Amelia Summerville

Amelia Summerville, born Amelia Shaw on October 15, 1862, in County Kildare, Ireland, was an Irish-born American stage and silent film actress whose Broadway career spanned four decades. As a child, she migrated with her family to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where she made her first stage appearance at age seven in a Toronto operetta.

Summerville's professional career took shape in 1884 when she took on her first leading role in the musical Adonis, originating the part of Rosetta, the Mountain Maid. Her Broadway work extended from 1885 to 1925, encompassing fourteen productions that included the musical Adonis as well as plays such as The Glass Slipper, The Gingham Dog, and Her Honor, the Mayor.

Alongside her stage work, Summerville pursued a career in silent film during the 1910s and 1920s. Her screen credits include Mrs. Dane's Defense (1918), How Could You, Caroline? (1918), Getting Mary Married (1919), The Probation Wife (1919), My Little Sister (1919), The Witness for the Defense (1919), April Folly (1920), Romance (1920), Romola (1924), and The Great Deception (1926).

Summerville also established herself as a published author. In 1916 she released Why Be Fat?: Rules for Weight-Reduction and the Preservation of Youth and Health, a book connected to her personal interest in dieting, in which she claimed to have reduced her weight from 249 pounds to 149 pounds over three months. She published a second work, The Speaking Voice, in 1927. Her public profile extended into politics as well; in 1920 she was named chairman of the New York Women's State Democratic Committee.

Summerville died on January 21, 1934, from injuries sustained after a fall on ice on January 3 of that year.