Mrs Leslie Carter

Mrs. Leslie Carter 1862-1937, American actress, b. Lexington, Ky., whose maiden name was Caroline Louise Dudley. She became a protégée of Belasco and first appeared in 1890 in The Ugly Duckling. His Heart of Maryland (1895) brought her recognition, and her success continued in his productions of Zaza (1899), Du Barry (1901), and Adrea (1905). Their association ended with her second marriage in 1906, after which her stage popularity diminished.

Carter, Mrs Leslie [née Caroline Louise Dudley] (1862–1937), American actress, who in 1889, when her marriage broke up, asked Belasco to launch her on an acting career. In spite of some initial opposition to her as a divorcée, she became one of his star players, being outstanding in Belasco's The Heart of Maryland (1895; London, 1898) and Zaza (1899; London, 1900). She then played the title-roles in Du Barry (1901) by Belasco and Adrea (1905) by Belasco and John Luther Long. On her second marriage in 1906 she severed her connection with Belasco, touring under her own and other managements with some success until she retired in 1917. She returned to the stage in 1921 in Maugham's The Circle.

Carter, Mrs. Leslie [née Caroline Louise Dudley] (1862–1937), actress. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, the fiery redhead turned to the stage after being snubbed by society following a sensational divorce case in which she was found guilty of adultery. She persuaded David Belasco to give her the central role of Kate Graydon in The Ugly Duckling (1890), and he agreed, probably as much because of her notoriety as because of her as yet latent acting talents. Nature aptly fitted her for the role, for though she was not beautiful, her slim, willowy figure, piercing green eyes, and expressive face were exceedingly attractive. Carter's acting, however, was criticized as too unrestrained, even if, like Belasco, the critics saw great promise in her. The play was a failure, but Belasco and Charles Frohman confidently cast her for the title role in Audran's operetta, Miss Helyett (1891). Real success came when she played the determined Maryland Calvert in The Heart of Maryland (1895). Her “sizzling” performances as the prostitute Zaza (1899), followed by her courtesan Du Barry (1901), added to her popularity. In 1905 she gave what many considered her finest portrayal as the tragic heroine of Adrea. William Winter, who had long been critical of her overplaying, wrote of her Adrea, “No denotement in Mrs. Carter's acting of Du Barry had even remotely indicated such depth of tragical feeling and such power of dramatic expression as she revealed in the scene of the tempest, in pronouncing Kaeso's doom, and, above all, in the terrible, piteous, tragic self‐conflict through which the Woman became the incarnation of Fate and the minister of death.” Shortly thereafter she left Belasco after an argument over her second marriage. For many years she toured, primarily in revivals, before winning good notices as Lady Catherine in Somerset Maugham's The Circle (1921), and later she toured as Mother Goddam in The Shanghai Gesture. Carter's last New York appearance was as Mrs. Hardcastle in a 1928 revival of She Stoops to Conquer, although she made several appearances on California stages before her retirement.