FOUND A GRAVE

Stage Actress. At the peak of her career, she was one of the leading stage actresses in the world. Born in Ottawa, Ontario, her father was T.W. Anglin, speaker of the House of Commons for Canada. His career and her upper-class upbringing had her moving frequently as a child, attending schools in Montreal, Moncton, and ultimately Toronto. In her teens she travelled to New York to study at a dramatic arts school – not to become an actress, but to become a reader of Shakespeare. Charles Frohman heard her speak and offered her a small role in Bronson Howard’s Shenandoah, a Civil War play produced in 1894. That was the start of a quick rise to fame as by the end of the decade she was appearing on Broadway as Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac, which many at the time, and for years after, referred to as the definitive performance. Anglin worked with playright, Henry Miller to produce The Great Divide, of which she had the starring role as Ruth Jordan, a performance which garnered further acclaim from critics and fans. Thereafter she was seen in scores of successes on both Broadway and on the road. While her repartoire included several modern dramas, she quickly became known for her work in classic Greek tragedies and Shakesperean productions. Critics often cited her powerful voice and “declamation of blank verse”, calling her the “finest of North American actresses”. She courted scandal in 1927 when she insisted upon casting her actor-husband, Howard Hull, in her plays. When her request was rebuffed by producers, she countered by walking out of two major productions which she was starring in. As a result, for years afterward, theatres in New York closed their doors to her. She made her comeback in 1936 in Ivor Novello’s Fresh Fields, and went on to play the lead in Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. She returned to Toronto to live in 1953, marking her interest in Canadian theatre by donating a gold bracelet annually to the Earl Grey dramatic and musical competitions. She died in a nursing home in 1957, leaving behind no children. She was buried in the Anglin family plot at Mount Hope Cemetery.