Margaret Julia Mitchell
(June 2, 1832 – March 22, 1918) was an American actress, born in
New York City.
She made her speaking debut as Julia in ''The Soldier's Daughter'' at the
Chambers Street Theatre
Palmo's Opera House (afterword Burton's Theater and the Chambers Street Theatre) was a 19th-century theatre in Manhattan, New York that was located on Chambers Street between Broadway and Centre Street. It was one of the earliest opera houses i ...
in 1851. The parts in which she earned the greatest fame were
Jane Eyre, Mignon, Little Barefoot, and Fanchon the Cricket.
Mitchell was at the outset of the Civil War a Confederate sympathizer, but later moderated her views. She reportedly danced on an American flag while performing in Montgomery, Alabama, but later denied doing so. Her southern sympathies, charismatic personality and profession made her a warm, close friend of
John Wilkes Booth, but also earned her the admiration of Abraham Lincoln, who invited her to tea in the Executive Mansion and enjoyed her performances at
Ford's Theatre.
Family
She was married to Henry Thomas Paddock (1836–1896), a Cleveland haberdasher who then became her manager, in 1868, and they had (i) a daughter, Fanchon Maria Paddock (1869–1940), who married Harry Paddock Mashey (1878–1960), and (ii) a son, Harry Mitchell Paddock (1872–1938). Maggie and Henry divorced twenty years later; and – on October 12, 1889, in Boston – she married her co-star Charles Abbott (''stage name'' of Charles Abbott Mace; 1852–1927). She retired from the
stage to live in New York in 1892. Maggie, by way of one of her half-sisters – Sophia Dodson Lomax (1826–1894) and husband, Charles Alfred Mitchell (1817–1864) – was an aunt of
Julian Bugher Mitchell (1851–1926), a musical comedy director associated with
Weber & Fields
Joseph Morris Weber (11 August 1867 – 10 May 1942) was an American vaudeville performer who, along with Lew Fields, formed the comedy double-act of Weber and Fields.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family, Fields and Weber formed their partne ...
and
Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. (; March 21, 1867 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), inspired by the ''Folies Bergère'' of Paris. He also p ...
.
/ref>
Maggie's mother was Hannah Dodson (''maiden''; 1805–1869), born Knaresborough, Yorkshire. She married – on February 24, 1824, in Manchester – John Lomax (1803–1832), a native of Bolton, and emigrated to the US in 1830. In 1832, they were preparing to return to England to escape an epidemic of cholera, but Lomax died before they sailed. Hannah afterward married Maggie's father, Charles S. Mitchell (1805–1886), to whom Lomax's bookbinding business had been sold.Dodson Mitchell
Dodson Lomax Mitchell (1868-1939) was an American stage and screen actor and author. He was a nephew to actress Maggie Mitchell and cousin of theatre director Julian Mitchell.''Silent Film Necrology'', p.371 2nd Edition c.2001 by Eugene M. Vazzan ...
was still another relation.
Maggie's mother was a sister of Ann Dodson (''maiden''; 1788–1863), who, with her husband Thomas Greenhalge (1780–1859), was a grandmother of Frederic Thomas Greenhalge
Frederic Thomas Greenhalge (born Greenhalgh) (July 19, 1842 – March 5, 1896) was a British-born lawyer and politician in the United States state of Massachusetts. He served in the United States House of Representatives and was the state's 3 ...
(1842–1896), the 38th Governor of Massachusetts.
Death
After her death on March 22, 1918, in New York City, one of the wealthiest actresses in the world (primarily in Manhattan and Long Branch, New Jersey, real estate), Mitchell was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
References
External links
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Maggie Mitchell and her son Julian circa 1879
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Margaret
19th-century American actresses
American stage actresses
1832 births
1918 deaths
Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery
Actresses from New York City