20 Facts About Marie Studholme

Caroline Maria Lupton, known professionally as Marie Studholme, was an English actress and singer of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, known for her supporting and sometimes starring roles in Edwardian musical comedy.

Marie Studholme was one of producer George Edwardes' famous Gaiety Girls and originated several roles in musical comedies.

Marie Studholme ended her career in music hall comedy sketches.

Marie Studholme was born in Eccleshill, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, the only child of Joseph Ludholme Lupton, an auctioneer, and his wife Emma Greaves.

Marie Studholme became interested in theatre while still at school.

Marie Studholme joined her mother in London and started her stage career in 1891 at the Lyric Theatre in London in the chorus of Edmond Audran's operetta La Cigale and, at the same theatre in early 1892, was in the chorus of The Mountebanks, where she met her future husband, actor Gilbert Porteous, who was playing the role of Beppo.

Marie Studholme appeared as Rhea Porter in the musical comedy Morocco Bound at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1893, where she came to the attention of the manager George Edwardes, the leading promoter of Edwardian musical comedy.

Marie Studholme appeared on Broadway in a revival of In Town in 1897.

Marie Studholme created the role of Cicely Marchmont in The School Girl in 1903.

The petite Marie Studholme sometimes played juvenile roles, for example the title role in Alice in Wonderland in a West End revival in 1906.

Marie Studholme starred in the title role in Miss Hook of Holland on a long provincial tour from 1907 to 1910.

Marie Studholme had great success and popularity in the British provinces, and returned triumphantly to Bradford to perform at the opening of the town's Alhambra music-hall in 1914.

Amid the demands of a busy theatre schedule, Marie Studholme found time in 1907 to study Jujitsu with Yukio Tani.

Marie Studholme married Porteous in 1891, and the marriage ended in divorce.

Marie Studholme was married again on 4 September 1908 to Harold Giles Borrett, four years her junior, the son of Major-General Herbert Charles Borrett, who courted her under an assumed name.

Marie Studholme fostered Peter Lupino and then around 1916 adopted Jill, who was four years younger than Lupino.

Marie Studholme reportedly charged a sixpence to autograph her postcards and gave the proceeds to animal and theatrical charities.

In 1904, Marie Studholme brought and won a lawsuit against Edward Foley, a London dentist, who altered her photographic image for use in an advertisement without permission.

Marie Studholme converted to Christian Science and lived out her retirement in Hampstead and Laleham where, in 1909, the young Architect Edward Maufe designed a weekend house for her.

Marie Studholme died at her home in London in March 1930 from a short but virulent attack of rheumatic fever, at the age of 57, and was buried in the St Marylebone Cemetery in East Finchley, survived by her second husband and children.