Phyllis Rankin (1875 - November 17, 1934)[1] was a Broadway actress and singer from the 1880s until the 1920s. Her full name was Phyllis McKee Rankin.[2]
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She was the daughter of stage actress Elizabeth I. Rankin[3] (née Kitty Blanchard) and actor Arthur[1] McKee Rankin[3] Her older, married sister, was named Gladys.[2] A younger sister was named Doris who married into the Barrymore family. In September 1890 Elizabeth Rankin filed a motion contesting her husband's resistance to providing support for their daughter. A previous suit, in which she filed for separation from McKee, was being considered by the New York Supreme Court.[3] Mrs. McKee Rankin was regarded as the foremost and best-known character actress and stage artist of her generation.[4]
Phyllis Rankin was tutored by her father in old school drama.[5] She made her first stage appearance as a youth of 10 with her parents in Stormbeaten.[1] She eventually left her father's companies and was managed by Charles Frohman.[5]
A house belonging to McKee Rankin at 40 Edgecombe Avenue, near One Hundred and Thirty-Sixth Street, burned in the early morning of April 1, 1891. Rankin and her mother were inside when the fire began in a linen closet. The blaze was contained and put out through the efforts of a bucket brigade. Damage was estimated at $400 and was covered by insurance.[2]
Rankin was in the supporting cast of Sara, a play performed at the Palmer Theatre (Wallack's Theatre), in the summer of 1890.[6] Sara was the abandoned wife of a French adventurer named Antoine la Rue.[7] Albert M. Palmer gained control of Wallack's Theatre in 1888 and produced plays in New York City through 1896.[8]
Rose Coghlan obtained Rankin to replace Jennie Yeamans in an 1892 production of The Check Book.[9] In April 1893 she appeared in the Arabian Nights on a variety bill at the Standard Theatre,[10] 6th Avenue (Manhattan) between 32nd Street and 33rd Street,[11] Frohman's comedians were also featured performers.[10]
In February 1897 Rankin was part of a bill at the Olympia Music Hall,[12] 1514–16 Broadway (Manhattan) (44th Street),[13] that included Auguste Van Biene.[12] The same month she appeared at the Twenty-Third Street Theatre,[14] 139 West Twenty-Third Street,[15] of Frederick Francis Proctor.[14] In May she entertained at the St. Nicholas Music Hall,[16] West 66th Street near Columbus Avenue (Manhattan).[17] She sang at Koster & Bial's Music Hall,[18] 729 6th Avenue and 23rd Street (Manhattan),[19] in June.[18] In July Rankin performed with Lizzie Evans and George Thatcher at Keith's New Union Square Theatre,[20] near Broadway at 14th Street (Manhattan).[21] During her engagement at the B.F. Keith establishment, she did impersonations of Anna Held.[22] At the Casino Theatre,[23] 1404 Broadway (West 39th Street),[24] Rankin played Fifi[25] Fricot[1] in The Belle of New York, which had a one week booking in December 1897.[23].
By August 1898 she was receiving offers from English managers of comic opera.[26] The Belle of New York was staged at the Shaftesbury Theatre with Harry Davenport in the company.[27] Davenport portrayed a doctor and Rankin, a housekeeper, in Three Wise Fools. The two met and married in the original production of The Belle of New York.[5] In the musical they sang a famous duet, When We Are Married.[1]
In 1921 she had performed on stage for fifty years. Other productions in which she acted were The Rounders, It Happened In Nordland, and Fascinating Flora.[1]
Rankin died in Canton, Pennsylvania in 1934 at the age of 59.[1] She and Davenport married and were the parents of Arthur Rankin, an actor in motion pictures from 1923 -1934. He was also a writer. He died from a cerebral hemmorage following an extended illness in 1950.[28] After her wedding to Davenport, Rankin left the stage for eleven years before returning in a small role in Lightnin, in August 1918. The couple later teamed at the Criterion Theatre for a production of Three Wise Fools.[5] Rankin was the mother of three other children, 2 of whom acted on stage.[1]