Sisters Fanny and Carlotta Addison
Performance Training by Actor Father Led to Successful Careers
Aug 31, 2009
Fanny Addison was born 1847 in Birmingham, England, and her sister Carlotta 1849 in Liverpool. Edward Phillips Addison was a noted comedian/actor in a variety of roles that included Sir Toby in Twelfth Night. Beginning when they were young, he trained his daughters for the professional stage. Fanny and Carlotta became members of the Liverpool Amphitheatre stock company in 1862.
Fanny Addison Career Start in Liverpool
At age fifteen, Fanny Addison officially began her career with performances at the Theatre Royal and Amphitheatre in Liverpool. She was soon acting in leading lady roles at area theatres. Her debut in London was at Her Majesty’s Theatre in November 1866. She received favorable notice in the press for her ‘carefully acted role’ in Edmond Falconer’s Oonagh. While she was well received, the play was quickly withdrawn.
From 1868 until 1870, Miss Addison performed roles in three of A. Halliday’s dramas at Drury Lane and the Olympic Theatre. The first was Martha, daughter of the miser Trapbois in King O’ Scots. The second was that of Queen Elizabeth in Amy Robsart.
Fanny was so effective as terrible Rosa Dartle in Little Em’ly that audience members hissed at her. During the off seasons, she played on several provincial stages. Her portrayal of the mad woman in Jane Eyre at the Park Theatre was described as a triumph of realism.
New York Theatre and Ethel Barrymore
She and her husband, actor Henry Mader Pitt, travelled in 1881 to New York. With the stock company of showman Tony Pastor, they performed at Wallack’s Theatre. In March 1898, while Fanny was on an out-of-town tour, Henry’s suicide left her to raise their three children.
Her long and successful career included ten plays on Broadway between 1901 and 1916. In 1902, she was a member of the strong supporting cast at New York’s Savoy Theatre. The star was Ethel Barrymore performing in two plays – Country Mouse and Carrots. Fanny Addison Pitt, as she was then billed, died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania January 7, 1937.
Carlotta Addison London Debut
Following a period when she played juvenile parts at the Liverpool Amphitheatre, Carlotta Addison worked at various provincial playhouses. She made her London debut on the stage of St. James’ Theatre in October 1866. Her role was that of Lady Frances Touchwood in a revival of The Belle’s Stratagem. In December 1866, she took on the role of Gianetta in W. S. Gilbert’s Dulcamara (or The Little Duck and the Great Quack). The successful play ran for 120 nights at St. James’ Theatre.
For her acting as Bella in the first performance of T. W. Robertson’s comedy, School, (1868), Carlotta received high praise. She continued to receive praise for her work, even though some plays were unsuccessful. A presentation of The Merchant of Venice was a box office failure, but a personal success for the actress.
Sweet Lavender at London Theatre
Carlotta Addison played the heroine, Ethel Grainger, in H. J. Byron’s Married in Haste at London’s Haymarket Theatre. Critics for the “Daily News” and the “Athenaeum” commented on the unexpected power that she presented in the role. Her appearances on the stage were sporadic after her 1876 marriage to Charles Albert La Trobe.
In 1888, she performed in A.W. Pinero’s Sweet Lavender at Terry’s Theatre. The three-act domestic drama was an unprecedented success that ran for 684 performances. In 1909, Carlotta’s husband died.
She performed at London’s Theatre Royal, Haymarket in The Blue Bird later that year. In 1910, she repeated her role of the Fairy in an English-made, two-reel silent film of the play. Carlotta Addison died June 15, 1914 in London.
Edward Phillips Addison, who died in 1874 at age 66, taught his daughters well. Each had a long and successful career on the stage.
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