Fanny Cathcart

Mary Fanny Cathcart (3 August 1833 – 3 January 1880), was an Australian stage actress, active between 1853 and 1878. Between 1855 and 1865, she was regarded as the most famed female theatre star in Australia.^[1]

Fanny Cathcart
Fanny Cathcart, c. 1870
Born	Mary Fanny Cathcart (1833-08-03)3 August 1833 London, England
Died	3 January 1880(1880-01-03) (aged 46) Carlton, Victoria, Australia
Other names	Mrs Robert Heir, Mrs George Darrell
Occupation	actress
Years active	1850–1879
Known for	Comedy and Shakespearean roles

Cathcart was born in England on 3 August 1833^[2] to James Cathcart and Fannie Hubbard. Her father was the manager of his own touring theatre company. She arrived in Melbourne in Australia as a member of Gustavus Brooke's travelling theatre company in 1853. The same year, she married the actor Robert James Heir. He died in 1868 at sea on a voyage to New Zealand aged 36.^[3] In 1870 she married playwright George Darrell in Auckland, New Zealand.^[4]

Cathcart was famous in mid 19th-century Australia for both her comedy and Shakespearean roles. She was admired for her precise attention to detail in her acting and described as a talented beauty. She had her base in Melbourne but toured all over Australia and was given jewels by her audience.

Cathcart died at her home in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton on 3 January 1880,^[5] survived by her second husband. She was buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery.^[6] The actor James Faucett Cathcart ( –1902) was a brother.

Cathcart Close in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm is named in her honour.^[7]

References

1. Helen M. Van Der Poorten, 'Cathcart, Mary Fanny (1833–1880)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cathcart-mary-fanny-3180/text4767, published first in hardcopy 1969, accessed online 18 August 2017.
2. "Death of Mrs. George Darrell". Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954). 5 January 1880. p. 3. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
3. "Family Notices". Leader. Victoria, Australia. 28 March 1868. p. 29. Retrieved 6 February 2020 – via Trove.
4. "Family Notices". Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870–1907). 5 February 1870. p. 30. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
5. "Family Notices". Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854–1954). 5 January 1880. p. 1. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
6. "Family Notices". Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848–1957). 5 January 1880. p. 8. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
7. "Schedule 'B' National Memorials Ordinance 1928-1972 Street Nomenclature List of Additional Names with Reference to Origin: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Special (National : 1977 - 2012) - 8 Feb 1978". Trove. p. 11. Retrieved 2 April 2020.