Fanny Fitzwilliam
| Fanny Elizabeth Fitzwilliam | |
|---|---|
As Addeline.
|
|
| Born | 26 July 1801 |
| Died | 11 September 1854 (aged 53) |
| Occupation | actress and theatre manager |
| Spouse(s) | Edward Fitzwilliam |
Frances "Fanny" Elizabeth Fitzwilliam (née Copeland) (26 July 1801 – 11 September 1854) was the actress daughter of Robert Copeland, manager of the Dover theatrical circuit.
As "Miss Copeland" she made her name at the Surrey Theatre with Thomas John Dibdin. After marrying the actor Edward Fitzwilliam she performed as "Mrs. Fitzwilliam", becoming a leading London actress and theatre manager. For many years she was closely associated with John Baldwin Buckstone who, after the death of her husband, she was due to marry in 1854.
On 11 September 1854, she died of cholera at Richmond Lodge, Putney, a month before her planned wedding to Buckstone. She was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, three days after her death.
Fanny had two children from her marriage to Edward - a son, musical composer Edward Francis Fitzwilliam and a daughter, actress and singer Kathleen Fitzwilliam.
Fanny Fitzwilliam was remembered by Charles Dickens, in his The Uncommercial Traveller, for her part as Elise in Buckstone's Victorine at the Adelphi Theatre. This is not surprising as Dickens enjoyed the theatre and was a close friend of John Buckstone, her "partner".
Excerpt from The Uncommercial Traveller CHAPTER XXXII - A SMALL STAR IN THE EAST
"This woman, like the last, was wofully shabby, and was degenerating to the Bosjesman complexion. But her figure, and the ghost of a certain vivacity about her, and the spectre of a dimple in her cheek, carried my memory strangely back to the old days of the Adelphi Theatre, London, when Mrs. Fitzwilliam was the friend of Victorine. "
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