Maxine Elliott

Maxine Elliott, born Jessie Dermott on February 5, 1868, in Rockland, Maine, was an American actress and businesswoman whose Broadway career spanned from 1894 to 1920. The daughter of Thomas Dermot, a sea captain, and Adelaide Hill Dermot, she had a younger sister, actress Gertrude Elliott, and at least two brothers, one of whom was lost at sea in the Indian Ocean. Known in her early years by the nicknames Little Jessie and Dettie, she adopted the stage name Maxine Elliott in 1889 and made her first professional appearance in 1890 in The Middleman.

Elliott's early life included a difficult episode at age 15, when she became pregnant by a 25-year-old man, according to the biography My Aunt Maxine written by her niece Diana Forbes-Robertson. She either miscarried or lost the child. A subsequent relationship with a young man from a wealthy local family, Arthur Hall, ended when the relationship was exposed, prompting Elliott and her father to leave for South America. In 1895, she secured a significant professional opportunity when producer Augustin Daly hired her as a supporting actress for his leading player, Ada Rehan. She married her first husband before later divorcing him, and in 1898 she married comedian Nat C. Goodwin. The two performed together in productions including Nathan Hale and The Cowboy and the Lady, appearing both in the United States and abroad.

For a production of The Merchant of Venice, Elliott negotiated a contract worth $200 plus one-half of profits exceeding $20,000. Her status as a star was firmly established when Charles B. Dillingham's production of Her Own Way opened on Broadway on September 28, 1903, with Elliott receiving sole billing. When the production transferred to London in 1905, King Edward VII requested that she be presented to him, and the two were rumored to have had an intimate relationship. Goodwin divorced Elliott in 1908, the same year she returned to New York City and opened her own theater, the Maxine Elliott, located on 39th Street near Broadway. She served as both owner and manager, making her at that time the only woman in the United States operating her own theater. Her first production at the venue was The Chaperon. Among the other Broadway productions in which she appeared were Lord and Lady Algy, the musical The Chaperons, The Inferior Sex, The Voyage of Suzette, and Myself -- Bettina.

Around the time of her divorce from Goodwin, Elliott developed a friendship with financier J. P. Morgan. Some biographers of Morgan have claimed a sexual relationship existed between them, though no evidence substantiates those claims. Morgan did provide her with financial advice, which contributed to her accumulation of considerable wealth. In 1913, Elliott experimented with silent film acting, appearing in Slim Driscoll, Samaritan, When the West Was Young, and A Doll for the Baby before returning to Britain. That same year she began a relationship with New Zealand tennis player Anthony Wilding, who was more than fifteen years her junior. The Seattle Star reported him as her lover and indicated she had planned to marry him. Wilding was killed on May 9, 1915, at the Battle of Aubers Ridge during World War I. Following his death, Elliott moved to Belgium, where she volunteered her time and income to the cause of Belgian relief and was awarded the Belgian Order of the Crown. In 1917, she returned to the United States and signed with the newly formed Goldwyn Pictures, making the films Fighting Odds in 1917 and The Eternal Magdalene in 1919. A visit she made to Charlie Chaplin's studios in 1918, during which she and her entourage appeared before Chaplin's cameras, was preserved on film and has been included in documentary compilations about Chaplin.

Elliott's final stage appearance came in 1920 in Trimmed in Scarlet, at the age of 52, after which she retired from acting. Her niece Diana Forbes-Robertson noted that contemporary critics were divided over whether it was Elliott's beauty or her acting ability that had drawn audiences throughout her career. As a businesswoman, Elliott maintained homes in America, England, and France. She owned Hartsbourne Manor in England, where Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine were photographed on the grounds, an image that appears in Andrew Roberts' Churchill: Walking with Destiny. Her sister Gertrude Elliott, along with Gertrude's husband Johnston Forbes-Robertson and their children, lived in a wing of Hartsbourne Manor. In 1932, Elliott built the Château de l'Horizon near Juan-les-Pins, France, where she entertained guests including Churchill, Lloyd George, and Vincent Sheean. Elliott died on March 5, 1940, in Cannes, France, at the age of 72, and was interred at the Protestant Cemetery there. She became the subject of the biography My Aunt Maxine: The Story of Maxine Elliott, published circa 1964 by her niece Diana Forbes-Robertson. Her descendants include British actor Leo Woodall.