Gilbert, Mrs. (George Henry)

Gilbert, Mrs. [George Henry] [neé Ann Hartley] (1821–1904), comic actress. No beauty (she had an angular, pinched face and heavy‐lidded protruding eyes), she was for many decades one of the most skillful and beloved American comediennes. She was born in England and trained as a ballet dancer in London. In 1846 she married George Henry Gilbert, an actor and dancer, and together they toured England and Ireland before coming to America, where they performed in Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville, and finally New York. During these seasons Mrs. Gilbert developed her acting skills, dancing less and less. She performed opposite many of the era's stars, playing Lady Macbeth to Edwin Booth's Macbeth and Osric to his Hamlet. Gilbert made her New York debut as Baroness Freitenhorsen in Finesse (1864) with Mrs. John Wood's company but first earned major plaudits as the Marquise de St. Maur in the American premiere of Caste (1867). Two years later she joined Augustin Daly's company and, with very short breaks, remained with it through its thirty‐year history. She acted comic old women in approximately 150 different plays for Daly, ranging from Shakespeare and Sheridan to such important new plays as Saratoga (1870) and Pique (1875) to many long‐discarded contemporary pieces. During the last years of Daly's heyday she was, with Ada Rehan, John Drew, and James Lewis, the core of his great comic productions. Her last appearance was as “Granny” Thompson in Granny (1904). One critic said of her at this time, “The older and broader school never had anything richer and truer in its sphere, and the new school of naturalism cannot show anything of finer and firmer veracity.” She died while touring as Granny. Autobiography: The Stage Reminiscences of Mrs. Gilbert, 1904.