Bijou Heron

Bijou Heron, born Helene Wallace Stoepel on September 1, 1863, in New York City, was an American stage actress who built her reputation first as a celebrated child performer before establishing herself as a leading figure in the nineteenth-century American theater. She died on March 18, 1937, at her home in New York City and was interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Heron was the daughter of Robert Stoepel, a German composer and orchestra conductor, and Matilda Heron, an Irish-American actress. Her introduction to the stage came at the age of six, when she appeared in a production of Medea at the Bowery Theater, in which her mother performed the title role. In 1873, she joined the Augustin Daly company at the Fifth Avenue Theatre and adopted the professional name Bijou Heron. Her first leading role with that company came in Monsieur Alphonse, a dramatic adaptation drawn from a work by Alexandre Dumas. The following season brought her critical recognition for her portrayal of Oliver in Oliver Twist, a production that also featured Fanny Davenport, Charles Fisher, and James Lewis.

In 1876, Heron joined the A. M. Palmer Company at the Union Square Theatre, where she appeared in Miss Multon alongside Clara Morris and took on the role of Smike in an adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby. The company toured for three months in San Francisco, and upon her return to New York, Heron stepped into the role vacated by Sara Jewett in A Celebrated Case, which starred Charles Coghlan. She subsequently appeared with Coghlan again in The School for Scandal, a production that also included John Parcelle, Harry Crisp, and Ann Gilbert.

Following the death of her mother in 1877, Heron relocated to England, where she performed in several productions at the Court Theatre in London alongside Maurice Barrymore and Arthur Cecil. She also toured England with the actor and dramatist Dion Boucicault before returning to New York and rejoining Daly's company. Back in the United States, she played in Odette opposite Henry Miller, an actor and producer whom she married on February 1, 1883, in New York. The couple subsequently performed and toured with C. W. Couldock in Hazel Kirke under the management of Daniel Frohman, and they later joined the Clara Morris company together.

Heron's Broadway career included her 1886 appearance in Miss Multon. She and Henry Miller had three children: Gilbert Heron Miller, who became a theatrical producer; John Heron Miller, known also as Henry Miller, Jr., who worked as an actor and director; and Agnes Heron Miller, an actress who became the first wife of entertainer Tim McCoy.