Growing into a true celebrity during her lifetime and living an existence between arts and scandals, Margaret “Peg” Hughes made history as the first stage actress ever. Her career began in London during an era of dramatic changes: the Stuart Restoration of King Charles II.
Margaret Hughes (29 May 1630 – 1 October 1719), also Peg Hughes or Margaret Hewes, was an English actress who is often credited as the first professional actress on the English stage, as a result of her appearance on 8 December 1660.
Women were first permitted to perform on the English stage in the early 1660s, after the Restoration of King Charles II. Respectable women would not usually consider a career in the theatre.
1600 – Moll Cut-Purse (Mary Frith) was a notorious member of London's underworld. She gave the first recorded female performance on stage: she dressed in men's clothing for comedic musical performances and was later the subject of Middleton and Dekker's play The Roaring Girl.
Margaret 'Peg' Hughes has often been identified as the woman in question but in Elizabeth Howe's excellent book on The First English Actresses (CUP, 1992) she suggests that it is more likely to have been a young actor by the name of Anne Marshall, a talented leading lady who excelled in both comic and tragic roles.
She was the first woman to produce a national TV show, the first woman to star in a sitcom, the first producer to hire a female director, and the first woman to receive an Emmy nomination.
According to tradition, in 534 or 535 BC, Thespis astounded audiences by leaping on to the back of a wooden cart and reciting poetry as if he was the characters whose lines he was reading. In doing so he became the world's first actor, and it is from him that we get the world thespian.
She made great strides in the field of portraiture, which garnered her fame within and beyond Italy. In fact, Fontana is regarded as the first woman artist, working within the same sphere as her male counterparts, outside a court or convent.
“A Raisin in the Sun,” the first Broadway play written by a Black woman, debuted at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. Lorraine Hansberry, then only 28, drew inspiration for her play from a Langston Hughes' poem: “What happens to a dream deferred?
The first woman to appear on the professional stage in England is generally considered to be Margaret Hughes (1645 – 1719), who performed in a production of Othello at the Vere Street Theatre, London in 1660.
Jeanne Louise Calment (France, 1875 - 1997), portrayed herself at the age of 114 in the film Vincent and Me (1990) —a modern-day fantasy about a young girl who travels through time to the 19th century to meet Van Gogh.
In 1939 Ethel Waters became the first black woman to have her own television show. In 1963 Cecily Tyson became the first to star in a television show. It was CBS' East Side/West Side. She played a secretary and was in 22 of the 26 episodes.
The first winner was Janet Gaynor for her roles in 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. The most recent winner is Emma Stone for her role in Poor Things (2023); she had previously won the award for her role in La La Land (2016). The record for most wins is four, held by Katharine Hepburn.
When did female actors stop being called actresses?
Then, if we jump forward to the 1970s and 1980s, women began to choose the term 'actor' instead of 'actress' as a direct result of the women's movement and an awareness of gender bias in language. Women began to take back the term 'actor', and it's often used today.
The first female playwright is thought to be German writer Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim. It has been surmised that she was born in 930/935 and died after 973, perhaps as late as 1002. It is thought that she may have been a relative of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I the Great.
Madonna. While Madonna may be considered the greatest and most successful female popstar of all time, she may not get the kudos for her actual singing voice that she deserves. Her voice is always solid and clear, with a delicate quality that works so perfectly for her brand of pop.
How blues great Mamie Smith paved the way for Black female musicians and their fans. In 1920, jazz singer Mamie Smith released a record called “Crazy Blues.” She was the first Black female singer to record and release a blues song.
Ella Fitzgerald, known as “The First Lady of Song,” was a revolutionary American jazz singer who performed all over the world. Her signature style included her iconic vocal range, clear tone and ability to improvise with her hallmark scat singing.
A century ago, mourners lined the streets of Paris, watching as black horses pulled flower-laden floats and a coach carried the coffin of Sarah Bernhardt, the woman widely considered the first modern celebrity.
The answer is Florence Annie Bridgwood—more commonly referred to as “Flo” Lawrence, or the “Biograph Girl.” Today, her name is one of the most recognizable in film history, but during most of her life spent in the limelight of fame, no one actually knew what to call her.
The earliest surviving film, known today as the Roundhay Garden Scene (1888), was captured by Louis Le Prince and briefly depicted members of his family in motion.
