Gertrude Elliott Explained

Gertrude Elliott
Birth Name:	May Gertrude Dermott
Birth Date:	December 14, 1874
Birth Place:	Rockland, Maine, U.S.
Nationality:	American
Other Names:	Lady Forbes-Robertson
Occupation:	Actor
Spouse:	his death
Children:	4, including Maxine (Blossom) Miles, Diana Forbes-Robertson, and Jean Forbes-Robertson
Relatives:	Joanna Van Gyseghem (granddaughter)

Gertrude Elliott (December 14, 1874 – December 24, 1950), later Lady Forbes-Robertson, was an American stage actress, part of an extended family of theatre professionals including her husband, Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, and her elder sister, Maxine Elliott. She was President of the Actresses' Franchise League in the UK.

Early life

May Gertrude Dermott was born in Rockland, Maine.^[1]

Career

Elliott's career on stage began in 1894, with a role in Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, in a company that was touring New York state.^[2] Both Elliotts joined a company in San Francisco that toured Australia in 1896. The company was run by Nat C. Goodwin, an actor who soon married Maxine Elliott. Their company went to London in 1899, and the next year Elliott was hired into the company of Johnston Forbes-Robertson; Elliott and Forbes-Robertson married at the end of 1900, and continued to work together predominantly in Shakespearean works for much of their careers.^[3]

Away from the stage, Elliott starred with her husband in a silent film version of Hamlet in 1913, directed by their friend J. H. Ryley. She also appeared in a 1917 silent film, Masks and Faces. Elliott was a co-founder and president of the Actresses' Franchise League.^[4] During World War I she managed the "Shakespeare Hut" in Bloomsbury, a project of the YMCA for entertaining and raising morale among war workers.^[5] In 1923, New Zealand gave Elliott an award for her work for ANZAC troops during the war.^[6]

Personal life

Elliott married English actor Johnston Forbes-Robertson in 1900. They had four daughters, including aircraft designer Maxine (Blossom) Miles, writer Diana Forbes-Robertson, and actress Jean Forbes-Robertson. Johnston was knighted in 1913, making Elliott "Lady Forbes-Robertson" from that time.^[7] She was widowed when her husband died in 1937, and Elliott died in 1950, aged 76 years. Her grandchildren include actress Joanna Van Gyseghem.^[8]

There is a plaque marking the birthplace of the Elliott sisters in the Trackside Station in Rockland, Maine.^[9]

External links

• The National Portrait Gallery has 21 portraits of Gertrude Elliott, most of them from various theatrical roles.
  • • The Elliott Sisters of Rockland (Gem Productions 2012), a short film about Maxine and Gertrude Elliott, made for Maine Community TV

Notes and References

1. James Fisher, Felicia Hardison Londré, The A to Z of American Theatre: Modernism (Scarecrow Press 2009): p. 151;
2. Martin Banham, The Cambridge Guide to Theatre (Cambridge University Press 1995): 328.
3. Clara M. Behringer, "Gertrude Elliott", in Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 3 (Harvard University Press 1971): 570-572.
4. Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928 (Routledge 2003): 4.
5. Ailsa Grant Ferguson, "Lady Forbes-Robertson's War Work: Gertrude Elliott and the Shakespeare Hut Performances, 1916-1919" in Gordon McMullan, Lena Cowen Orlin, Virginia Mason Vaughan, eds., Women Making Shakespeare: Text, Reception and Performance (A&C Black 2013).
6. Ailsa Grant Ferguson, "Entertaining the Anzacs: Performances for Australian and New Zealand Troops on Leave in London, 1916–1919" in Andrew Maunder, ed., British Theatre and the Great War, 1914 - 1919: New Perspectives (Springer 2015).
7. Alan Dale, "An American Actress of Title" The Cosmopolitan (January 1914): 262-264.
8. Brian McFarlane, Anthony Slide, eds., The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth Edition (Oxford University Press 2014): 781-782.
9. http://maineanencyclopedia.com/eliott-maxine/ "Maxine Elliott"