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((short description|American actress))
((Refimprove|date=December 2008))
((Use mdy dates|date=April 2015))
((Infobox person
| name                  = Elsie Ferguson
| image                 = Elsieferguson.jpg
| caption               = Publicity photo of Ferguson (1913)
| birth_date             = ((Birth date|1883|08|19))
| birth_place            = New York City, U.S.
| death_date             = ((Death date and age|1961|11|15|1883|08|19))
| death_place            = [[New London, Connecticut]], U.S.
| othername             = 
| occupation            = Actress
| yearsactive           = 1902–1943
| spouse                = [[Frederick C. Hoey]] (1907-1914) (divorced)<br />Thomas Clarke, Jr. (1916-1923) (divorced)<br />[[Frederick Worlock]] (1924-1930) (divorced)<br />Victor Augustus Seymour Egan (1934-1956) (his death)
| domesticpartner       =  
))

'''Elsie Louise Ferguson''' (August 19, 1883 – November 15, 1961) was an American stage and film actress.<ref>Rector, T. A. (2010). ''The Singing Heart: The Autobiography of Thomas Allen Rector.'' United States: Salmon Creek Publishing. p. 195.</ref> Seen by some as an early feminist, she promoted suffrage, which she discussed in interviews, and supported animal rights.<ref>((Cite news |last=Parsons |first=Louella |date=1919 |title=Elsie Ferguson |work=New York Telegraph |url=https://www.silentera.com/taylorology/issues/Taylor63.txt))</ref><ref>((Cite web |title=Women's Suffrage and the Movie People |url=http://sfsilentfilmfestival.blogspot.com/2016/11/womens-suffrage-and-movie-people.html |access-date=2023-02-09 |language=en))</ref>

==Early life==
Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Hiram and Amelia Ferguson.((Citation needed |date=December 2020)) Her father was a successful attorney.<ref>''Great Stars of the American Stage'' by Daniel Blum, 2nd edit. c.1954 ''Profile #64''</ref> Raised and educated in [[Manhattan]], she became interested in the theater at a young age and made her stage debut at 17 as a chorus girl in a musical comedy. For almost two years, from 1903 to 1905, she was a cast member in ''[[The Girl from Kays]]''. In 1908, she was leading lady to [[Edgar Selwyn]] in ''Pierre of the Plains''. By 1909, after several years apprenticeship under several producers, including [[Charles Frohman]], Klaw & Erlanger, [[Charles Dillingham]] and [[Henry B. Harris]], she was a major [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] star, starring in ''Such a Little Queen''. In 1910, she spent time on the stage in London. Actresses [[Evelyn Nesbit]] and [[Ethel Barrymore]] were friends of hers.

During World War I, a number of Broadway stars organized a campaign to sell [[War bond|Liberty Bonds]] from the theatre stage before the performance as well as at highly publicized appearances at places such as the New York Public Library. On one occasion, Ferguson is reputed to have sold $85,000 worth of bonds in less than an hour.

==Stardom==
[[File:Elsie Ferguson, photo by Mishkin.jpg|left|200px|thumb|''The Theatre'' pub. 1913]]
At the peak of her popularity, several film studios offered her a contract but she declined them all until widely respected New York-based French director [[Maurice Tourneur]] proposed she appear in the lead role as a sophisticated patrician in his 1917 [[silent film]] ''[[Barbary Sheep (film)|Barbary Sheep]]''. She also may have consented to films because she no longer had the protection of her Broadway employers [[Henry B. Harris]], who died on the ''[[RMS Titanic|Titanic]]'' in 1912, and [[Charles Frohman]], who perished on the ''[[RMS Lusitania|Lusitania]]'' in 1915. Producer and director [[Adolph Zukor]] then signed her to an 18-film, three-year, $5,000-per-week contract.<ref name="und1">((cite web |url=http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs/WitnessfortheDefense.htm |title=Witness for the Defense |publisher=University of North Dakota |access-date=2008-12-05 |archive-date=January 2, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090102121043/http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs/WitnessfortheDefense.htm |url-status=dead ))</ref>

Following this first film, Ferguson was billed prominently in promotional campaigns,((Citation needed |date=December 2020)) and starred in two more films directed by Tourneur under a lucrative contract from [[Paramount Pictures]] that paid her $1,000 per day of filming in addition to her weekly contract income. Her only surviving complete silent film is ''[[The Witness for the Defense (1919 film)|The Witness for the Defense]]'' (1919), co-starring [[Warner Oland]] and performed as a play in 1911 by her friend Ethel Barrymore.<ref name="und1"/> A surviving fragment of footage of Ferguson from ''The Lie'' or ''The Avalanche'' can be seen in Paramount's ''[[The House That Shadows Built]]'' (1931). Other brief surviving footage of Ferguson is preserved in Paramount's ''[[A Trip to Paramountown]]'' (1922)
[[File:Elsie-ferguson.jpg|right|thumb|180px|c. 1920]]
Continuing to play roles of elegant society women, Ferguson was quickly dubbed "The Aristocrat of the Silent Screen", but the aristocratic label also was because she was known as a difficult and sometimes arrogant personality with whom to work.((cn|date=August 2022)) Many of the films she agreed to do were because they were adaptations of stage plays with which she was familiar.

Elsie Ferguson eventually followed the move west and bought a home in the hills of [[Hollywood, California]]. In 1920, she traveled to the Middle East and Europe. She fell in love with Paris and the French Riviera, and within a few years, she bought a permanent home there. 

In 1921, she accepted another contract offer from Paramount Pictures to star in four films to be spread over a two-year period. One of these was the 1921 film entitled ''[[Forever (1921 film)|Forever]]'' in which she starred with [[Wallace Reid]].

=="Talkies" and retirement==
Ferguson's last silent film before returning to Broadway was the 1925 drama ''[[The Unknown Lover]]''. In 1930, she made her first sound film that also would be her final film, titled ''[[Scarlet Pages]]'', which is now preserved in the [[Library of Congress]].<ref name="und1"/> The film was based on a 1929 Broadway production of the same name that she also starred in. She was described as having a "pleasantly low-pitched voice with perfect diction."<ref name="Liebman2017">((cite book |last1=Liebman |first1=Roy |title=Broadway Actors in Films, 1894-2015 |date=2017 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-7685-5 |page=92 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ICUSDgAAQBAJ&dq=Scarlett+Pages+elsie+ferguson&pg=PA92 |language=en))</ref>

Well known as difficult to work with, temperamental, and argumentative,((cn|date=August 2022)) she married four times. Following her final marriage at age 51, she and her husband acquired a farm in Connecticut and divided their time between it and her home in [[Antibes|Cap d'Antibes]]. 

Ferguson made her final appearance on Broadway in 1943, at the age of 60, that met with critical acclaim. She played in ''Outrageous Fortune'',<ref name="Liebman2017"/> a play written by her neighbor [[Rose Franken]]. The play closed eight weeks after it opened. Critics hailed Ferguson's performance as "glowing" and having "the charm and winning manner of old."((Citation needed|date=December 2008))

Ferguson died in Lawrence Memorial Hospital in [[New London, Connecticut]], in 1961.<ref>"Elsie Ferguson Is Dead at 76; Former Stage and Screen Star." ''New York Times''. November 16, 1961, Page 39.</ref> She lived on an estate called White Gate Farms. She was interred in the [[Duck River Cemetery]] in [[Old Lyme, Connecticut]]. A very wealthy woman with no heirs and a lover of animals, she left a large part of her considerable estate to a variety of charities, including several for animal welfare.

==Filmography==
[[File:Eliseferguson-lanternslide-advert.jpg|right|thumb|Paramount-Artcraft lantern slide announcing Ferguson as an Artcraft player.]]
[[File:Elsie Ferguson 1921.jpg|thumb|Elsie Ferguson in ''[[Footlights (1921 film)|Footlights]]'']]
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 1902 || ''[[Jack and the Beanstalk (1902 film)|Jack and the Beanstalk]]'' || Fairy || 
|-
| 1917 || ''[[Barbary Sheep (1917 film)|Barbary Sheep]]'' || Lady Katherine 'Kitty' Wyverne || '''Lost''' film <br /> Eight minutes survive
|-
| 1917 || ''[[The Rise of Jennie Cushing]]'' || Jenny Cushing || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1918 || ''[[Rose of the World (1918 film)|Rose of the World]]'' || Rosamond English || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1918 || ''[[The Song of Songs (1918 film)|The Song of Songs]]'' || Lily Kardos || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1918 || ''[[The Lie (1918 film)|The Lie]]'' || Elinor Shale || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1918 || ''[[A Doll's House (1918 film)|A Doll's House]]'' || Nora Helmer || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1918 || ''[[The Danger Mark]]'' || Geraldine Seagrave || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1918 || ''[[Heart of the Wilds]]'' || Jen Galbraith || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1918 || ''The Spirit That Wins'' || Elsie || Short <br /> '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1918 || ''[[Under the Greenwood Tree (1918 film)|Under the Greenwood Tree]]'' || Mary Hamilton || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1919 || ''[[His Parisian Wife]]'' || Fauvette || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1919 || ''[[The Marriage Price]]'' || Helen Tremaine || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1919 || ''[[Eyes of the Soul]]'' || Gloria Swann || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1919 || ''[[The Avalanche (1919 film)|The Avalanche]]'' || Chichita / Madame Delano / Helene || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1919 || ''[[A Society Exile (1919 film)|A Society Exile]]'' || Nora Shard, aka Christine || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1919 || ''[[The Witness for the Defense (1919 film)|The Witness for the Defense]]'' || Stella Derrick ||
|-
| 1919 || ''[[Counterfeit (1919 film)|Counterfeit]]'' || Virginia Griswold || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1920 || ''[[His House in Order (1920 film)|His House in Order]]'' || Nina Graham || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1920 || ''[[Lady Rose's Daughter]]'' || Julie le Breton / Lady Rose / Lady Maude || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1921 || ''[[Sacred and Profane Love (1921 film)|Sacred and Profane Love]]'' || Carlotta Peel || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1921 || ''[[Footlights (1921 film)|Footlights]]'' || Lisa Parsinova / Lizzie Parsons || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1921 || ''[[Forever (1921 film)|Forever]]'' || Mimsi || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1922 || ''[[Outcast (1922 film)|Outcast]]'' || Miriam || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1922 || ''[[A Trip to Paramountown]]'' || Herself || Documentary short <br />  
|-
| 1924 || ''[[Broadway After Dark]]'' || Herself || Short <br /> '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1925 || ''[[The Unknown Lover]]'' || Elaine Kent || '''Lost''' film
|-
| 1930 || ''[[Scarlet Pages]]'' || Mary Bancroft || 
|}

==References==
((reflist))

==External links==
((Commons category))
* ((IBDB name))
* ((IMDb name|0272425))
* [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=elsie+ferguson Elsie Ferguson] photographic gallery NYP Library
* [http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/10002/elsie-ferguson Elsie Ferguson] at Virtual History
*[http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/collection/sayre/searchterm/elsie%20ferguson/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/cosuppress/ Elsie Ferguson] in scenes from many of her lost films and stage scene with husband [[Frederick Worlock]] (Univ of Washington Sayre collection)
* Elsie Ferguson and [[Nance O'Neil]] in the 1927 play ''[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/24/de/13/24de13dbaf8fe8bfd78870e6bb022dc0.jpg The House of Women]''
*((findagrave|7540403))
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20200731010525/http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/bJwAAOSwGTheM4yx/s-l1600.jpg portrait of Ferguson in 1924](WaybackMachine),..[https://web.archive.org/web/20200731003202/http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/xEgAAOSwLoZeM4y1/s-l1600.jpg flip side text](Wayback)
*[https://www.periodpaper.com/products/orig-1910-print-elsie-ferguson-will-bradley-broadway-original-044746-stage3-045 PeriodPaper]
*[https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/UCQAAOSwFYFg9T2h/s-l1600.jpg Ferguson and namesake niece], 1933
*[http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/7GcAAOSw5gVg9T2h/s-l1600.jpg back Ferguson and niece] 1933

((Authority control))
((DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Elsie))
[[Category:1883 births]]
[[Category:1961 deaths]]
[[Category:American film actresses]]
[[Category:American silent film actresses]]
[[Category:19th-century American actresses]]
[[Category:American stage actresses]]
[[Category:Actresses from Manhattan]]
[[Category:People from Old Lyme, Connecticut]]
[[Category:American women in World War I]]
[[Category:20th-century American actresses]]
[[Category:Paramount Pictures contract players]]

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