Zena Dare
(1887-1975), ActressZena Dare (Florence Harriette Zena Dones)
Sitter in 79 portraits
The daughter of Arthur Dones, a clerk in the Divorce Court, Zena Dare first appeared on stage at the age of 12 in the pantomime Bluebell in Fairyland. At her mother's insistence she continued her education, in Brussels, until she was launched as a major star in the musical comedy The Catch of the Season in 1905. With her younger sister Phyllis, Marie Studholme and Gabrielle Ray, Zena became one of the four reigning beauties of the picture-postcard era; at its height, in 1908, 860 million cards were posted. Further stage successes included The Beauty of Bath and The Gay Gordons, for which P. G. Wodehouse wrote some of the lyrics. In January 1911 Zena married the Hon. Maurice Brett, second son of Viscount Esher, and retired from the stage. After her husband's death in 1934 she started a second stage career in a number of Ivor Novello productions. Her final performances were at Drury Lane and in the celebrated musical production of My Fair Lady (1958), for which Cecil Beaton designed costumes based on the Edwardian postcard portraits that she and others had made so popular in the pre-1914 era.
Zena Dare (Florence Harriette Zena Dones)
by Foulsham & Banfield, published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd
postcard print, probably 1906
NPG x201048
Zena Dare (Florence Harriette Zena Dones)
by Foulsham & Banfield, published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd
postcard print, probably 1906
NPG x201049
by Lilian Beel, published by Davidson Brothers
hand-coloured bromide postcard print, 1906
NPG x198348
by Lilian Beel, published by Davidson Brothers
bromide postcard print, 1906
NPG x198349
by Lilian Beel, published by Davidson Brothers
bromide postcard print, 1906
NPG x198350
by Lilian Beel, published by Davidson Brothers
bromide postcard print, 1906
NPG x198351
by Lilian Beel, published by Davidson Brothers
bromide postcard print, 1906
NPG x198352
by Foulsham & Banfield, published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd
bromide postcard print, 1907
NPG x135831
by Unknown photographer
hand-coloured postcard print, circa 1908
NPG x7989
Zena Dare as Peggy Quainton in 'The Gay Gordons'
by Bassano Ltd, published by Davidson Brothers
postcard print, 1908
NPG x193768
published by Davidson Brothers
hand-coloured postcard print, circa 1908
NPG x138247
by Hugh Cecil (Hugh Cecil Saunders)
bromide print, 25 June 1914
NPG x194075
by Bassano Ltd
half-plate glass negative, 23 June 1934
NPG x34234
by Cecil Beaton
bromide print, 1958
NPG x126293
by Cecil Beaton
bromide print, 1958
NPG x126294
by Cecil Beaton
bromide contact print, 1958
NPG x126379
Related People
- Jack Dare (John William Cecil Dones) (brother)
- Phyllis Dare (Phyllis Constance Haddie Dones) (sister)
- Arthur Albert Dones (father)
- Harriette Amelia Dones (née Wheeler) (mother)
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