Blanche Stocker

Blanche Eleanor Stocker (20 July 1884 – 1950) was a British actress and singer, who played minor roles in a string of Edwardian musical comedies and other stage works early in the 20th century. She also played a film role.

Blanche Stocker in 1906

Life and career

Stocker was born in Bombay in India in 1884, the oldest of three children of a British couple, George Stocker (1857–1929), an engineer, and Mary Dunn née Johnston (1862–1946). While George remained in India for work, Mary returned to England with the children to live in London from at least 1891 to 1911.[1] Her younger sister Doris Stocker was also a singer and actress.

Stocker played roles in several Edwardian musical comedies early in her career, including Lucille in The Belle of Brittany at the Queen's Theatre (1908). For producer George Edwardes she was Lady Sybil Julia James in Our Miss Gibbs (1909);[2] Ethel in Peggy (1910);[3][4][5] and Viola in The Girl on the Film (1913), all at the Gaiety Theatre in the West End of London; she also appeared in the latter work at the 44th Street Theatre on Broadway later in 1913.[6] She was Ruth Goldman/Miss Cohen in Potash and Perlmutter at the Queen's Theatre (1914–15); Lady-in-Waiting in Arlette at the Shaftesbury Theatre (1917);[7] and appeared as Goo Goo in The Bing Boys Are Here (1916)[8][9] and The Bing Girls Are There (1917), both at the Alhambra Theatre.[10]

She played Jane in the silent film Winning a Widow (1910).[11]

Stocker died in Kensington in London in 1950 aged 65. She never married.

References
  1. 1911 England Census for Blanche Stocker: London, St Andrew Holborn above the Bars and St George the Martyr via Ancestry.com (subscription required)
  2. Cast of Our Miss Gibbs, Theatricalia, accessed 24 April 2020
  3. Programme for Peggy (1910)
  4. Cast list for Peggy (1910) - Theatricalia website
  5. Information Peggy (1910), British Musical Theatre pages at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 24 April 2020
  6. The Girl on the Film, broadwayworld.com, accessed 24 April 2020
  7. J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1910–1919: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel, Rowman & Littlefield (2014) via Google Books
  8. Cast list for The Bing Boys Are Here (1916), Theatricalia, accessed 24 April 2020
  9. The Bing Boys Are Here, Over The Footlight Notes, p. 9, accessed 24 April 2020
  10. "The Bing Girls Are There", Over the Footlights, p. 19, accessed 24 April 2020
  11. Blanche Stocker, British Film Institute, accessed 24 April 2020
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