Reeves-Smith, Olive, 1894-1972

Olive Reeves-Smith was an actress who worked primarily in the theater and musical comedy and was best known as a character actress.

She was born in Etwell, England on November 23, 1894, daughter of the English actor, Harry Reeves-Smith. Beginning as a musical comedy actress in England, she had a long career on the American stage as a character actress. Playing many minor roles, she gained notice as George M. Cohan's lead in his PIGEONS AND PEOPLE and played Dolly Bloomer in many productions of BLOOMER GIRL. She played both a cockney and the elegant Lady Boxington in MY FAIR LADY.

She was married twice, both to actors. The first was Denman Maley and the second was Fuller Mellish, Jr. She died in New York in 1972.

Olive Reeves-Smith (1894-1972) was born in Great Britain and received her musical theater training in England. She entered the acting profession over the objections of her parents and adopted the early stage name of "Olive Branch" after her debut in The Flood in Bristol, England. Her mother, Ella Strathmore, was on the stage before she married; her godfather was the English comedian James Blakeley. Her father, Harry Reeves-Smith, was a prominent actor who sustained careers on both sides of the Atlantic and was known as a talented matinee idol in his time. After her theatrical beginnings in England, she had a long and full career in America, primarily on the stage, and made her residence in New York City and its environs. She was best known as a character actress. While she played many minor roles, she played opposite George M. Cohan as the lead in his Pigeons and People, had prominent parts in Richard of Bordeaux with Dennis King and The Constant Nymph, and became known as the original Bloomer Girl in the musical of that name. She was in the original cast of My Fair Lady and played more than 2213 performances in the dual roles of Mrs. Hopkins, the raucous cockney, and Lady Boxington in the Ascot scene. Later in her career, she made radio and television appearances in We, The People, Studio I, The Kraft TV Theater, Armstrong Circle Theater, and Death Valley Days. She had two sisters, Alma and Elsie neither of whom pursued theatrical careers, and was married twice to actors, Denman Maley and Harold Irving Fuller (aka Fuller Mellish, Jr.). Her second husband was the scion of a distinguished British stage family. His father, Fuller Mellish, Sr., was a well-known Shakespearean actor in England and America. The famous English star Rose LeClerq was his grandmother.

Her circle of friends and colleagues included Julie Andrews, Ralph Bellamy, Mary Boland, Leo G. Carroll, George M. Cohan, Noel Coward (who was a distant relation), George Cukor, Charlotte Greenwood, Moss Hart, Sally Ann Howes, Rex Harrison, Celeste Holm, George S. Kaufman, Ethel Barrymore and her daughter Ethel Colt, Cole Porter, Rosalind Russell, Hassard Short, and May Whitty. Olive Reeves-Smith died at the age of 77 on July 20, 1972 in the Lynwood Nursing Home in New York City. She had no children.