- Born
- Died
- Birth nameBeatrice Rose Stella Tanner
- Nickname
- Mrs. Pat
- Mrs. Patrick Campbell was born on February 9, 1865 in Kensington, London, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Crime and Punishment (1935), Riptide (1934) and One More River (1934). She was married to George Cornwallis-West and Patrick Campbell. She died on April 9, 1940 in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.
- SpousesGeorge Cornwallis-West(April 6, 1914 - April 9, 1940) (her death)Patrick Campbell(1884 - 1900) (his death, 2 children)
- Campbell's "One More River" co-star, Jane Wyatt, said about her eating meals with her dog, "... she always wore gloves. Moonbeam would sit beside her, and she would feed him with the same fork. I loved being with her. She was witty and funny. I had a good time with her, and I bet she had a good time with us.
- The original Eliza Doolittle in "Pygmalion" (1914), a part written especially for her by George Bernard Shaw. She was 49 when she played the role. Shaw refused her request to play in the film adaptation two decades later, telling her she was too old.
- The onset of WWII caught her in the French Pyrenees, ill and destitute. She could not return to England because quarantine laws would have imprisoned her Pekinese, Moonbeam. Her nurse cabled Sara and Gerald Murphy for funds, which were sent but arrived too late and were used to bury Mrs. Campbell in the Cimetiere Urbain at Pau.
- She was described by one American producer as a temperamental actress whose "grand sense of humor and outstanding charm made you laugh instead of strangle her".
- Her son was killed in WWI, her daughter married an American and moved to Chicago.
- It doesn't matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don't do it in the street and frighten the horses.
- A good woman is a dramatic impossibility.
- [on playing the Palace Theater in New York] It was demanding - but very rewarding. I learned so much watching the other artists. I found out that you have to be awfully good in vaudeville. It is a real taskmaster because there are so many acts in it, like slack-wire artists, for instance, that require absolute perfection.
- [on Josef von Sternberg] I grasped how foolish I had been to imagine for one moment that there was going to be any intelligent pleasure in working even with this man. He wanted only obedience and silence to get his own effects. Anything in my face and figure that wasn't ugly enough, he made into a camera distortion. The director and the cameraman together did the 'acting' of my short role, helped, I suppose, by the cutting room. When I saw the rushes, I knew beyond question that no director asks for imagination, gifts, or experience from the artist. I had myself wished to put the necessary horror and ugliness into my face, voice, and movements, but instead it was achieved through the exaggeration of every shadow on my face, and even of the pores of my skin.
- The Dancers (1930) - $8,000
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