Mary Anderson (actress, born 1859)
| Mary Anderson | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Mary Antoinette Anderson July 28, 1859 Sacramento, California, U.S. |
| Died | May 29, 1940 (aged 80) Broadway, Worcestershire, U.K. |
| Other names | Mary Anderson de Navarro |
| Spouse(s) | Antonio Fernando de Navarro (married 1890) |
Mary Anderson (July 28, 1859, Sacramento, California – May 29, 1940, Broadway, Worcestershire, U.K.) was an American stage actress. She was also billed as Mary Navarro during her silent film career.
Mary Antoinette Anderson was the daughter of Charles Henry Anderson, an Oxford-educated New Yorker, and his wife, Antonia Leugers; the latter had been disowned by her Philadelphia Catholic family after the couple had eloped to California.
Shortly after Mary was born, the couple moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where her father enlisted in the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War. He was killed in action at Mobile when she was three.
Mary was educated at the Ursuline convent and the all-girl Presentation Academy in Louisville. She was an unenthusiastic pupil except for an interest in reading Shakespeare. Encouraged by her stepfather, Dr Hamilton Griffin, at 14 she was sent to New York for ten lessons with the actor George Vandenhoff, her only professional training.
In 1875, she made her first stage appearance at a benefit performance at Macauley's Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky in the role of Shakespeare's Juliet. The manager, Barney Macauley, was sufficiently impressed to extend the booking to a week as Juliet and further roles including Julia in Sheridan Knowles's The Hunchback, Bianca in Henry Hart Milman's Fazio, and R. L. Sheil's Evadne.
Further engagements at St Louis, New Orleans and John McCullough's theatre in San Francisco led to a contract with John T. Ford. Starting as Lady Macbeth in his Washington theatre in 1877, she began an extensive US tour, culminating with a six-week engagement in Edward Bulwer Lytton's The Lady of Lyons at the 5th Avenue Theatre, New York. Critical review was mixed, but she was immediately popular with the public as "Our Mary"
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