Mary Anderson

Mary Antoinette Anderson (later Mary Anderson de Navarro; July 28, 1859 – May 29, 1940) was an American actress performing in theater her early years and silent films in later life.

Early life Anderson was born in Sacramento, California. Shortly after her birth, her parents moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where her father enlisted in the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War. He was killed in action at Mobile when she was three.

Anderson was educated at the Ursuline convent and the all-girl Presentation Academy in Louisville. She was an unenthusiastic pupil except for her interest in reading and acting Shakespeare. She also took private lessons in music, dancing and literature. Encouraged by her stepfather, Dr Hamilton Griffin, at 14 she was sent to New York for ten lessons with the actor George Vandenhoff, her only professional training.

Stage career In 1875, she made her first stage appearance at a benefit performance at Macauley's Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky, in the role of Shakespeare's Juliet The manager, Barney Macauley, was sufficiently impressed to extend the booking to a week as Juliet and further roles including Julia in Sheridan Knowles's The Hunchback, Bianca in Henry Hart Milman's Fazio, and R. L. Sheil's Evadne.

Further engagements at St Louis, New Orleans and John McCullough's theatre in San Francisco led to a contract with John T. Ford. Starting as Lady Macbeth in his Washington theatre in 1877, she began an extensive US tour, culminating with a six-week engagement in Edward Bulwer Lytton's The Lady of Lyons at the 5th Avenue Theatre, New York. Critical review was mixed. In 1883, after starring in an American production of W. S. Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea, she went on the London stage at the Lyceum Theatre, remaining in England for six years to perform to much acclaim including at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon. Her first season there, she starred in Gilbert's Comedy and Tragedy as well as in Romeo and Juliet in 1884.

In 1887 in London she appeared in The Winter's Tale in the double role of Perdita and Hermione (the first actress to include this innovation). In 1889, however, she collapsed on stage due to severe nervous exhaustion during a performance at Albaugh's Theatre in Washington. Some commentators, particularly in the British press, ascribed this turn of events to hostile press reviews on her return to the U.S. The author Willa Cather went further and blamed a specifically hurtful review from a close friend.

For part of her career, Napier Lothian Jr. served as Anderson's talent manager.

Later life Ordered to rest after her breakdown, Anderson visited England. In 1890 she married Antonio Fernando de Navarro. The couple settled at Court Farm in the Cotswolds, Broadway, Worcestershire, where she cultivated an interest in music. As Mary Anderson de Navarro, she became a noted hostess with a distinguished circle of musical, literary and ecclesiastical guests. She gave birth to three children, a son who died at birth, another son, Alma Jose "Toty" Maria de Navarro, and a daughter, Mary Elena de Navarro.

A devout Roman Catholic, she had a chapel built in her attic, with stained-glass windows designed by Paul Woodroffe. She has been cited as a model for characters in the Mapp and Lucia novels of E. F. Benson, either the operatic soprano Olga Bracely or Lucia herself, as well as the prototype for the heroine of William Black's novel The Strange Adventures of a House-Boat. She published two books of her memories,A Few Memories (1896)

The Mary Anderson Theatre was the oldest theatre on Louisville's 4th Street. It opened in 1907 as a vaudeville house, but two years later began to screen movies. The theatre closed in 1972 and was converted into office space. Land donated by Anderson in Mount St. Francis, Indiana, to the Conventual Franciscan Friars is now the Mount Saint Francis Center for Spirituality. The center serves as the headquarters for the Province of Our Lady of Consolation and home to the Mary Anderson Center, an artist colony. In 1989, the portion of U.S. Route 150 that adjoins the donated property was named the Mary Anderson Memorial Highway.

The house and farm that Mary and Antonio de Navarro purchased and extended in the town of Broadway, Court Farm, is recognised as hosting one of the best preserved Edwardian gardens. It was left to her son, Toty de Navarro, who lived there with his wife, Dorothy, their son Michael and Dorothy's long-time Cambridge friend, Gertrude Caton Thompson. As in the years when Mary lived there, it was often filled with visiting artists and musicians, including Myra Hess and a young Jacqueline du Pré.

Performances

Filmography Year Film Role Notes1912 Bridge Mrs. Gray Short The Days of Terror; or, in the Reign of Terror Babette Babette The Night Before Christmas Aunt Ruth - Mrs. Corbin's Sister (as Miss Navarro) Days of Terror 1913 Cinderella's Slipper 1914 Hearts of Oak Aunt Becky When Broadway Was a Trail Mistress Hibbins 1915 The Battle of Ballots 1916 Diana the Huntress Unknown (as Mary Navarra) Short1918 Mrs. Dane's Defense Mrs. Dane of Canada Eve's Daughter Kate Simpson-Bates Final film role

References and sources