Phyllis Rankin

Phyllis McKee Rankin (August 31, 1874 – November 17, 1934) was a Broadway actress and singer from the 1880s to the 1920s. Early life Phyllis McKee Rankin was the second daughter of stage actors Elizabeth "Kitty" Blanchard and Arthur McKee Rankin, also known as McKee Rankin. Her older sister, Gladys Rankin, was also an entertainer with her husband Sidney Drew in an act billed Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew, and her younger half-sister, Doris Rankin, was a stage and screen actress and one-time wife of actor Lionel Barrymore. In September 1890, Elizabeth Rankin filed a motion contesting her husband's resistance to providing support for their daughter. A previous suit, in which she filed for separation from Davenport, was being considered by the New York Supreme Court. Mrs. Davenport was regarded as "the foremost and best-known character actress and stage artist" of her generation. Phyllis Rankin was tutored by her father in "old school drama". She made her first stage appearance as a youth of 10 with her parents in Stormbeaten. She eventually left her father's companies and was managed by Charles Frohman.