Marie Litton

Marie Litton (7 May 1846 – 1 April 1884) was the stage name of Mary Jessie Lowe, an English actress and theatre manager. After beginning a stage career in 1868, Litton became an actor-manager in 1871, producing plays for four years at the Court Theatre, including several by W. S. Gilbert. She also appeared in, and sometimes managed, other West End theatres. In the late 1870s, Litton managed the theatre at the Royal Aquarium, where she had some of her biggest acting successes, including as Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal, Lydia Languish in The Rivals (1878), Miss Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer and Rosalind in As You Like It (both in 1879).

Early life and career Litton was born in Hartington, Derbyshire, but was raised in Lincolnshire, where her father Thomas Lowe was a clergyman. Later in 1868, at the opening of the Gaiety Theatre, she played Mrs Cureton in a play by Alfred Thompson, On the Cards, adapted from L'Escamoteur by Paulin Meunier. She next appeared there as Alice Renshaw in Uncle Dick's Darling, by H. J. Byron (1869). After this, she appeared for a year for Mrs Nye Chart at the Theatre Royal, Brighton.

From 1871 to 1874, Litton managed the Court Theatre, beginning with a play by W. S. Gilbert, Randall's Thumb.

Royal Aquarium and later years

Litton played Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal in 1877 at the Royal Aquarium's theatre. the farce Fun in a Fog and Family Honour by Frank Marshall (both in 1878), The Beaux' Stratagem by George Farquhar and The Poor Gentleman (1879). She also played Olivia in The Vicar of Wakefield at the Imperial. By mid-1882 Litton's health was declining with the cancer that would eventually kill her, and she was forced to retire, making only a few more appearances on stage. She moved with her husband and two children to Ascot, Berkshire, and she died in South Kensington, London, in 1884, at the age of 37.