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{{short description|British stage actress}}
[[Image:MrsPatrickCampbell-pre1897.jpg|thumb|Mrs. Patrick Campbell]]
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
'''Mrs Patrick Campbell''' ([[February 9]] [[1865]] - [[April 9]] [[1940]]) was one of the most successful British stage [[actor|actress]]es of her generation.
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{infobox person
| name = Mrs Patrick Campbell
| image = MrsPatrickCampbell-pre1897.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name = Beatrice Rose Stella Tanner
| birth_date = 9 February 1865
| birth_place = [[Kensington]], London, England
| death_date = 9 April 1940 (age 75)
| death_place = [[Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques]], France
| othername = Mrs Pat
| occupation = Actress
| yearsactive = 1888–1935
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Patrick Campbell|1884|1900|reason=died}}
* {{marriage|[[George Cornwallis-West]]|1914}}
}}
| children = 2
}}


'''Beatrice Rose Stella Tanner''' (9 February 1865 – 9 April 1940), better known by her stage name '''Mrs Patrick Campbell''' or '''Mrs Pat''', was an English stage actress, best known for appearing in plays by [[Shakespeare]], [[George Bernard Shaw|Shaw]] and [[J. M. Barrie|Barrie]]. She also toured the United States and appeared briefly in films.<ref name=obit/>
== Early Life and Marriages ==


==Early life==
Campbell was born '''Beatrice Stella Tanner''' in [[Kensington]], [[London]], of [[English people|English]] and [[Italian people|Italian]] parents.
Campbell was born Beatrice Rose Stella Tanner in [[Kensington]], London, to John Tanner (1829–1895), son and heir of a wealthy [[British Army]] contractor to the [[British East India Company]], and Maria Luigia Giovanna ("Louisa Joanna") née Romanini (1836–1908), daughter of Italian Count Angelo Romanini.


Her father John Tanner (1829–1895), a descendant of [[Thomas Tanner (bishop)|Thomas Tanner]], Bishop of St Asaph,<ref>{{harvp|Campbell|1922|p=1}}</ref> was a consul and merchant who "managed to get through two large fortunes",<ref>{{harvp|Campbell|1922|p=2}}</ref> in part through losses in the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Indian Mutiny]]. Her mother, Louisa Joanna Romanini, was one of the eight daughters of Angelo Romanini of [[Brescia]] and Rosa née Polinelli of [[Milan]]. Angelo had joined the [[Carbonari]] and, as a result, had to leave Italy. He and his family travelled over Eastern Europe aided by a ''[[firman]]'' from the Sultan of Turkey. Six of his eight daughters, all under eighteen, married Englishmen.<ref>{{harvp|Campbell|1922|p=3}}</ref>
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]].


She studied for a short time at the [[Guildhall School of Music]].
Fourteen 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]].


== Stage Career ==
==Stage career==
[[File:Philip Burne-Jones - The Vampire.jpg|thumb|right|upright|1897 ''The Vampire'', [[Philip Burne-Jones]]' most famous work; modeled by Campbell]]
[[File:Cover-play1913.jpg|thumb|upright|Campbell as Eliza for ''[[Pygmalion (play)|Pygmalion]]'']]
[[File:Mrs. Patrick Campbell 1.jpg|thumb|upright|1901]]
[[File:Ranken, William Bruce Ellis; Mrs Patrick Campbell.jpg|thumb|upright|Campbell by [[William Bruce Ellis Ranken]]]]
[[File:A N Campbell, Mrs Patrick Campbell, and S P Campbell (SAYRE 12434) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Campbell (center) with her children Alan and Stella, {{circa|1909}}]]


She made her stage debut in [[1888]], four years after her marriage to Patrick Campbell, and became successful as a result of starring in Sir [[Arthur Wing Pinero]]'s play, ''[[The Second Mrs Tanqueray]]'', in [[1893]].Despite her marriage, she continued to use "Mrs Patrick Campbell" as her stage name.
Campbell made her professional stage debut in 1888 at the [[Liverpool Empire Theatre|Alexandra Theatre]], Liverpool, four years after her marriage to Patrick Campbell. In March 1890, she appeared in London at the [[Adelphi Theatre|Adelphi]], where she afterward played again in 1891–93. She became successful after starring in Sir [[Arthur Wing Pinero]]'s play, ''[[The Second Mrs Tanqueray]]'' (1893) at [[St. James's Theatre]] where she also appeared in ''[[The Masqueraders]]'' (1894). She had another success as Kate Cloud in ''[[John-a-Dreams]]'' (1894), produced by [[Herbert Beerbohm Tree|Beerbohm Tree]] at the [[Haymarket Theatre|Haymarket]], and again as Agnes in ''[[The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith]]'' (1895) at the [[Garrick Theatre|Garrick]].


Among her other performances were those in ''[[Fédora (play)|Fédora]]'' (1895), ''[[Little Eyolf]]'' (1896), and her notable performances with [[Johnston Forbes-Robertson|Forbes-Robertson]] at the [[Lyceum Theatre (London)|Lyceum]] in London's [[West End theatre|West End]] in the roles of [[Juliet Capulet|Juliet]] in ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', [[Ophelia (character)|Ophelia]] in ''[[Hamlet]]'', and [[Lady Macbeth (Shakespeare)|Lady Macbeth]] (1895–98) in ''[[Macbeth]]''. Once established as a major star, Campbell assisted in the early careers of some noted actors, such as [[Gerald Du Maurier]] and [[George Arliss]].<ref>{{harvp|Peters|1985|pp=179–181, 183}}</ref>
In 1902, Campbell made her first [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] appearance in [[New York City]]. She would return to perform there on a number of occasions until 1930.


In 1900, Campbell, having become her own manager/director, made her debut performance on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in New York City in ''[[Heimat (play)|Heimat]]'' by [[Hermann Sudermann]], a marked success. Subsequent appearances in New York and on tour in the U.S. established her as a major theatrical presence there. Campbell would regularly perform on the New York stage until 1933. Other performances included roles in ''[[The Joy of Living (play)|The Joy of Living]]'' (1902), ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (play)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' (1904; as Melisande to the Pelleas of her friend [[Sarah Bernhardt]]), ''[[Hedda Gabler]]'' (1907), ''[[Hugo von Hofmannsthal|Electra]]'', ''[[The Thunderbolt (play)|The Thunderbolt]]'' (both 1908), and ''Bella Donna'' (1911).
In [[1914]], she played [[Eliza Doolittle]] in the original production of [[George Bernard Shaw|Shaw]]'s ''[[Pygmalion (play)|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 1914, she played Eliza Doolittle in the original [[West End theatre|West End]] production of ''[[Pygmalion (play)|Pygmalion]]'', which [[George Bernard Shaw]] had expressly written for her.<ref>{{harvp|Huggett|1969|pp=20–27}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Peters|1985|p=307}}</ref> Although forty-nine years old when she originated the role opposite the Henry Higgins of [[Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree]], she triumphed and took the play to New York and on tour in 1915 with the much younger [[Philip Merivale]] playing Higgins. She successfully played Eliza again in a 1920 London revival of the play.<ref>{{harvp|Huggett|1969|pp=183–187}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Peters|1985|pp=364–367}}</ref>
In her later years, Campbell made notable appearances in motion pictures, including ''[[One More River]]'' ([[1934]]), ''[[Rip Tide]]'' ([[1934]]), and ''[[Crime and Punishment (movie)|Crime and Punishment]]'' ([[1935]]).


A couple of Campbell's later significant performances were as the title role in the 1922 West End production of [[Henrik Ibsen]]'s play ''[[Hedda Gabler]]''<ref>{{harvp|Peters|1985|pp=379–382}}</ref> and Mrs. Alving in the 1928 Ibsen Centennial staging of ''[[Ghosts (play)|Ghosts]]'' (with [[John Gielgud]] as her son Oswald).<ref>{{harvp|Peters|1985|pp=397–398}}</ref> Her last major stage role was in the Broadway production of [[Ivor Novello]]'s play ''A Party'', where she portrayed the cigar-smoking, [[Pekingese]]-wielding actress Mrs. MacDonald – a clear takeoff on her own well-known persona – and made off with the best reviews. In her later years, Campbell made notable appearances in films, including ''[[One More River]]'', ''[[Riptide (1934 film)|Riptide]]'' (both 1934), and ''[[Crime and Punishment (1935 American film)|Crime and Punishment]]'' (1935). Her tendency, however, to reject roles that could have vitally helped her career in later years caused [[Alexander Woollcott]] to declare "... she was like a sinking ship firing on the rescuers".<ref>{{harvp|Peters|1985|pp=422–425}}</ref>
She died in [[Pau]], [[France]], aged 75.
== see also ==
''My Life And Some Letters'' by Mrs Patrick Campbell.


==Relationship with George Bernard Shaw==
==External links==
In the late 1890s, Campbell first became aware of [[George Bernard Shaw]] – the famous and feared dramatic critic for ''[[Saturday Review (London newspaper)|The Saturday Review]]'' – who lavishly praised her better performances and thoroughly criticised her lesser efforts. Shaw had already used her as inspiration for some of his plays before their first meeting in 1897 when he unsuccessfully tried to persuade Campbell to play the role of Judith Anderson in the first production of his play ''[[The Devil's Disciple (play)|The Devil's Disciple]]''.<ref>{{harvp|Peters|1985|pp=139–140}}</ref> Not until 1912, when they began negotiations for the London production of ''[[Pygmalion (play)|Pygmalion]]'', did Shaw develop an infatuation for Campbell that resulted in a passionate, yet unconsummated, love affair of mutual fascination and a legendary exchange of letters.<ref>''Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell: Their Correspondence edited by Alan Dent'', Alfred A Knopf, 1952</ref> It was Campbell who broke off the relationship,<ref>{{harvp|Peters|1985|pp=330–333}}</ref> although Shaw was about to direct her in ''Pygmalion''. They remained friends in spite of the break-up and her subsequent marriage to [[George Cornwallis-West]], but Shaw never again allowed her to originate any of the roles he had written with her in mind (e.g. Hesione Hushabye in ''[[Heartbreak House]]'', the Serpent in ''[[Back to Methuselah]]'', etc.).<ref>{{harvp|Peters|1985|pp=404–407}}</ref> When [[Anthony Asquith]] was preparing to produce the 1938 film of ''[[Pygmalion (1938 film)|Pygmalion]]'', Shaw suggested Campbell for the role of Mrs. Higgins, but she declined.<ref>{{harvp|Huggett|1969|pp=2–3}}</ref>
* {{ibdb name|id=10068|name=Mrs. Patrick Campbell}}
* {{imdb name|id=0132742|name=Mrs. Patrick Campbell}}


In later years, Shaw refused to allow the impoverished Campbell to publish or sell any of their letters except in heavily edited form, for fear of upsetting his wife [[Charlotte Payne-Townshend]] and the possible harm that the letters might cause to his public image.<ref>{{harvp|Peters|1985|pp=369–378}}</ref> Most of the letters were not published until 1952, two years after Shaw's death.


==Famous quotes==
{{quote}}
Campbell was known for her sharp wit. Her best-known remark, uttered upon hearing about a male [[homosexual]] relationship, was "My dear, I don't care what they do, so long as they don't do it in the street and frighten the horses",<ref>{{harvp|Dent|1961|p=78}}</ref> although this remark has been attributed to others as well.

At a dinner in the United States, she was seated next to a scientist who talked incessantly to her about [[ant]]s. "They even have their own police force and army", he enthused. "No navy?" she replied.<ref>''Great British Wit'', Rosemarie Jarski, Ebury Press, 2005</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1884, she eloped with Patrick Campbell (1855–1900) to St Helen, Bishopsgate, while pregnant with their child, Alan "Beo" Urquhart Campbell.<ref>{{harvp|Campbell|1922|p=35}}</ref> Patrick was the son of Patrick McMicken Campbell, a banker and chief manager of the [[Oriental Bank Corporation]], and Montgomerie Anne (née Kerr). They had first met four months prior at a card party at the house of Mrs. Gifford in [[Dulwich]].<ref>{{harvp|Campbell|1922|p=29}}</ref> Their second child, Stella Campbell, was born in 1886.

Patrick's health was poor, and in 1887 he was ordered by his doctor to take a sea voyage.<ref>{{harvp|Campbell|1922|p=37}}</ref> He went to Australia, and later to South Africa, staying for six-and-a-half years.<ref name=":0">{{cite ODNB |last=Aston |first=Elaine |title=Campbell [née Tanner], Beatrice Stella [performing name Mrs Patrick Campbell] |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/32261}}</ref> He found some work but never sent enough back for Beatrice and the children to live on. When he returned in 1893, she saw that "his health and energies were undermined by fever, failure, and the most bitter disappointments".<ref>{{harvp|Campbell|1922|p=120}}</ref> In mid-March 1900, Patrick returned to [[South Africa]] to join [[Imperial Yeomanry|Lord Chesham's Yeomanry]] in the [[Second Boer War|Boer War]] in 1900.<ref name=":0" /> He was killed [[Battle of Boshof|in a charge at Boshof]] on 5 April,<ref>{{harvp|Campbell|1922|p=192}}</ref> the same action in which [[George Henri Anne-Marie Victor de Villebois-Mareuil|Colonel George de Villebois-Mareuil]] died.

Their son Beo worked as an actor and toured with his mother in 1908.<ref>{{harvp|Campbell|1922|p=299}}</ref> Their daughter Stella (1886–1975)<ref>{{cite web |title=Stella Patrick Campbell |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp68686/stella-patrick-campbell |access-date=2018-06-10 |publisher=National Portrait Gallery}}</ref> also joined her mother onstage, and toured with her in the United States, but "made up her mind to marry a man [Beatrice] scarcely knew, who had lived in Africa for many years".<ref>{{harvp|Campbell|1922|p=309}}</ref>

In 1909, Campbell produced ''His Borrowed Plumes'' by [[Lady Randolph Churchill]], whose husband, George Cornwallis-West, was "seriously attracted to me".<ref>{{harvp|Campbell|1922|p=307}}</ref> They married on 6 April 1914, the day after the [[Decree nisi|decree absolute]] of his divorce.<ref>{{harvp|Campbell|1922|p=373}}</ref> Notwithstanding her second marriage, she continued to use the stage name Mrs Patrick Campbell.<ref name="obit" />

Campbell died on 9 April 1940 in [[Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques|Pau, France]], aged 75, of [[pneumonia]].<ref name=obit>{{cite news|title=Mrs. Campbell, 75, Famous Actress|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0E1FF93E54117A93C3A8178FD85F448485F9|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=11 April 1940|access-date=29 June 2008}}</ref> Her death was one of the few deaths of a personal nature that [[George Bernard Shaw]] ever noted in his personal diaries.<ref>{{harvp|Peters|1985|p=462}}</ref>

==Legacy==
A note book belonging to Campbell is housed at the [[University of Birmingham]] Special Collections Department. Several collections of Campbell's correspondence, including her letters to Shaw (MS Thr 372.1), are part of the Harvard Theatre Collection at [[Houghton Library]], Harvard University. A number of her letters and her annotated script for [[Chester Bailey Fernald]]'s ''The Moonlight Blossom'' are in the theatre manuscripts collection of the [[Harry Ransom Center]], University of Texas at Austin. The Ransom Center's collection of Shaw papers includes letters from Campbell, and the library includes a number of Shaw's published works from Campbell's private library.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingaid.cfm?eadid=00121p1&showrequest=1|title=George Bernard Shaw: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center|website=norman.hrc.utexas.edu|access-date=11 November 2016}}</ref>

''Mrs. Pat: The Life of Mrs. Pat Campbell'', a biography by Margot Peters, was published in 1984 by Hamish Hamilton. Also London-based, play publisher Samuel French released ''Mrs. Pat'' in October 2015, the script of a one-woman show by Anton Burge, to coincide with its production in the Minerva Theatre at [[Chichester Festival Theatre]], West Sussex. It was performed by Dame [[Penelope Keith]] DBE,DL.

In 1957, the play ''[[Dear Liar]]'' by [[Jerome Kilty]], an adaptation of the epistolary exchanges between Campbell and Shaw, was first staged in Chicago. It has also been adapted for television and film.

==Filmography==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
|1920|| ''The Money Moon'' || ||
|-
|1930|| ''[[The Dancers (1930 film)|The Dancers]]'' || Aunt Emily ||
|-
|rowspan=3 | 1934|| ''[[Riptide (1934 film)|Riptide]]'' || Aunt Hetty ||
|-
| ''[[One More River]]'' || Lady Mont ||
|-
| ''[[Outcast Lady]]'' || Lady Eve ||
|-
|1935|| ''[[Crime and Punishment (1935 American film)|Crime and Punishment]]'' || Pawnbroker || (final film role)
|}

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist|21em}}

'''Bibliography'''
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|last1=Campbell|first1=Mrs Patrick|title=My Life and Some Letters|date=1922|publisher=Dodd, Mead and Company|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/mylifesomeletter00camp|access-date=9 October 2016}}
*{{cite book | author= William Archer | title=The Theatrical World | place=London|date= 1897 | author-link=William Archer (critic) }}
*{{cite book | title=Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell: Their Correspondence |editor= Alan Dent |editor-link= Alan Dent | publisher=Alfred A Knopf | date= 1952}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Campbell, Beatrice Stella}}
*{{cite book |last=Dent |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Dent |year=1961 |title=Mrs. Patrick Campbell |publisher=Museum Press }}
*{{cite book |last=Huggett |first=Richard |year=1969 |title=The Truth About Pygmalion |publisher=Random House }}
*{{cite book |last=Peters |first=Margot |year=1985 |title=Mrs. Pat: the Life of Mrs. Patrick Campbell |publisher=Hamish Hamilton |isbn=9780241115350 }}
*{{cite book | author= George Bernard Shaw | title=Dramatic Opinions | url= https://archive.org/details/dramaticopinion00shawgoog | place=London | date= 1907| author-link=George Bernard Shaw }}
*{{cite book| author= Arthur Bingham Walkley | title=Drama and Life | url= https://archive.org/details/cu31924091180061 | place=London| date= 1907| author-link=Arthur Bingham Walkley }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote|Mrs Patrick Campbell}}
{{EB1911 poster|Campbell, Beatrice Stella|Beatrice Stella Campbell}}
{{Commons category}}
*{{IBDB name|name=Mrs. Patrick Campbell}}
*[https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=01434 Theater Arts Manuscripts:] An Inventory of the Collection at the [[Harry Ransom Center]]
*{{UK National Archives ID}}
*[https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=mrs.+patrick+campbell Mrs Patrick Campbell] photo gallery at NYP Library
*[http://voyager.library.uvic.ca/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=2016682 Mrs. Patrick Campbell collection] at University of Victoria, Special Collections
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100608091600/http://cather.unl.edu/images/cat.nf005/cat.nf005.fig2.jpg Mrs Patrick Campbell in ''Pygmalion'' 1915]
*[http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/collection/sayre/searchterm/mrs.%20patrick%20campbell/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/cosuppress/ Mrs. Patrick Campbell] University of Washington, Sayre collection


{{Authority control}}


[[Category:1865 births|Campbell, Mrs Patrick]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Mrs Patrick}}
[[Category:1940 deaths|Campbell, Mrs Patrick]]
[[Category:1865 births]]
[[Category:English actors|Campbell, Mrs Patrick]]
[[Category:1940 deaths]]
[[Category:English stage actors|Campbell, Mrs Patrick]]
[[Category:English people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:19th-century English actresses]]
[[Category:English stage actresses]]
[[Category:British vaudeville performers]]
[[Category:Actresses from London]]
[[Category:People from Kensington]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in France]]
[[Category:20th-century English actresses]]
[[Category:Actors from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea]]

Latest revision as of 11:23, 15 December 2024

Mrs Patrick Campbell
Born
Beatrice Rose Stella Tanner

9 February 1865
Kensington, London, England
Died9 April 1940 (age 75)
Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France
Other namesMrs Pat
OccupationActress
Years active1888–1935
Spouses
Patrick Campbell
​
​
(m. 1884; died 1900)​
​
​
(m. 1914)​
Children2

Beatrice Rose Stella Tanner (9 February 1865 – 9 April 1940), better known by her stage name Mrs Patrick Campbell or Mrs Pat, was an English stage actress, best known for appearing in plays by Shakespeare, Shaw and Barrie. She also toured the United States and appeared briefly in films.[1]

Early life

[edit]

Campbell was born Beatrice Rose Stella Tanner in Kensington, London, to John Tanner (1829–1895), son and heir of a wealthy British Army contractor to the British East India Company, and Maria Luigia Giovanna ("Louisa Joanna") née Romanini (1836–1908), daughter of Italian Count Angelo Romanini.

Her father John Tanner (1829–1895), a descendant of Thomas Tanner, Bishop of St Asaph,[2] was a consul and merchant who "managed to get through two large fortunes",[3] in part through losses in the Indian Mutiny. Her mother, Louisa Joanna Romanini, was one of the eight daughters of Angelo Romanini of Brescia and Rosa née Polinelli of Milan. Angelo had joined the Carbonari and, as a result, had to leave Italy. He and his family travelled over Eastern Europe aided by a firman from the Sultan of Turkey. Six of his eight daughters, all under eighteen, married Englishmen.[4]

She studied for a short time at the Guildhall School of Music.

Stage career

[edit]
1897 The Vampire, Philip Burne-Jones' most famous work; modeled by Campbell
Campbell as Eliza for Pygmalion
1901
Campbell by William Bruce Ellis Ranken
Campbell (center) with her children Alan and Stella, c. 1909

Campbell made her professional 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 after starring in Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's play, The Second Mrs Tanqueray (1893) at St. James's Theatre where she also appeared in The Masqueraders (1894). She had another success as Kate Cloud in John-a-Dreams (1894), produced by Beerbohm Tree at the Haymarket, and again as Agnes in The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith (1895) at the Garrick.

Among her other performances were those in Fédora (1895), Little Eyolf (1896), and her notable performances with Forbes-Robertson at the Lyceum in London's West End in the roles of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Ophelia in Hamlet, and Lady Macbeth (1895–98) in Macbeth. Once established as a major star, Campbell assisted in the early careers of some noted actors, such as Gerald Du Maurier and George Arliss.[5]

In 1900, Campbell, having become her own manager/director, made her debut performance on Broadway in New York City in Heimat by Hermann Sudermann, a marked success. Subsequent appearances in New York and on tour in the U.S. established her as a major theatrical presence there. Campbell would regularly perform on the New York stage until 1933. Other performances included roles in The Joy of Living (1902), Pelléas et Mélisande (1904; as Melisande to the Pelleas of her friend Sarah Bernhardt), Hedda Gabler (1907), Electra, The Thunderbolt (both 1908), and Bella Donna (1911).

In 1914, she played Eliza Doolittle in the original West End production of Pygmalion, which George Bernard Shaw had expressly written for her.[6][7] Although forty-nine years old when she originated the role opposite the Henry Higgins of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, she triumphed and took the play to New York and on tour in 1915 with the much younger Philip Merivale playing Higgins. She successfully played Eliza again in a 1920 London revival of the play.[8][9]

A couple of Campbell's later significant performances were as the title role in the 1922 West End production of Henrik Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler[10] and Mrs. Alving in the 1928 Ibsen Centennial staging of Ghosts (with John Gielgud as her son Oswald).[11] Her last major stage role was in the Broadway production of Ivor Novello's play A Party, where she portrayed the cigar-smoking, Pekingese-wielding actress Mrs. MacDonald – a clear takeoff on her own well-known persona – and made off with the best reviews. In her later years, Campbell made notable appearances in films, including One More River, Riptide (both 1934), and Crime and Punishment (1935). Her tendency, however, to reject roles that could have vitally helped her career in later years caused Alexander Woollcott to declare "... she was like a sinking ship firing on the rescuers".[12]

Relationship with George Bernard Shaw

[edit]

In the late 1890s, Campbell first became aware of George Bernard Shaw – the famous and feared dramatic critic for The Saturday Review – who lavishly praised her better performances and thoroughly criticised her lesser efforts. Shaw had already used her as inspiration for some of his plays before their first meeting in 1897 when he unsuccessfully tried to persuade Campbell to play the role of Judith Anderson in the first production of his play The Devil's Disciple.[13] Not until 1912, when they began negotiations for the London production of Pygmalion, did Shaw develop an infatuation for Campbell that resulted in a passionate, yet unconsummated, love affair of mutual fascination and a legendary exchange of letters.[14] It was Campbell who broke off the relationship,[15] although Shaw was about to direct her in Pygmalion. They remained friends in spite of the break-up and her subsequent marriage to George Cornwallis-West, but Shaw never again allowed her to originate any of the roles he had written with her in mind (e.g. Hesione Hushabye in Heartbreak House, the Serpent in Back to Methuselah, etc.).[16] When Anthony Asquith was preparing to produce the 1938 film of Pygmalion, Shaw suggested Campbell for the role of Mrs. Higgins, but she declined.[17]

In later years, Shaw refused to allow the impoverished Campbell to publish or sell any of their letters except in heavily edited form, for fear of upsetting his wife Charlotte Payne-Townshend and the possible harm that the letters might cause to his public image.[18] Most of the letters were not published until 1952, two years after Shaw's death.

Famous quotes

[edit]

Campbell was known for her sharp wit. Her best-known remark, uttered upon hearing about a male homosexual relationship, was "My dear, I don't care what they do, so long as they don't do it in the street and frighten the horses",[19] although this remark has been attributed to others as well.

At a dinner in the United States, she was seated next to a scientist who talked incessantly to her about ants. "They even have their own police force and army", he enthused. "No navy?" she replied.[20]

Personal life

[edit]

In 1884, she eloped with Patrick Campbell (1855–1900) to St Helen, Bishopsgate, while pregnant with their child, Alan "Beo" Urquhart Campbell.[21] Patrick was the son of Patrick McMicken Campbell, a banker and chief manager of the Oriental Bank Corporation, and Montgomerie Anne (née Kerr). They had first met four months prior at a card party at the house of Mrs. Gifford in Dulwich.[22] Their second child, Stella Campbell, was born in 1886.

Patrick's health was poor, and in 1887 he was ordered by his doctor to take a sea voyage.[23] He went to Australia, and later to South Africa, staying for six-and-a-half years.[24] He found some work but never sent enough back for Beatrice and the children to live on. When he returned in 1893, she saw that "his health and energies were undermined by fever, failure, and the most bitter disappointments".[25] In mid-March 1900, Patrick returned to South Africa to join Lord Chesham's Yeomanry in the Boer War in 1900.[24] He was killed in a charge at Boshof on 5 April,[26] the same action in which Colonel George de Villebois-Mareuil died.

Their son Beo worked as an actor and toured with his mother in 1908.[27] Their daughter Stella (1886–1975)[28] also joined her mother onstage, and toured with her in the United States, but "made up her mind to marry a man [Beatrice] scarcely knew, who had lived in Africa for many years".[29]

In 1909, Campbell produced His Borrowed Plumes by Lady Randolph Churchill, whose husband, George Cornwallis-West, was "seriously attracted to me".[30] They married on 6 April 1914, the day after the decree absolute of his divorce.[31] Notwithstanding her second marriage, she continued to use the stage name Mrs Patrick Campbell.[1]

Campbell died on 9 April 1940 in Pau, France, aged 75, of pneumonia.[1] Her death was one of the few deaths of a personal nature that George Bernard Shaw ever noted in his personal diaries.[32]

Legacy

[edit]

A note book belonging to Campbell is housed at the University of Birmingham Special Collections Department. Several collections of Campbell's correspondence, including her letters to Shaw (MS Thr 372.1), are part of the Harvard Theatre Collection at Houghton Library, Harvard University. A number of her letters and her annotated script for Chester Bailey Fernald's The Moonlight Blossom are in the theatre manuscripts collection of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin. The Ransom Center's collection of Shaw papers includes letters from Campbell, and the library includes a number of Shaw's published works from Campbell's private library.[33]

Mrs. Pat: The Life of Mrs. Pat Campbell, a biography by Margot Peters, was published in 1984 by Hamish Hamilton. Also London-based, play publisher Samuel French released Mrs. Pat in October 2015, the script of a one-woman show by Anton Burge, to coincide with its production in the Minerva Theatre at Chichester Festival Theatre, West Sussex. It was performed by Dame Penelope Keith DBE,DL.

In 1957, the play Dear Liar by Jerome Kilty, an adaptation of the epistolary exchanges between Campbell and Shaw, was first staged in Chicago. It has also been adapted for television and film.

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1920 The Money Moon
1930 The Dancers Aunt Emily
1934 Riptide Aunt Hetty
One More River Lady Mont
Outcast Lady Lady Eve
1935 Crime and Punishment Pawnbroker (final film role)

References

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Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Mrs. Campbell, 75, Famous Actress". The New York Times. 11 April 1940. Retrieved 29 June 2008.
  2. ^ Campbell (1922), p. 1
  3. ^ Campbell (1922), p. 2
  4. ^ Campbell (1922), p. 3
  5. ^ Peters (1985), pp. 179–181, 183
  6. ^ Huggett (1969), pp. 20–27
  7. ^ Peters (1985), p. 307
  8. ^ Huggett (1969), pp. 183–187
  9. ^ Peters (1985), pp. 364–367
  10. ^ Peters (1985), pp. 379–382
  11. ^ Peters (1985), pp. 397–398
  12. ^ Peters (1985), pp. 422–425
  13. ^ Peters (1985), pp. 139–140
  14. ^ Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell: Their Correspondence edited by Alan Dent, Alfred A Knopf, 1952
  15. ^ Peters (1985), pp. 330–333
  16. ^ Peters (1985), pp. 404–407
  17. ^ Huggett (1969), pp. 2–3
  18. ^ Peters (1985), pp. 369–378
  19. ^ Dent (1961), p. 78
  20. ^ Great British Wit, Rosemarie Jarski, Ebury Press, 2005
  21. ^ Campbell (1922), p. 35
  22. ^ Campbell (1922), p. 29
  23. ^ Campbell (1922), p. 37
  24. ^ a b Aston, Elaine (2004). "Campbell [née Tanner], Beatrice Stella [performing name Mrs Patrick Campbell]". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32261. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  25. ^ Campbell (1922), p. 120
  26. ^ Campbell (1922), p. 192
  27. ^ Campbell (1922), p. 299
  28. ^ "Stella Patrick Campbell". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  29. ^ Campbell (1922), p. 309
  30. ^ Campbell (1922), p. 307
  31. ^ Campbell (1922), p. 373
  32. ^ Peters (1985), p. 462
  33. ^ "George Bernard Shaw: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center". norman.hrc.utexas.edu. Retrieved 11 November 2016.

Bibliography

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Wikiquote has quotations related to Mrs Patrick Campbell.
Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about Beatrice Stella Campbell.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mrs. Patrick Campbell.
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