Mrs Patrick Campbell

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Campbell, Mrs. Patrick [née Beatrice Stella Tanner] (1865–1940), actress. The English star famous for her wit and beauty but best recalled for her correspondence with George Bernard Shaw, made her American debut in 1902 in the title role of Magda. On the tour she also offered what then were her two most‐celebrated roles, the title parts in The Second Mrs. Tanqueray and The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith. In all she made half a dozen visits to America, including a 1914 visit in which she appeared as Liza Doolittle in Pygmalion, a play Shaw had written for her and with which she was long identified. She was, of course, really too old to play the young flower vendor, but that proved only a small drawback. Her last appearance came in 1933. On first seeing her, J. Rankin Towse wrote, “Her voice is a charming instrument, rich, soft, and musical, with sufficient volume, but no abnormal power or resonance; her eyes, large and dark and deep, often partly veiled, as in Orientals, by drooping lids, lighten finely, in her moments of excitement, and become wonderfully expressive and striking.” Biography: Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Alan Dent, 1961.