M
Mary Dibley
actress
- Birth name:
- Lilian Ethel Mary Hamsher
- Born:
- 1883-02-21, South Norwood, London, England, UK
- Died:
- 1968-09-11, Hove, East Sussex, England, UK
- Professions:
- actress
Biography
Mary Dibley first stepped into the limelight on gas-lit stages of the 1890s, trading in tears and pistol-shots as the darling of melodrama and crime plays. When cameras began to crank, she crossed to the new medium in 1912 with the London (Cosmo) Film Company, trading footlights for close-ups. Mid-decade she slipped into the shadowy world of Aurele Sydney’s ‘Ultus’ thrillers, her cool presence anchoring the serial’s suspense and fixing her name to the genre. As the twenties unfolded she gracefully ceded centre stage, lending quiet authority to supporting roles in a string of British dramas, her final bow coming in 1928 opposite Matheson Lang in ‘The Blue Peter’, shot for British Filmcraft (W&F).
