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. L…