Mrs. Leslie Carter
| Mrs. Leslie Carter | |
|---|---|
Carter as Mme. Du Barry on the October 1902 cover of The Theatre
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| Born |
Caroline Louise Dudley June 10, 1857 Lexington, Kentucky, US |
| Died | November 13, 1937 (aged 80) Santa Monica, California, US |
| Spouse(s) | Leslie Carter (May 26, 1880 - May 22, 1889) Louis Payne (July 13, 1906 - November 13, 1937) |
Caroline Louise Dudley (June 10, 1857 – November 13, 1937) was an American silent film and stage actress who used her married name, Mrs. Leslie Carter, as her stage name to spite her former husband. She was called "The American Sarah Bernhardt".
Caroline Dudley was born in Lexington, Kentucky. The exact date is not known but research points to the year 1857. Her father was Orson Dudley, a wholesale dry goods merchant of means, who gave to his daughter every advantage that money could bestow. Her mother was Catherine Dudley. Most of her childhood was spent in Dayton, Ohio. She aspired to the stage from childhood, but for family reasons she never appeared publicly, even at amateur entertainments.
At the time of her 1880 marriage in Dayton to lawyer Leslie Carter, a Chicago millionaire, she was considered a great belle, as she was a strikingly beautiful girl with great vivacity. They had one child, a son, Dudley Carter. In 1887 she filed for divorce on the grounds of physical assault and abandonment, but in 1889, Mr. Carter obtained the divorce naming actor, H. Kyrle Bellew, as co-respondent. Son Dudley chose to live with his mother and was cut out of his father's will as a result. Press coverage of the trial was suppressed, but the filing and results were front page scandal.
Her association with Broadway impresario, David Belasco, skyrocketed her to theatrical fame. Her first hit was as the lead character in The Heart of Maryland (1895), a huge hit that was followed by the even more sensational Zaza (1898) and Madame Du Barry (1901). In The Heart of Maryland, she wore a wig with six-foot tresses. Her great scene came as the heroine swinging in the belfry tower, her hands gripping the clapper to prevent the ringing of a huge curfew bell. The sensational swinging out of Mrs. Carter thirty-five feet above the stage with off-stage fans sending her long tresses streaming set New York audiences cheering.
Carter became her generation's greatest dramatic actress. When she broke with Belasco in 1906 after her surprise remarriage, she was already considered a relic and abandoned Broadway in favor of vaudeville. In July 1906, she married actor (William) Louis Payne (1875 – August 17, 1955) who was often her leading man on stage, and later managed her business affairs. They adopted a daughter, Mary Carter Payne.
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