Fay Templeton was an American stage actress. She was born into a theatrical family, with both her parents were actors/vaudevillians (John Templeton and Alice Vane), so it was no surprise that she made her stage debut aged 3 and eventually her Broadway debut in 1900 (aged 25). Needless to say she grew up rather precocious, and with an early interest in men ..... but more of that later.
Her stage career was getting gradually more successful and in 1885, she made her formal debut in a revival of 'Evangeline' which ran for 201 performances. In this show, she displayed talent as both a comedian and mimic. This led to her taking on a “trouser role,” (cross dressing as a man) ...she was a success but the play folded. She formed her own opera company and starred in various operettas, none of which fared well financially. In 1895, she starred in another 'trouser role' in 'Excelsior, Jr'. at the Olympic Theater. Unfortunately she was becoming somewhat portly by now, and joined the stock company of comedy duo Joe Weber and Lew Fields in 1896 ...she stayed with them and then in 1906 moved to the George M. Cohan show 'Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway' playing the lead. A Few months later she married and announced her retirement from the stage.
In 1911, Weber and Fields invited her to their reunion with a Jubilee touring company tour, which lasted five months and broke all records for touring companies. In 1913, Templeton again announced her retirement but in 1925, she appeared in an old-timer’s show at the Palace Theater, working with Weber and Fields. Asked if she would continue to perform, she replied, “
It’s been great fun, but it’s a new Broadway and a new theater, and hereafter I’ll be content to look on from out front.”
Guess what, she returned to the stage again in 1926 to play Buttercup in a revival of Pinafore. Again, she claimed it was her last appearance on stage. But, well you know whats coming .... in 1932 lack of finances forced her to return to the stage to earn a living, appearing in Jerome Kern’s Roberta as Aunt Minnie, a dress shop owner in Paris. Bob Hope, in his stage debut, handled the comedy. She had only one song, “Yesterday.” The show ran for nine months.
She finally retired for good in 1936 (more retirements than Frank Sinatra), when she entered the Actors’ Fund Home in New Jersey. On October 3, 1939, she died in San Francisco, California, where she had moved to live with a cousin. She is buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York; few attended her funeral.
As you might expect with her having a post here, her private life was 'interesting' ... as mentioned earlier, she grew up around young men (more than was normal for a Victorian girl .... so '
Quelle surprise!' aged just 15 she was off and running on the men stakes, when
she eloped with one Billy West, a blackface minstrel performer, but they
separated after a honeymoon of
just six weeks (and were divorced 3 years later) ....
well, at least she was 'a woman' now
Now that she was broken in so so speak, she was able to form male relationships, and between shows, in 1887, she began
living with a Mr Howell Osborne, a wealthy broker; there is
no record that they ever married, and the two had no children. The two lived in England and toured the continent for several years. Some sources claim that they had kept their marriage 'a secret' because his family threatened to disinherit him if he ever married an actress .... he died in 1895 and she was left no money.
Finally she married a Pittsburgh industrialist William Patterson, co-founder of Heyl & Patterson Inc, and she and Patterson also had no children. His death in 1931 left her broke, he apparently had left her no funds, or he had lost them.
Trivia:
- In the 1942 musical, 'Yankee Doodle Dandy', Templeton was portrayed by actress Irene Manning.
- She refused most film work when she had the chance, this accelerated her loss of fame but she has some film credits.
- She was described as "The Toast of the Gay 90's".
- One of her co-stars in the original Broadway production of "Roberta" was Bob Hope.
Pictures:
