Anne Bracegirdle

Anne Bracegirdle (c. 1671 – 12 September 1748) was an English actress.

Little is known of Bracegirdle's early life. Her precise date of birth is a source of dispute due to conflicting records of her life. The daughter of Justinian Bracegirdle, variously described as a coachman or coach-maker, and his wife Martha (née Furniss), she was baptised in Northampton on 15 November 1671, although her tombstone says that she died at the age of 85 (suggesting that she was born around 1663). She was probably raised by actors Thomas and Mary Betterton from an early age, and it is speculated that she was the "little girl" referred to several times in playbills before 1688 for the Duke's Company, where Thomas Betterton was the big star.

Her name first appears in the Lord Chamberlain's accounts in 1688 as a member of the United Company (into which the Duke's Company had by then merged), and a few of her roles in the following years are known through surviving manuscript cast lists. She played Semernia in Aphra Behn's The Widow Ranter in 1689, a breeches role, a type of role she would often return to, and was by 1690 playing parts like Lady Anne in Shakespeare's Richard III and Desdemona in Othello. Soon, she had become one of the important members of the company and an audience favourite, indicated by the frequency with which she spoke prologues and epilogues.

After 1705 she found a serious competitor in Anne Oldfield, then first coming into public favour. As it became apparent that audiences preferred her rival, Anne Bracegirdle quit the stage, making only one reappearance at Betterton's benefit in 1709.

Colley Cibber described Bracegirdle in his autobiography as she appeared in 1690, when he first joined the company at Drury Lane:

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