Catherine Norton Sinclair

Catherine Norton Sinclair (1817–1891) was an actress-manager who worked with such notable actors as Junius Brutus Booth, Edwin Booth, and Laura Keene. Her sensational divorce from Edwin Forrest captivated the American public in the mid-1800s.

Early life Sinclair was born in London, the eldest of John and Catherine Sinclair's four children. The Sinclairs were originally from Edinburgh, Scotland. Mr. Sinclair became a successful drummer in the militia and later a well-known singer, who toured the U.S. in the early 1830s.

Life in the U.S. and the Forrest Divorce Case By many accounts, the Forrests lived as a happily married couple in New York from 1837–1849. Forrest became one of the prominent actors of his time, especially after his success in London, where previously American actors were not taken seriously. Forrest's acting work took him throughout the U.S., sometimes accompanied by Mrs. Forrest, who otherwise spent her time at their home on 22nd St. in New York City (NYC). Unfortunately, the Forrests had four children die during or immediately after childbirth. In September, she played Portia to Booth's Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Together they performed the melodrama The Marble Heart for an unprecedented forty three consecutive nights. Sinclair is reported to have worn a French gown worth $1200 ($19 was considered extravagant for a costume at that time).

By Christmas, she became one of the few female actress managers by leasing the Metropolitan Theatre, "a very grand house against which smelly little San Francisco Hall couldn't hope to compete." She opened on Christmas Eve with School for Scandal and hired Edwin Booth for juvenile leads and the rising star Laura Keene to play opposite him. Booth's brother, Junius, also worked for Sinclair at the Metropolitan. Keene and Booth opened in The Love Chase, which did not receive good reviews. Keene blamed this failure on "Booth's bad acting. Sinclair's Metropolitan Theatre, which she called the "most magnificent temple of histrionic art in America," offered melodramas, burlesques, and romances starring the famous actors of the day.

Throughout the 1850s, Sinclair acted in London, Australia, and the U.S. Her reviews lauded her physical beauty and stage presence, but her main attraction seems to have been her status as the former Mrs. Forrest. Her final performance was on December 18, 1859, at the Academy of Music in New York City. She retired the following year and lived with her sister, Mrs. Henry Sidley, in Staten Island.

Later life and death After her sister's death, Sinclair lived in New York City with her nephew. She later went completely blind before dying in 1891 from a cerebral embolism.