Crosman, Henrietta (Foster)

Crosman, Henrietta [Foster] (1861–1944), actress. A native of Wheeling, West Virginia, she made her first appearance on the stage in 1883 as Lily in The White Slave. She was an attractive, if slightly pouty‐faced actress, who rose rapidly in ever more important roles as she moved from one major management to another. By the turn of the century she had performed for Augustin Daly, both Daniel and Charles Frohman, and A. M. Palmer. However, it was not until she approached middle age that she achieved stardom in the role of Nell Gwynne in Mistress Nell (1900), a performance that was generally acknowledged as one of the sensations of the season. In 1902 she enjoyed praise and a long run as Rosalind in As You Like It, then the next year she was acclaimed as the wily Irish heroine of Sweet Kitty Bellairs. Thereafter she toured successfully in such plays as All‐of‐a‐Sudden Peggy, The Christian Pilgrim, Anti‐Matrimony, and The Real Thing, although their New York stands were short. For many years she alternated between vaudeville and the legitimate theatre, then in her last active years she played prominent roles in several all‐star revivals, including The School for Scandal, The Two Orphans, Trelawny of the Wells, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and The Beaux Stratagem. Her final New York appearance was in Thunder in the Air (1929), although she continued to act until shortly before her death. In Sixty Years of Theatre, J. Rankin Towse suggested, “Henrietta Crosman is an actress who is entitled to more general critical and popular appreciation than she has obtained. She is an exceedingly bright and capable performer, of considerable range and much technical expertness.. . .Her Nell Gwynn. . .will long be remembered for its variety, its animation, its delightful deviltry, and its general fascination.”