Annie Russell
| Annie Russell | |
|---|---|
Russell ca. 1899
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| Born |
January 12, 1864 Liverpool, England |
| Died | January 16, 1936 (aged 72) Winter Park, Florida, U.S.A. |
| Occupation | Actress and teacher |
| Years active | 1872–1918 |
Annie Ellen Russell (January 12, 1864 – January 16, 1936) was an American stage actress.
Russell was born in Liverpool, England, of Irish parents, Joseph Russell and Jane Mount. She moved to Canada when she was a child. She made her first appearance on the stage at eight years old with Rose Eytinge at the Montreal Academy of Music in Montreal, Canada. She visited the West Indies when she was twelve, overseeing her younger brother Tommy, the child actor in a touring production.
In 1881, in New York, she performed in Esmerelda, a play written by Frances Hodgson Burnett and William Gillette. This play would later become one of her most successful and popular performances. Notwithstanding, reviews for the play, and for Russell's performance, were becoming unfavourable by the ninth month of the play's run—the reviewer says of her performance: "If she cares for her future, she will not waste time in spoiling her voice. ...Lacking knowledge and training, she screams in a most unhappy fashion." It ran for a year at the Madison Square Theatre and had over two hundred showings.
After Esmerelda, Russell did not perform on a similar scale for a few years. However, she was not completely removed from theatrical life. In 1883, she joined the New York Fifth Avenue Theatre company, with her mother, Jane, and little brother, Tommy. She performed in one of the tour companies of the play Hazel Kirke, in the title role, before leaving to marry her first husband in 1884.
Russell shortly fell ill—the first reported illness of many throughout her career. She returned in 1885, playing Zaire in the play Broken Hearts written by W.S. Gilbert. Later in the year, she performed in Young Mrs. Winthrop with the Palmer Company in Philadelphia. She later returned to New York with the same company to perform at Madison Square Theatre as Ada in Sealed Intentions. which received a stellar review on opening night. She performed in Engaged as Maggie McFarland starting in 1886, where acclaim for her performances began to mount. A reviewer in the New York Times said she "Imparts the charm that belongs to her delicate beauty." Other performances in 1886 that Russell performed in with A.M. Palmer's company at Madison Square Theatre include Young Mrs. Winthrop as EdithOur Society and Love's Martyr.
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