1. Nellie Wallace was a British music hall star, actress, comedienne, dancer and songwriter who became one of the most famous and best loved music hall performers.
13 Facts About Nellie Wallace
1. 2.
Nellie Wallace's father, Francis George Tayler, was a vocalist and musician and her mother a retired actress who became a teacher and governess.
3.
Nellie Wallace performed in provincial theatres, sometimes as a dancer known as "La Petite Nellie", and in pantomimes for several years with little success.
4.
Nellie Wallace was called upon to replace Ada Reeve in pantomime in Manchester in 1895, after which she started to become better known.
5.
Nellie Wallace developed her own strand of eccentric comedy and made her London debut in 1903.
6.
Nellie Wallace deliberately made herself appear ugly, and performed in a multicoloured jumper, a very tight hobble skirt, a skimpy feather boa or moth-eaten fur stole which she described as her "little bit of vermin", and a hat decorated with an old feather or fish bone.
7.
Nellie Wallace appeared in a "short", filmed in 1902, entitled: A Lady's First lesson on the Bicycle and directed by James Williamson.
8.
Nellie Wallace later moved into bigger budget productions and appeared in The Golden Pippin Girl ; The Wishbone ; Radio Parade of 1935, alongside fellow music hall performer Lily Morris and established actor Will Hay; Variety and Boys Will Be Girls.
9.
Nellie Wallace made several successful tours of North America, and in England starred in revues with George Robey, Billy Merson and others.
10.
Nellie Wallace toured with ENSA in the Second World War, and in 1948 was one of the stars of Don Ross's show Thanks for the Memory, appearing in the Royal Command Performance of that year.
11.
Nellie Wallace died in a London nursing home on 24 November 1948, aged 78, after a serious bout of bronchitis.
12.
Nellie Wallace had been married to William Henry Liddy, comic actor, who died in 1921; their daughter Nora pre-deceased Nellie earlier in 1948, and it was said that Nellie "lost the will to live".
13.
The Wallis WA-116 Agile autogyro featured in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice "Little Nellie Wallace" was named after her, and "Wet Nellie Wallace", the submarine Lotus Esprit from the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me was in turn named after the autogyro.