Phoebe Davies

Phoebe Davies (February 7, 1864 - December 4, 1912) was a Welsh-born American stage actress who starred in over 4,000 performances of the Lottie Blair Parker play, Way Down East.

Early life

Phoebe Davies was born in Cardigan, Wales, the daughter of David and Annie (née Griffiths) Davies. Her father, who was originally drawn to California by the Gold Rush of 1849, returned with his family in the early 1870s to work for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Her father later joined the Lighthouse Service where he would rise to captain the lighthouse tender Madroño. While still in school Davies won an audition with David Belasco, then stage manager of the Baldwin Theatre Stock Company in San Francisco, that led to an offer to play a part in their next production. An illness prevented her from taking the role that only postponed her professional stage début a short while later as a member of the Oakland California Stock Company.

San Francisco

She first appeared in a play by a local California playwright (Cipricio or Ciprico) entitled Adolph Chalet in which her performance as Marie, a minor role, went largely unnoticed in a cast that included Jeffreys Lewis, Osmond Tearle and Gerard Eyre. Later in the season she won praise for her depiction of Nadia in a dramatization of the Jules Verne novel Michael Strogoff.