Edith Taliaferro

Laura Edith Taliaferro was born on December 21, 1891, in Manhattan, to Anna Barriscale Taliaferro and Robert A. Taliaferro. Her paternal family traced its roots to England, with remote Italian ancestry dating to the 1500s, and counted among the Virginia settler families of the 17th century. Though the database lists Richmond, Virginia as her place of origin, records indicate she was born in Manhattan. Her older sister, Mabel Taliaferro, also pursued a career as a stage actress, and her cousin Bessie Barriscale became a film actress. Taliaferro went on to build a Broadway career spanning from 1900 to 1935, working across stage, silent film, vaudeville, and radio.

Her professional stage work began in August 1895, when she stepped in for her ailing sister Mabel in Katie Emmett's Company. Having watched Mabel perform repeatedly, she already knew the songs and lines by heart. That same year, in October 1895, she joined James A. Herne's touring company for Shore Acres, with reports suggesting she was cast partly because Mabel was considered too old for the role. By 1904, Taliaferro had accumulated six to eight juvenile roles and was recognized as the youngest Shakespearean actress then performing. In May of that year, she portrayed Puck in a Ben Greet production of A Midsummer Night's Dream before an audience at Princeton University, after which faculty members presented her with a Princeton flag and pin. That same month, newspapers reported she had been signed to a personal contract by George C. Tyler of Liebler and Company at a salary of one hundred dollars per week, and she also contracted to appear with Ezra Kendall the following season.

Taliaferro made her Broadway debut in 1900 in The Sunken Bell. Among her early New York credits was an appearance alongside Clara Bloodgood in The Girl with the Green Eyes. In 1907, when her sister Mabel starred in Polly of the Circus, produced by Frederic Thompson and written by Margaret Mayo, Edith periodically assumed the lead role of the young circus rider during the production's run. She is most closely associated with the 1910 stage production of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, performed at the Republic Theater at 209 West 42nd Street, in which she originated the role of Rebecca. Additional Broadway credits include Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, Young Wisdom in 1914, Tipping the Winner in 1914, and Mother Carey's Chickens in 1917.

Taliaferro made her silent film debut in Young Romance in 1915, followed by The Conquest of Canaan in 1916 and Who's Your Brother? in 1919, the entirety of her film work. She returned to Broadway in 1919 with Please Get Married and subsequently appeared in Kissing Time in 1920 and A Love Scandal in 1923. In 1931 she performed the role of Amanda Prynne in a touring company production of Private Lives. Beyond Broadway, she appeared in vaudeville at the Palace Theater in New York City, performed in London and Australia with the Toronto Theatre Guild, and worked extensively in summer theaters and on radio. Her stage career concluded in the late 1930s after she lost her vision.

In her personal life, Taliaferro married actor Earle Browne on June 4, 1912, in York, Ontario, while he was appearing in A Night Off at the Royal Alexandria Theatre in Toronto; the marriage became public knowledge by May 1913. Her second husband was actor House B. Jameson, whom she married around 1928. Jameson was later known for playing Sam "Papa" Aldrich on the radio and television series The Aldrich Family. The couple had no children and remained married until Taliaferro's death. She died on March 2, 1958, at her home in Newtown, Connecticut, at the age of 63.