Ida Shepley
*Ida Shepley was born on this date in 1908. She was a Black British actress and singer.
She was born Ida Mary Humphrey in Nantwich, U.K. Her father was Clement Humphrey, a Caribbean-born herbalist; her mother was Gladys May, born Worthington; she had a younger brother born in 1912. In 1919, her mother remarried John Henry Elvin Shepley, and the whole family took the new surname of Shepley. She kept that name in her acting work even after she married the divorcee Charles Frederick Skilbeck Smith.
She began as a singer and worked with the BBC before expanding her career into acting and appearing on the London stage and television. In 1937, her singing abilities were recommended to the BBC, and she worked on Mississippi Nights the following year. She sang live with Elisabeth Welch on BBC Radio's Brief Interlude and the following year on the BBC's Band Waggon. She sang regularly for the BBC.
Her friendship with Amanda Aldridge led to her career-broadening. Aldridge had coached actors like Paul Robeson, and with her help, she could offer to act. Shepley advertised herself as "The bronze girl with the golden voice," but now she offered acting. In 1944, she was in Colchester appearing in Eugene O'Neill's play All God's Chillun Got Wings with an "all Coloured cast," including Earl Cameron, Robert Adams, and Elizabeth Jeppe at the Repertory Theatre. The play was held over for a second week.
In 1946, she was in another production of All God's Chillun Got Wings for the Unity Theatre. That year, the BBC revived its television service, and Shepley appeared in Black, Brown, or Beige. When the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song came to the West End, Shepley was the Chinese character Madame Liang. She played many small parts on television, including three times in ITV Play of the Week and twice in BBC's Sunday Night Theatre. Her television work included a 1959 version of All God's Chillun Got Wings, directed by Joan Kemp-Welch. Ida Shepley died in Bromley, Kent, on March 12, 1975.
To Become a musician or Singer
To become an Actor or Actress
