Cushman, Charlotte (Saunders)

Charlotte Cushman as Meg Merrilies in Guy Mannering.

(credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born July 23, 1816, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died Feb. 18, 1876, Boston) U.S. actress. She made her opera debut in Boston at age 19, but her singing voice soon failed and she turned to acting. In 1837 she first played her most popular role, Meg Merrilies in Guy Mannering, and she became the first native-born U.S. theatre star. From 1842 she managed a theatre in Philadelphia, where she starred with William Macready in Macbeth. In 1854–55 she toured England to great acclaim. Noted for her powerful emotional reach, she portrayed Lady Macbeth and male roles such as Romeo and Hamlet.

Cushman, Charlotte (Saunders) (1816–76) stage actress; born in Boston, Mass. One of the first major native-born American actresses, she began as an opera singer but turned to acting after she overstrained her voice; the vocal damage left her with a husky, veiled quality that she used to great advantage, often playing male roles. Her earliest triumph was as Lady Macbeth in 1836. By 1842 she was managing as well as starring at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. Earnest and ambitious, she went off to England on her own and in 1845 instantly became the toast of the London stage, although some found her style exaggerated. She acquired a large range of classic roles—including Romeo and Hamlet—but her most popular role was as Meg Merrilies in an adaptation of Scott's Guy Mannering. Until 1870, she lived in England or Rome, only appearing in America on tour; returning to the U.S.A., she performed occasionally, climaxing with a triumphal farewell tour in 1874–75.