Bloodgood, Clara

Bloodgood, Clara [neé Stevens] (1870–1907), actress. A young, socially prominent New Yorker, she determined to try her luck on stage and surprised many with her fine acting and purposeful professionalism. Under the aegis of Charles Frohman she made her debut in The Conquerors (1898), then appeared for him in Catherine (1898), Phroso (1898), and Miss Hobbs (1899). Bloodgood won such good notices as the caustic‐tongued Miss Godesby in The Climbers (1901) that author Clyde Fitch wrote the tormented Jinny Austin in The Girl with the Green Eyes (1902) specifically for her. Another Fitch play for her, The Coronet of the Duchess (1904), was a quick failure, but her reputation was reassured when she played Violet Robinson in the first American production of Man and Superman (1905). In 1907 she appeared as Becky Warder, the pathological liar, in Fitch's The Truth, which opened to unkind notices in New York but was well received on the road. While playing in Baltimore, Bloodgood committed suicide in her hotel room. Fitch thereafter strenuously denied a widely circulated rumor that her suicide had been prompted by his dedicating the published text of The Truth to Marie Tempest who played it in London.