Eugenie Magnus

Eugenie Magnus (1874-1936) was a British nurse, journalist and spy, an actress and later Hollywood scenario editor and writer.

Also known as: Anne Eugenie Magnus, Eugenie Leonard, Mrs Fred. W. Leonard, E.M. Ingleton, E. Magnus Ingleton, Mrs. Eugenie Ingleton

Wrongly referred to as "Eugene Magnus"" by D.C. Boonzaier (1928), and hence also by F.C.L. Bosman (1980, p.407).

Biography

Born Anne Eugenie Magnus in London on 24 April 24, 1874, London, she began her career on stage at the age of ten, playing "Little Eva" in Uncle Tom's Cabin. On 28 December 28, 1896 she married Frederick William Watkins (stage name Fred. W. Leonard). In a 1915 "interview" in Moving Picture World (possibly a publicity piece written by herself) Eugenie claims to have played a hundred and four leading roles in a London stock company - probably at the Strand Theatre and on tour for Charles Arnold's English Comedy Company.

In the same interview, she also asserts that she had been not only a nurse and newspaper correspondent during the Boer War in South Africa (1899-1901), but to have worked for the British Secret Service.[1] Though this may seem rather unlikely, given the arc of what appears to have been a rather busy theatrical career between 1884 and 1911, the fact is that she and her husband (now known as Fred W. Leonard) clearly were in South Africa in 1900, as they are both listed as a member of the the Arnold company - and, as their names are not mentioned in the Australian cast, it may very well be that Arnold enlisted them to fill gaps in his cast while in Cape Town, since they were already there. They seem to have returned home with the company, to settle in Kirkdale, Lancashire as Fred W. Leonard and Eugenie Leonard.

By 1911 they were no longer together, and Eugenie, now using her maiden name again, left for the USA from Southampton, arriving in New York on 9 December, 1911 (listed as Eugenie Magnus, aged 34, married and an actress). In New York she met and possibly married another new immigrant, George Ingleton (later film actor and writer). In the USA she entered the film industry and went on established herself as a rather prominent writer and scenario editor, writing about thirty features and shorts.

She passed away in Hollywood on 3 August, 1936

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

She was a member of the cast of What Happened to Jones (Broadhurst) and possibly An Empty Stocking () when performed as a double bill by Charles Arnold's English Comedy Company when they played in South Africa in January of 1900.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenie_Magnus_Ingleton

Gaines, Jane. (N.D.) "Eugenie Magnus Ingleton." In Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, eds. Women Film Pioneers Project. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2013. <https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-0akf-p282>[2]

https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/66638

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p.407.

Go to the ESAT Bibliography