Beryl Mercer (August 13, 1882 – July 28, 1939) was a Spanish-born American actress of stage and screen who was based in the United States.[1]
Early years
Beryl Mercer was born to British parents in Seville on 13 August 1882. Her father was Edward Sheppard Mercer, said to be Spanish despite his name, and her mother was actress Effie Martin.[2][note 1][3]
Career
She became a child actress, making her debut on 14 August 1886 at the Theatre Royal, Great Yarmouth, when she was age 4 and returned to the stage when she was ten. In London, she appeared in The Darling of the Gods and the production by Oscar Asche of A Midsummer Night's Dream.[2] In 1906 she appeared as a Kaffir slave in the West End play The Shulamite.[4]
She travelled with this play to the United States, where she received good reviews.[2] That 1906 play marked her Broadway debut.[5]
Mercer's film debut came in The Christian.[7] She was best known as a film actress for her motherly roles. She played Lew Ayres' mother in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and James Cagney's mother in The Public Enemy (1931). She also regularly appeared as a grandmother, cook or maid in some high-profile films. She appeared in more than 50 films between 1916 and 1939, and her career was at a peak in the 1930s when she regularly appeared in several films per year. Mercer appeared in Cavalcade (1933), Jane Eyre, The Little Minister, and The Richest Girl in the World (all 1934). She was in two versions of Three Live Ghosts (1929 and 1935) and The Little Princess (1939) as Queen Victoria.
Personal life
Mercer was married to Maitland Paisley early in her life. Her only other marriage was to actor Holmes Herbert in the late 1920s. She had one child, Joan Mercer, later Bitting, born on 16 September 1917.[8]
^The reference work An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930 says of Mercer, "... her mother was the famed actor Beryl Montague."
