Phyllis Rankin

Phyllis McKee Rankin (August 31, 1874 – November 17, 1934) was a Broadway actress and singer from the 1880s until the 1920s.

Phyllis McKee Rankin was the second daughter of stage actors Elizabeth "Kitty" Blanchard and McKee Rankin. Her older sister, Gladys Rankin (1870–1914), was also an entertainer with her husband Sidney Drew in an act billed Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew, and her younger half-sister, Doris Rankin (1888–1946), was a stage and screen actress and one-time wife of actor Lionel Barrymore. 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. Mrs. McKee Rankin was regarded as the foremost and best-known character actress and stage artist of her generation.

Phyllis Rankin was tutored by her father in old school drama. She made her first stage appearance as a youth of 10 with her parents in Stormbeaten. She eventually left her father's companies and was managed by Charles Frohman.

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.

Rankin was in the supporting cast of Sara, a play performed at the Palmer Theatre (Wallack's Theatre), in the summer of 1890. Sara was the abandoned wife of a French adventurer named Antoine la Rue. Albert M. Palmer gained control of Wallack's Theatre in 1888 and produced plays in New York City through 1896.

Rose Coghlan obtained Rankin to replace Jennie Yeamans in an 1892 production of The Check Book. In April 1893 she appeared in the Arabian Nights on a variety bill at the Standard Theatre,6th Avenue (Manhattan) between 32nd Street and 33rd Street, Frohman's comedians were also featured performers.

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