Laura Addison

Laura Addison (15 November 1822– 3 September 1852) was an English stage actress.

Biography Addison was born on the 15 November 1822 in Colchester. She was the daughter of a grocer named Thomas Wilmshurst. Her family had opposed her desire to become an actress; she had no introduction and was self-instructed. She was favourably received by the public. She went to Glasgow, playing Desdemona to the Othello of Macready, secured the good opinion of that tragedian. At his instance, after she had played with success at Dublin and Edinburgh, she was engaged by Mr. Phelps, and made her first appearance at Sadler's Wells, then under his management, in August 1846, as Lady Mabel in The Patrician's Daughter of Westland Marston. Addison played Juliet, Portia, Isabella in Measure for Measure, Imogen, Miranda, and Lady Macbeth; she appeared as Panthea upon the revival of Beaumont and Fletcher's comedy of A King and no King; and she was the first representative of Margaret Randolph and Lilian Saville in the poetic tragedies of Feudal Times and John Saville of Haysted by James White.