Mrs. Patrick Campbell
aka. Beatrice Stella Campbell, née Tanner
(1865–1940)

Mrs. Patrick CampbellAnecdote 1...

Mrs. Campbell once attempted to smuggle her pet Pekingese through customs by tucking him inside the upper part of her cape. "Everything was going splendidly," she later remarked, "until my bosom barked."

Anecdote 2...

During the course of an American tour, Mrs. Pat once lost her usual control of the situation. A rather shy, unobtrusive little man was taking her in to dinner. She turned her magnetic eyes on him and, in her most effective histrionic tones, said, "Tell me which would you sooner do—love passionately or be loved passionately?" The little man took a deep breath, considered, then ventured, "I'd rather be a canary."


Biographical Note...

English actress, famous for her wit as well as her dramatic tantrums. She created the role of Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. Her first marriage, from which she took the name by which she is generally known, produced two children, Alan Urquhart ("Beo") and Stella, and ended with the death of her first husband in the Boer War in 1900.


More Information...

View the Photo Gallery at NYPL containing many photos of Mrs. Campbell in various theatrical roles.

Images of Mrs. Patrick Campbell