

Like her sisters and brothers, Haidée Wright was trained for the stage in her father's touring company. She first appeared in April 1878 as Diamond Wetherwick in The Hoop of Gold. In 1887, Wright made her London debut at the Pavilion Theater as Esther Forester in False Lights. Her initial West End appearance was at the Lyric in 1896, as Stephanus in The Sign of the Cross, opposite Wilson Barrett. In 1908, Wright portrayed Miss Kite in The Passing of the Third Floor Back at the St. James and toured the United States in the same role from 1909 to 1911. In 1911, she played Anna in Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths at the Kingsway Theater. The year 1913 found her back in New York playing Miss Scrotton in Tante at the Empire. Returning to London in 1917, she appeared as Mrs. Hilperty in The Melody of Youth, as Mother Marguerite in Cyrano de Bergerac (1919), as Madame de Musset in Madame Sand (1920), as Queen Elizabeth I in Will Shakespeare (1921), as Mrs. David Garrick (Eva-Maria Veigel ) in Ned Kean of Old Drury (1923), and once again as Queen Elizabeth in Dark Lady of the Sonnets (1923). Crisscrossing the Atlantic, Wright appeared in New York as Fanny Cavendish in the Royal Family in 1927. In 1932, in London, she took on the part of Napoleon's mother Letizia Bonaparte in Napoleon; her last stage appearance was as Martha Blackett in Gentle Rain in 1936. Wright's films include The Blarney Stone, Jew Süss, and Tomorrow We Live.