Mrs. Patrick Campbell, 1865-1940

Beatrice Rose Stella Tanner Campbell (1865-1940) was a prominent British actress. She was the sixth and final child of John Tanner (1831-1893), a successful contractor with the British East India Company, and Maria Luigia Giovanna Romanini (1835-1940), the daughter of the Italian exile, Count Angelo Romanini. In 1884, pregnant with their first child (Alan Urquhart), she eloped with neighbor, Patrick Campbell. With the birth of their second child, a daughter named Stella in 1886, Patrick went abroad to seek work. The money sent home however was insuffient to maintain the family and despite disapproval from her family, Stella made her debut as Mrs. Patrick Campbell in 1888 to generate income for herself on the stage. She played in a string of minor successes until an 1893 role as Paula in The Second Mrs. Tanqueray launched her career and garnered high praise in the press.

The following year, the family flush with Mrs. Patrick’s success, Patrick returned to England in poor health and poorer fortunes. His state ensured that Mrs. Patrick would continue on the stage to support her family in the comfort to which they had become accustomed. She performed in generally well-received plays by François Coppée, Henrik Ibsen, Maurice Maeterlinck, Arthur Wing Pinero, Victorien Sardou, William Shakespeare, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Mrs. Patrick continued her stage career, dabbling in Hollywood productions and lecturing on acting and voice until the end of her life in 1940, when she passed away in France. Mrs. Patrick is particularly remembered for her role as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion, a part written for her by George Bernard Shaw, with whom she also had significant correspondence.

From the guide to the Letters to Mrs. Patrick Campbell from others, 1893-1929., (Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)