Sydney Sturgess

Dorothy Anna Sturgess (March 5, 1915 – September 30, 1999), known professionally as Sydney Sturgess, was a British-Canadian actress. She is best known for her work with the Shaw Festival and the Stratford Festival of Canada. Primarily a stage actress in Canada, England and the US, she occasionally worked in television and film. Background Born in Ipoh, Malaya, Sturgess was the eldest of four children; two brothers and a sister. She carried a distinguished Canadian ancestry – her great-grandfather was Edward Palmer, Q.C., of Prince Edward Island, who was also one of the Fathers of Confederation. Her father was a civil engineer and was assigned to remote countries around the world to build bridges, so the family traveled frequently. Her teenage years were spent for the most part at St. Stephen's boarding school in Folkestone, Kent, England. She received her dramatic training in England, as well, at the London College of Music where she received an A.L.C.M. in elocution. After graduation, she joined the Arthur Brough Players in Folkestone, first as a student and then later as an actress. Sturgess acted in various English repertory companies before meeting Barry Morse in Peterborough on January 3, 1939. Morse and Sturgess married on March 26, 1939. As a result of her work in repertory, both prior to and following her marriage, she gained broad experience as an actress through her work in literally hundreds of stage productions throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Their two children, Hayward Morse and Melanie Morse MacQuarrie, were born in 1947 and 1945, respectively. The family emigrated to Canada in 1951, where Sydney enjoyed several successful seasons of theatre at the Montreal Mountain Playhouse, as well as radio work and teaching, until moving to Toronto with the advent of television in 1953.