Annie Pixley

Annie Pixley, born Annie Shea in Brooklyn around 1848, was an American stage actress whose career spanned multiple continents. After her father's death, her family relocated to San Francisco, where her mother remarried a California rancher; Annie adopted her stepfather's surname, Pixley.

Pixley launched her performing career in comic opera and built a reputation as a stage actress in the United States before traveling to Australia in 1876, where she continued performing in the same genre. Her American stage work included the role of the widow in The Danites and the character Gretchen in Rip Van Winkle.

Her Broadway career brought her to the stage in 1887, when she both produced and performed in The Deacon's Daughter, portraying the character Ruth Homewebb. Her Broadway credits also include The Son-Daughter.

Pixley was married to Robert Fulford. In 1886, the couple's twelve-year-old son, Tommy, died, a loss that visibly affected her stage presence. She died on November 8, 1893, in London, England, where she had been visiting family, from brain fever. Her ashes, along with those of her husband and son, are interred in a mausoleum at Woodland Cemetery in London, Ontario, Canada.