Selena Royle

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Selena Royle November 6 1904 April 23 1983 was an American actress of stage radio television and film and later an author Royle was born in New York City to playwright Edwin Milton Royle and actress Selena Fetter April 12 1860 May 10 1955 She had an older sister Josephine Fetter Royle 19011992 Her mother recounted in a newspaper article that she used to take Selena along with her to her rehearsals and performances One night then sevenyearold Selena went missing While the mother frantically searched for her holding up act two the audience became restless The youngster finally turned up she had gone on stage dressed in her mothers secondact costume she made a bow much to the audiences amusement She later remarked And that is the first time I was ever on stage and I liked it so well I stayed Her father wrote the 1921 Broadway play Lancelot and Elaine to provide both her and sister Josephine with their first professional roles as Guinevere and Elaine respectively Eventually she landed a part on her own in the 1923 Theatre Guild production of Peer Gynt with Joseph Schildkraut and became a respected Broadway actress She made one film in the 1930s Misleading Lady but otherwise worked on the stage and on radio Royle began her radio career in 1926 or 1927 and performed almost continuously since according to a 1939 newspaper item Her body of work includes playing the title role in Hilda Hope MD She also played Martha Jackson in Woman of Courage Mrs Allen in Against the Storm Joan in The ONeills and Mrs Gardner in Betty and Bob and appeared in Kate Hopkins In the 1940s she returned to film and had a successful run mainly playing maternal characters such as the bereaved mother of The Fighting Sullivans 1944 mother to Jane Powell in the big screen adaptation of A Date with Judy 1948 and the title characters mother opposite Ingrid Bergman as Joan of Arc 1948 She made several appearances on early television However in 1951 when she refused to testify before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee She sued the American Legion which had published Red Channels in which her name was listed and won but her acting career ended She made only three more roles the last being Murder Is My Beat 1955 She also wrote several books including Guadalajara as I Know It Live It Love It which went through several editions and a couple of cookbooks and some magazine articles She was the radio editor of the shortlived New York periodical Swank