Marlowe, Julia

(1866-1950)

   Born Sarah Frances Frost in Upton Caldbeck, Cumberland, England, she was brought to the United States when she was four. The Frost family lived in a suburb of Kansas City in 1872. Her acting career began after the family moved to Cincinnati. From 1880 to 1884, she toured with juvenile companies, performing under the name Fanny Brough. After taking three years to study under actress Ada Dow, she returned to the stage as a star, using the name Julia Marlowe. With Dow taking the financial risk, Marlowe made her debut as Parthenia in Ingomar.

   In 1887, Marlowe first appeared in her great Shakespearean roles, Juliet and Viola, followed by Rosalind in 1889. She married her leading man Robert Taber in 1894 and for several seasons was billed as Mrs. Taber; they divorced in 1900. In the early years of the twentieth century, Marlowe was one of the top names in New York and on the road, for she projected an appealing wholesomeness, and she had a distinctive beauty with her expressive eyes and cleft chin. She worked hard to develop her vocal quality and used her plaintive tones intelligently.

   In 1904, Charles Frohman teamed Marlowe with E. H. Soth-ern as costars in Romeo and Juliet, and the symbiosis was magical. Together, Sothern and Marlowe restored to the American stage the Shakespearean repertoire, which had fallen into neglect. They played Beatrice and Benedick, Ophelia and Hamlet, Katharine and Petruchio, Portia and Shylock, Viola and Malvolio in lushly mounted productions. They married, toured to London, retired for a time, entertained the troops during World War I, and always advocated for the art of the theatre in the life of a nation.