Mary Jane Richards
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Polly_Richards_1880.jpg/220px-Polly_Richards_1880.jpg)
Mary Jane Richards (born 1843; died in November 1904), born Blair, was a British theatre actress and the mother of the writer Edgar Wallace.
Biography
Little information is available about the biography of Mary Jane Richards. She was born as Marie Jane Blair in Bradford, United Kingdom, and got the nickname "Polly". She married a sailor who has been handed down as Captain Richards and became pregnant by him before he went to sea again and never returned. Her daughter Josephine Richards emerged from this relationship.[1]
Mary Jane joined the theatre group around the actress Alice Marriott in Liverpool where she herself worked as an actress and ballet dancer. During this employment she had an affair with Marriott's son Richard Horatio Marriott Edgar and got pregnant by him. She concealed the affair and the pregnancy and gave birth to her son alone with the help of a midwife at Asburnham Grove in Greenwich. There she had him baptized as the son of "Walter Wallace", who probably did not exist,[2] registered as Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace.[1]
Immediately after his birth, the son was taken in by the London fishmonger George Freeman and his wife for a fee and was given the name Richard Horatio Edgar Freeman, abbreviated to Dick Freeman. Mary Jane went back to the theatre group.[2][1]
When Mary Jane fell ill in her old age, she came to Edgar Wallace in 1904 and asked him for financial support. He refused on the grounds that she had not taken care of him after his birth. She died shortly afterwards in the poorhouse in Bradford.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d „Richards, Marie.“ In: Joachim Kramp, Jürgen Wehnert: Das Edgar Wallace Lexikon. Leben, Werk, Filme. Es ist unmöglich, von Edgar Wallace nicht gefesselt zu sein! Verlag Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004; S. 531. ISBN 3-89602-508-2.
- ^ a b „Die Wurzeln“ aus Margaret Lane: Edgar Wallace - Das Leben eines Phänomens. London 1938; deutsche Übersetzung von Wilm Wolfgang Elwenspoek, Krüger, Hamburg 1966; Auszüge in: Edgar Wallace Almanach. Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, München 1982; S. 23–37. ISBN 3-442-00083-1.
Literatur
- Margaret Lane: Edgar Wallace: the biography of a phenomenon, 1938
- Edgar Wallace : Das Leben eines Phänomens (Übersetzung von Wilm Wolfgang Elwenspoek), Krüger, Hamburg 1966
- Joachim Kramp, Jürgen Wehnert: Das Edgar Wallace Lexikon. Leben, Werk, Filme. Es ist unmöglich, von Edgar Wallace nicht gefesselt zu sein! Verlag Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-508-2.
- v
- t
- e
- The Four Just Men (1905)
- Angel Esquire (1908)
- The Council of Justice (1908)
- Captain Tatham (1909)
- The Duke in the Suburbs (1909)
- The Nine Bears (1910)
- Private Selby (1912)
- The Fourth Plague (1913)
- Grey Timothy (1913)
- The River of Stars (1913)
- The Man Who Bought London (1915)
- The Melody of Death (1915)
- A Debt Discharged (1916)
- The Tomb of Ts'in (1916)
- The Just Men of Cordova (1917)
- The Secret House (1917)
- The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1918)
- Down Under Donovan (1918)
- The Man Who Knew (1918)
- Those Folk of Bulboro (1918)
- The Green Rust (1919)
- Kate Plus Ten (1919)
- The Daffodil Mystery (1920)
- Jack O'Judgment (1920)
- The Book of All Power (1921)
- The Law of the Four Just Men (1921)
- The Angel of Terror (1922)
- The Crimson Circle (1922)
- The Flying Fifty-Five (1922)
- Mr. Justice Maxell (1922)
- The Valley of Ghosts (1922)
- The Clue of the New Pin (1923)
- The Green Archer (1923)
- The Missing Million (1923)
- The Dark Eyes of London (1924)
- Double Dan (1924)
- The Face in the Night (1924)
- Room 13 (1924)
- The Sinister Man (1924)
- The Three Oak Mystery (1924)
- Blue Hand (1925)
- The Fellowship of the Frog (1925)
- The Mind of Mr. J. G. Reeder (1925)
- The Strange Countess (1925)
- The Three Just Men (1925)
- The Avenger (1926)
- Barbara on Her Own (1926)
- The Black Abbot (1926)
- The Northing Tramp (1926)
- The Terrible People (1926)
- The Yellow Snake (1926)
- The Big Foot (1927)
- Terror Keep (1927)
- The Traitor's Gate (1927)
- The Squeaker (1927)
- The Forger (1927)
- Again the Three (1928)
- The Gunner (1928)
- Four Square Jane (1929)
- The Green Ribbon (1929)
- The India-Rubber Men (1929)
- The Calendar (1930)
- The Clue of the Silver Key (1930)
- The Lady of Ascot (1930)
- The Man at the Carlton (1931)
- The Guv'nor and Other Short Stories (1932)
- An African Millionaire (1904)
- M'Lady (1921)
- Double Dan (1927)
- The Terror (1927)
- The Man Who Changed His Name (1928)
- The Calendar (1929)
- Persons Unknown (1929)
- On the Spot (1930)
- The Mouthpiece (1930)
- Smoky Cell (1930)
- The Old Man (1931)
- The Valley of Ghosts (1928)
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (1932)
- King Kong (1933)
J. G. Reeder |
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The Four Just Men |
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Edgar Wallace Mysteries |
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Rialto Films |
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Other |
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Television |
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- Mary Jane Richards (mother)
- Marriott Edgar (half-brother)
- Bryan Edgar Wallace (son)