Kathleen McShane was only 15, but must have been mature for her age,
when she met and married
Arthur Lucan, 26-year-old English comedian on tour
in Ireland, in 1913. The act of Lucan and McShane was a music hall
favorite for nearly 40 years. They gradually evolved the stage
characters of Old Mother Riley (Lucan in drag) and her attractive
daughter Kitty, whose flighty, wayward ways occasioned many of Mother's
hilarious tirades. Kitty appeared in 14 of the 15 low-budget but
popular Old Mother Riley films made from 1937-1952. Besides playing
"straight" for Lucan's comedy, Kitty carried the love interest in the
films, always being single at the start of a new film even if marriage
was impending in the last. Arthur and Kitty's own marriage ended in
separation by 1951; in Kitty's last film,
Jungle Treasure (1951), their scenes were
filmed on separate days! Kitty opened a beauty salon, which failed,
while Arthur continued to support her, making one more film and many
stage appearances before his sudden death in a theatre. The widowed
Kitty enlisted an impersonator (usually
Roy Rolland) to carry on the act, but with little
success. She was found dead in her London home at age 66; the cause was
not reported.
Old Mother Riley in Society(1940)
Jungle Treasure(1951)as Kitty
Old Mother Riley, Headmistress(1950)as Kitty Riley
Old Mother Riley's New Venture(1949)as Kitty Riley
Old Mother Riley at Home(1945)as Kitty Riley
Old Mother Riley's Circus(1941)
Heroes of Comedy(1992)as Kitty Riley
To See Such Fun(1977)as Kitty Riley