Fay, W[illiam] G[eorge] (1872-1947), actor. Born in Dublin and educated at Belvedere College, he became an electrician and an amateur actor and director, forming the Irish National Dramatic Company in 1902 with the aim of producing plays in Irish and English. Attracting the attention of W. B. Yeats, the company produced Cathleen Ni Houlihan in 1902 before joining forces with the Irish Literary Theatre in 1903 to become the Irish National Theatre Society with Yeats as President [see Abbey Theatre]. Fay established himself as a comic actor of genius, playing Christy Mahon in The Playboy of the Western World and Martin in The Well of the Saints. As director and stage-manager he suffered the disapproval of Miss Horniman for his nationalist attitudes, and left the Abbey in 1908 with his brother Frank [ Fay] to produce Irish plays in America.

Nineteenth-century medium who took part in stage demonstrations by the Davenport brothers, which were claimed to be caused by spirit agency. He was born in Darmstadt, Germany, and emigrated to the United States at age 11. Fay claimed that he initially experienced physical mediumship while residing with his widowed mother in Buffalo, New York, and that the phenomena led to his association with the Davenports. He took part in their performances, which involved rapid release from rope tying.

An exposure of Fay as fraudulent, published in the Toronto Globe during 1864, was later proved unfounded, since he was not in America at the time and had been confused with H. Melville Fay, husband of the claimed medium Annie Eva Fay.

Sources:

Houdini, Harry. A Magician Among the Spirits. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1924. Reprinted as Houdini: A Magician Among the Spirits. New York: Arno Press, 1972.

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