Julia Marlowe

Lore & Background

Marlowe was born as Sarah Frances Frost on August 17, 1865, at Caldbeck, England. When she was four her family emigrated to the United States. She obtained the nickname 'Fanny' and began her career in the chorus of a juvenile opera company. She later played in W. S. Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea. Her training and initial success was due primarily to Ada Dow. She played her first Shakespearean roles as Balthazar in Romeo and Juliet and as Maria in Twelfth Night, billed as Fanny Brough. After voice training in New York, she changed her name to Julia Marlowe. On 20 October 1887, her mother hired the Bijou for a matinee of Ingomar the Barbarian, in which Marlowe received acclaim. In early 1891, she came down with typhoid fever while on tour in Philadelphia. She made her Broadway debut in 1895. With the money from her first Broadway success, she bought the townhouse known as River Mansion at 337 Riverside Drive. By 1897 she was famous enough to be featured in the Sears catalog. Her first husband was Broadway actor Robert Taber; their marriage lasted from 1894 to 1900. In 1901 and a subsequent 1904 revival, Marlowe starred as Mary Tudor in Paul Kester's adaptation of When Knighthood Was in Flower. In 1904, she began an extremely successful partnership with actor E. H. Sothern, beginning with appearances in Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Hamlet. They added The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night to their repertoire in 1905. In 1906, together with Sothern, she played the title character in Percy MacKaye's Jeanne d'Arc, Salome in Sudermann's John the Baptist and Rautendelein in The Sunken Bell. After a season in London, they returned to the U.S. and presented Shakespeare at affordable prices. They dissolved their company for a time, then reunited in Antony and Cleopatra at the end of 1909. In 1910, they toured in Macbeth. Marlowe and Sothern married in 1911. The couple made eleven phonograph recordings for the Victor company in 1920–1921. After more touring, Marlowe retired in 1924. After Sothern's death in 1933, she became somewhat of a recluse. She received honorary doctorates from George Washington University in 1923 and from Columbia University in 1943. Marlowe was highly engaged as a feminist. She died on November 12, 1950, in New York City, aged 85.

Reader's Guide

Julia Marlowe was an English-born American actress celebrated for her Shakespearean roles. She began as Fanny Brough, trained under Ada Dow, and made her breakthrough in Ingomar the Barbarian in 1887. Her Broadway debut came in 1895. She partnered with E. H. Sothern in 1904, touring Shakespeare and marrying him in 1911. She retired in 1924 and died in 1950.

Did You Know?

• She was born Sarah Frances Frost in Caldbeck, England, and emigrated to the U.S. at age four.
• Her father changed the family name to Brough after fleeing to America.
• She played Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore as a teenager.
• She survived a severe case of typhoid fever in 1891 that threatened her face.
• She and Sothern made eleven phonograph recordings for Victor in 1920–1921.