Mitchell, Maggie

▪ American actress

in full  Margaret Julia Mitchell 

born June 14, 1832, New York, N.Y., U.S.

died March 22, 1918, New York City

 American actress who, with her performance in a trademark gamine role, created a public sensation—and essentially an entire career.

      Mitchell left school at age 12 to follow her older half-sisters onto the stage, where she filled a variety of child's walk-on and silent roles. She made her debut in a speaking role in June 1851 in a benefit performance of The Soldier's Daughter. In 1852 she was with the stock company at the Bowery Theatre, where she played mainly boys' parts, notably in Oliver Twist, and danced between acts. She then toured under various managements for several years.

      Mitchell performed in a variety of ephemeral pieces with such titles as A Rough Diamond, The Loan of a Lover, A Middy Ashore, The Pet of the Petticoats, The Wild Irish Girl, and Our Maggie, a play written for her. A specialty of hers was a bill consisting of acts from The Lady of Lyons, Richard III, and Douglas, in each of which she played a young hero's role. That particular bill set off a “Maggie Mitchell craze” among the young men of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1853.

      In January 1861, at De Bar's St. Charles Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana, Mitchell first appeared in a new piece, Fanchon, the Cricket, a secondhand adaptation by August Waldauer from George Sand's story “La Petite Fadette.” Her characterization of the sprite of a heroine, which included a graceful and entrancing shadow dance, was an immediate sensation. Her Southern tour was cut short by the Civil War, and Mitchell took Fanchon to Boston and New York, where it was equally successful. Fanchon remained her mainstay for 30 years. Audiences never tired of it—her admirers included the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Ralph Waldo Emerson—and even in her 50s Mitchell retained the winsome, elfin appeal that made her so successful. She also early obtained the rights to Fanchon, which enabled her to amass a considerable estate. She occasionally played other roles, as in Jane Eyre, The Lady of Lyons, Ingomar, and The Pearl of Savoy. After a final performance in The Little Maverick in Chicago in 1892, she retired from the stage.

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