Ellsler, Effie

Ellsler, Effie (1855?–1942), actress. Born in Cleveland, where her parents were popular actors and her father ran the leading playhouse, she made her debut while still a child and for many years played supporting and ingenue roles, acting with Edwin Booth, Lawrence Barrett, John McCullough, and other celebrities during their Cleveland visits. Ellsler came to New York in 1880, making a sensation in her very first part, the title role of Hazel Kirke. She won ecstatic notices for her forceful yet natural portrayal of the character, which she played for three years. Thereafter, however, her choices of starring parts were ill‐advised. She appeared in numerous unsuccessful claptrap melodramas: Courage (1883), Storm Beaten (1883), Woman Against Woman (1886), The Keepsake (1888), and Judge Not (1888). For most of the 1890s she toured in road companies, and in 1900 headed the tour of Barbara Frietchie. Three years later she was Jessica to Maxine Elliott's Portia in The Merchant of Venice. Minor roles in a number of plays followed before Ellsler scored one last hit as Cornelia Van Gorder, who rents a summer home and finds herself in the middle of a murder, in The Bat (1920).