FISKE, MINNIE MADDERN (1865—). A prom inent American actress, horn in New Orleans, of theatrical parents, her father, Thomas Davey, being a manager. Maddern was her mother's family name. From infancy her life was large ly spent in the theatre, and at three years she made her regular appearance upon the stage. Throughout her childhood she played at times with many well-known actors like Laura Keene. John McCullough, and. later, Barry Sullivan and E. L. Davenport. Occasionally she even took old women's parts, and at thirteen appeared as the Widow Nelnotte with great success. When sixteen years old Miss Maddern was brought out as a star (May, 1882, in Fogy's Fer•y). and thus for several years she won some success; but her rides were not on the whole well suited to her. In March, 1890, she was married to Harri son Grey Fiske, and retired for over three years of rest and study. In the fall of 1893 she re appeared in New York in her husband's Hester Crewe; she played also the part of Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House, and later for some time resumed her Western tours. In 1897 she made
a sensation in Tess of the D'Urberrilles. Since then she has appeared in A Bit of Old Chelsea: Little Italy; Frou Fron ; .Magda; and other plays, of which her Becky Sharp (1899) is con sidered her greatest achievement. in the season of 1901-02 she opened the Manhattan Theatre as an independent New York play-house. where she produced The Unwelcome Mrs. Hatch. Mrs. Fiske is an actress of strong intelligence and no little power of dramatic realism, with an insis tent quality which, if at times verging upon mannerism, is callable of great effect in passages of sustained emotion. Consult: Strang, Famous Actresses of the Day in America (Boston. 1899) ; McKay and Wingate. Famous American Actors of To-day (New York, 1896) ; Hapgood, The Stage in America, 1897-1900 (New York, 1901).