Connie Ediss

Connie Ediss (11 August 1871 – 18 April 1934) was an English actress best known as a buxom, good-humoured comedian in many of the popular Edwardian musical comedies around the turn of the 20th century.

After beginning her career in provincial theatres in Britain in music hall and pantomime in the 1880s, Ediss was engaged to play in a series of extraordinarily successful musical comedies at the Gaiety Theatre, London, beginning in 1896, and also played in a several musicals on Broadway. During World War I, she began a long tour in Australia, returning to London in 1919 to play in farces and comedies. She made a few films in the 1930s.

Ediss was born in Brighton, England, the eldest child of Charles Coates, a house painter, and his wife Jane. Her real name was Ada Harriet Coates. Her mother and her aunt had both been members of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. She began her career in provincial theatres at the age of 12, originally using the stage name "Connie Coutts". She made her first appearance on a London stage in 1893 singing and dancing in variety shows at Albert Chevalier's Trocadero music hall. She also played in pantomime as a principal boy.

She received a lucky break in 1895 when she was asked to fill in for an ailing Nellie Farren at the Gaiety Theatre, London.George Edwardes signed Ediss to a three-year contract. The Times later commented, "Edwardes had an uncanny flair for personalities, and in his new recruit he found a personality indeed, an actress with a 'Gaiety sense', a comedian of a rare type, and a wholesome 'comfortable-looking' – his own words – foil to the orchidaceous showgirls of the Gaiety." Edwardes sent her to New York, where she appeared in the Broadway production of The Shop Girl as Ada Smith. The next year, she returned to England to appear in Edwardian musical comedies at the Gaiety Theatre, beginning with My Girl and The Circus Girl, as Mme. Drivelli.

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