Clare Greet

Clare Greet
As Mistress Quickly, 1926
Born	Clara Greet (1871-06-14)14 June 1871 Leicestershire, England
Died	14 February 1939(1939-02-14) (aged 67) London, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1891–1939

Clare Greet (14 June 1871 – 14 February 1939) was an English stage and film actress.

She began on stage in Shakespeare with the Ben Greet Company and later played many roles in the West End between 1907 and 1938. The premieres in which she played included Bernard Shaw's The Doctor's Dilemma, Major Barbara and Androcles and the Lion. She appeared in films between 1921 and 1939.

Clare Greet was born on 14 June 1871, the daughter of John Greet and his wife Fanny.^[1] She was educated privately at Leamington Spa and then attended the Girls' College, Brighton.^[1] She studied for the stage under Hermann Vezin, Emile Behnke, and Ben Greet (to whom she was no relation).^[1] She made her first appearance on the stage in 1891 with the Ben Greet Company, in which she played numerous parts in Shakespearean plays and old comedy. She was then engaged by John Hare for the Garrick Theatre, where she understudied; she subsequently toured with him, and then with William Calvert and subsequently with Grace Hawthorne, as Stephanie in A Royal Divorce, and Antonin in Theodora .^[1]

In 1893 Greet played an engagement at the Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel, where she appeared as Louisa Anne Ferguson in The English Rose, Joyce in East Lynne, Minnie in Nance, Peggy Chudleigh in The Harbour Lights and Moya in The Shaughraun. She made her first appearance in the West End at the Strand on 10 May 1894, as Hetty in The Love Letter. In the same year she was engaged at the Avenue as understudy in Arms and the Man, in which she appeared as Louka on several occasions.^[1]

Greet toured in the US with Lillian Russell, and in the British provinces with May Fortescue and next toured as Mrs. Bagot in Trilby, and subsequently as Madame Vinard. She toured with Sidney Brough as Mrs Pomfret in The Paper Chase, and toured in South Africa in Two Little Vagabonds, East Lynne, Confusion and The Two Orphans. Her later West End roles were:^[1]

Greet died in her sleep at her flat in Chelsea on 14 February 1939, aged 67.^[2]

• Parker, John, ed. (1936). Who's Who in the Theatre (eighth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. OCLC 655107788.

• Clare Greet at IMDb