Elsa Chauvel

Biography

Elsa Chauvel (1898-1983), actress and film maker, was born on 10 February 1898 at Collingwood, Melbourne, and registered as Elsie May, second of three children of Edward Wilcox, a tinsmith from New South Wales, and his Queensland-born wife Ada Marie, née Worrall. When Elsie was a child the family went to South Africa, where Wilcox (under the stage name Silveni/Sylvaney) formed a travelling troupe, which included both Elsie (Sylvaney) and her elder brother, whose stage name was Kyrle McAlister. Later, with her brother, she joined other theatrical companies in Cape Town and Johannesburg, and, after a successful tour of Basutoland under Kyrle’s management, returned to Australia in 1924.

Elsie...