Eleanor Elise Robson Belmont (1879–1979) was an English-born American actress, writer, and philanthropist. Before marriage, as Eleanor Robson, she was a celebrated star, captivating audiences for 13 years as a leading lady in American theater. She later devoted herself to charitable and artistic causes.
Born in Wigan, Lancashire, she moved to the U.S. as a child and pursued theater at 17 in San Francisco, performing in stock companies across cities from Honolulu to Milwaukee. In 1899, she joined the summer stock company at the Elitch Theatre, one of the earliest of its kind. She débuted in New York in 1900 as Bonita in Augustus Thomas’s Arizona, quickly rising to Broadway prominence.
Over the next decade, she starred in In a Balcony (1900,) Romeo and Juliet (1903) opposite Kyrle Bellew, Merely Mary Ann (1903–04, 1907,) She Stoops to Conquer (1905,) Nurse Marjorie (1906,) and Salomy Jane (1907.) George Bernard Shaw wrote Major Barbara for her, but contractual issues prevented her from taking the role. Her career solidified her as one of Broadway’s great performers.
In 1910, she married August Belmont Jr. and retired from acting, shifting to philanthropy and arts advocacy. She became the first woman on the Metropolitan Opera Association’s board and founded the Metropolitan Opera Guild (1935,) which played a crucial role in supporting opera in America.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Eleanor Robson Belmont
A woman in agony of spirit might turn her head just so; a man in deep humiliation probably would wring his hands in such a way. From straws like these, drawn from completely different sources, the fabric of a character may be built.
—Eleanor Robson Belmont
Topics: Actors, Acting
An actor rides in a bus or railroad train; he sees a movement and applies it to a new role. The whole garment in which the actor hides himself is made of small externals of observation fitted to his conception of a role.
—Eleanor Robson Belmont
Topics: Acting, Actors
In retrospect, the past seems not one existence with a continuous flow of years and events that follow each other in logical sequence, but a life periodically dividing into entirely separate compartments. Change of surroundings, interests, pursuits, has made it seem actually more like different incarnations.
—Eleanor Robson Belmont
Topics: Reflection
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