Bertha Belmore

Bertha Belmore (22 December 1882 – 14 December 1953) was an English stage and film actress born Bertha Cousins in Manchester. She entered the profession as a child, making her professional debut at age eight in a pantomime production of Robinson Crusoe at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester in 1890. Her early career encompassed British music halls and vaudeville entertainment across Continental Europe, where she performed with several variety acts including the Tiller Girls, Harwood's "The Six Sunbeams," and Harwood's "Juveniles." She also appeared regularly as Principal Boy in pantomimes at British provincial theatres. As a young adult she spent seven years as one of the Belmore Sisters, a variety act organized by the Belmore family of actors that showcased her comedic and singing abilities. Her marriage to actor Herbert "Bertie" Belmore brought her into that family of British performers, and she subsequently performed under the name Bertha Belmore.

In 1911 Belmore traveled to the United States as a member of Ben Greet's Pastoral Players, touring the east coast in Shakespearean productions, with one stop at the White House. The following year she made her Broadway debut at the Lyric Theatre, playing Portia in Julius Caesar alongside William Faversham as Marc Antony and Fuller Mellish in the title role. In 1919 she created the role of Mrs. Tom Collins in the world premiere of Harry L. Cort and George E. Stoddard's musical Just A Minute at the Academy of Music in Baltimore, produced by John Cort. She debuted in London's West End in 1920 at the Empire Theatre, playing Helen Cheston in Harry Tierney's Irene, a production that ran for 399 performances. She then appeared in the 1921 musical Angel Face, staged by George Lederer for performances in Los Angeles and San Francisco, before returning to Broadway in 1923 in Thompson Buchanan's The Sporting Thing To Do at the Ritz Theatre.

Belmore remained active on Broadway throughout the 1920s and 1930s, appearing as Henriette Deschamps in Guy Bolton's Grounds For Divorce in 1924–1925 and in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925 alongside W. C. Fields and Will Rogers. By 1924 she and Herbert had settled in Beechhurst, Long Island. In 1927 the couple toured Australia in leading roles in productions by J. C. Williamson, and among the parts she played there was Ethel in Norma Mitchell and Russell Medcraft's Cradle Snatchers, a role she repeated at the Baltimore Auditorium in 1928 and the Coliseum Theatre in 1931. She returned to Australia in 1929 to star as Parthy Ann Hawks in the Australian premiere of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat, a role she reprised in the 1932 Broadway revival at the Casino Theatre. Her other Broadway credits from this period include Lady Elliot in Terence De Marney and Percy Robinson's The Whispering Gallery (1929), Caustica in Julian F. Thompson's The Warrior's Husband (1932) at the Forrest Theatre, and Minnie Fortesque in Arthur Schwartz's Virginia (1937) at the Center Theatre.

From 1940 onward Belmore continued to accumulate significant Broadway credits. She played Mrs. McKee in Elmer Harris's Johnny Belinda from 1940 to 1941, followed by Mrs. Good in Lesley Storm's Heart of a City (1942) and Pomposia in the original Broadway production of Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers's By Jupiter at the Shubert Theatre in 1942–1943. She played Lollie Adams in Gypsy Rose Lee's comedy The Naked Genius in 1943 and Frau Tina Hugenhaugen in Fritz Kreisler's Rhapsody in 1944. In 1946 she portrayed the nurse in the American premiere of Jean Anouilh's Antigone at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. She appeared as Dame Maud Gosport in Terence Rattigan's Harlequinade in 1949 and starred as Ftatateeta in the 1949–1950 revival of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. Her final Broadway appearance came in 1951–1952, when she played Sidonie in the original production of Anita Loos's Gigi alongside Audrey Hepburn.

Belmore maintained a parallel career in the United Kingdom throughout much of this period. Her British stage appearances included Frau Lucher in Robert E. Sherwood's Reunion in Vienna at the Lyric Theatre, London in 1934; Mrs. Trellis in Guy Bolton's Give Me A Ring and Miss Pink in R. P. Weston's Please Teacher!, both at the London Hippodrome in 1935; Emmeline Ray in Big Business and Mrs. Simmons in Geoffrey Kerr's Oh! You Letty at the Palace Theatre, London in 1937–1938; Nurse McClintock in Guy Bolton's Nap Hand at the Aldwych Theatre in 1940; Nurse Ironside in R. F. Delderfield's Peace Comes To Peckham at the Princes Theatre, London in 1947; and Emily Bompard in Austin Melford's Blue For A Boy at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1950. She was also active as a character actress in British cinema from 1933 to 1940, appearing mainly in comedies. In the final years of her career she made several appearances on American television from 1948 to 1953, with credits including The Philco Television Playhouse, The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, The Web, Martin Kane, Studio One in Hollywood, and The Goldbergs.

Belmore died on 14 December 1953 at the age of 70 from injuries sustained in a fall at a hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Her husband, Herbert Belmore, had died the previous year. Her Broadway career spanned from 1923 to 1951, encompassing comedic character roles, original cast productions, and notable dramatic work across more than four decades.