Mrs Patrick Campbell

Mrs Patrick Campbell (1865-1940) was a British stage actress, the most successful of her generation.

She was born Beatrice Stella Tanner in Kensington, London, of English and Italian parents. 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. Following the death of her first husband in 1900, she married George Cornwallis-West (born 1872) -- a dashing writer previously married to Jennie Jerome, the mother of Winston Churchill -- but continued to use "Mrs Patrick Campbell" as her stage name. In 1914, she played Eliza Doolittle in the original production of Shaw's Pygmalion; though much too old for the part, she was the obvious choice, being by far the biggest name on the London stage.