Mrs Patrick Campbell
Mrs Patrick Campbell (
February 9 1865 –
April 9 1940) was one of the most successful British stage
actresses of her generation.
Campbell was born
Beatrice Stella Tanner in
Kensington,
London, of
English and
Italian parents.
Her first marriage, from which she took the name by which she is generally known, produced two children, Beo and Stella, and ended with the death of her first husband in
1900. He fell in the
Boer War.
1Fourteen years later, Campbell became the second wife of
George Cornwallis-West, a dashing writer and
soldier previously married to
Jennie Jerome, the mother of
Winston Churchill.
She was well-known as an amateur before she made her stage debut in
1888 at the
Alexandra Theatre,
Liverpool, four years after her marriage to Patrick Campbell. In March,
1890, she appeared in
London at the
Adelphi, where she afterward played again in
1891-
93. She became successful as a result of starring in Sir
Arthur Wing Pinero's play,
The Second Mrs Tanqueray, in
1893, at
St. James's Theatre where she also appeared in
1894 in
The Masqueraders. As Kate Cloud in
John-a-Dreams, produced by
Beerbohm Tree at the
Haymarket in
1894, she made another success, and again as Agnes in
The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith, at the
Garrick (
1895). Among her other performances were those in
Fédora (
1895),
Little Eyolf (
1896), and her notable performances with
Forbes-Robertson at the
Lyceum in the rôles of
Juliet,
Ophelia, and
Lady Macbeth (
1895-
98). Despite her marriage, she continued to use "Mrs Patrick Campbell" as her stage name.
In
1900, Campbell made a
Broadway appearance in
New York City in
Magda, a marked success,
The Joy of Living (
1902), as
Melisande to the
Pelleas of
Mme. Sarah Bernhardt (
1904), in
The Whirlwind and the Bondman (
1906),
Hedda Gabler (
1907),
The Thunderbolt (
1908),
Lady Patricia (
1911),
Bella Donna (
1911), and
Shaw's Pygmalion (
1914). She would return to perform there on a number of occasions until 1930.
In
1914, she played Eliza Doolittle in the original production of
Shaw's
Pygmalion; though much too old for the part at 49, she was the obvious choice, being by far the biggest name on the London stage, and Shaw would have seen it no other way since he wrote the play for her in particular.
In her later years, Campbell made notable appearances in motion pictures, including
One More River (
1934),
Rip Tide (
1934), and
Crime and Punishment (
1935).
She died in
Pau,
France, aged 75.
*
My Life And Some Letters by Mrs Patrick Campbell.
*
Walkley,
Drama and Life (London, 1907)
*
Shaw,
Dramatic Opinions (London, 1907)
*
Archer,
The Theatrical World (London, 1897)
*
*
