Olga Nethersole

Olga Isabella Nethersole, CBE, RRC (18 January 1866 – 9 January 1951) was an English actress, theatre producer, and wartime nurse and health educator born in London, of Spanish descent on her mother's side. Her stepfather was Henry Nethersole, a solicitor. She made her stage debut at the Theatre Royal, Brighton in 1887, and by 1888 was performing significant roles in London, initially under Rutland Barrington and John Hare at the Garrick Theatre.

Nethersole's career took her to Australia and the United States, where she performed leading parts in modern plays. Her Broadway appearances spanned from 1894 to 1910 and included productions such as Carmen, Sapho, Mary Magdalene, The Writing on the Wall, and Adrienne Lecouveur. One of her most notorious roles was the title character in Clyde Fitch's Sapho, in which she and her costar Hamilton Revelle were arrested on charges of violating public decency; she was subsequently acquitted. She returned to America in 1906 to appear again in Carmen, a role in which her emotionally powerful acting made a considerable impression.

In 1904, Nethersole took on the lead role in La seconde madame Tanqueray at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in Paris. She subsequently performed at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt in a range of productions including Magda, Sapho, Adrienne Lecouvreur, Camille (an adaptation of La Dame aux Camélias by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé), and The Spanish Gipsy, an adaptation of Carmen de Mérimée, in 1907. That same year she performed an English version of Edmond Rostand's La Samaritaine in London, having spent time each summer as a guest at Rostand's house in Cambo les Bains. At a conference at the Théâtre de l'Athénée on 17 November 1908, speaker Robert Eude credited Nethersole with inventing the soul kiss, described as an especially long kiss. Her Broadway credits from 1908 included The Enigma, I Pagliacci, and a revival of Sapho, all running from 8 February to 1 March 1908. The Writing on the Wall followed in April and May of 1909, and Mary Magdalene ran in December 1910.

Nethersole also inspired the character of "Miss Nethersoll," an American dancer, in the 1908 French novel La Danseuse nue et la Dame a la licorne by Rachel Gaston-Charles. Between 1885 and 1890, her portrait was painted in Omaha, Nebraska by artist Herbert A. Collins. Her brother, Louis F. Nethersole, worked as a theatrical manager, producer, and press agent, and was at one time married to American actress and singer Sadie Martinot.

During the First World War, Nethersole served as a nurse in London and afterward founded the People's League of Health, work for which she was awarded the Royal Red Cross in 1920. She continued to combine theatrical and health-related activities throughout the remainder of her life and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1936. Nethersole died on 9 January 1951 in Bournemouth, England, at the age of 84.