{{Short description|British actress (1821–1904)}} {{About||Mrs Ann Gilbert|Ann Taylor (poet)|the people of a similar name|Anne Gilbert (disambiguation)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Use British English|date=March 2024}}
thumb|Mrs. Gilbert '''Anne Hartley Gilbert''' (October 21, 1821{{snd}}December 2, 1904) professionally billed as '''Mrs G. H. Gilbert''' was a British stage actress and dancer.
She was born '''Anne Jane Hartley''' at Rochdale, Lancashire, England. At fifteen she was a pupil at the ballet school connected with Her Majesty's Theatre, in the Haymarket, conducted by Paul Taglioni, and became a dancer. Her first conspicuous appearance on stage was made as a dancer, in the Norwich theatrical circuit, England, in 1845. In 1846 she married George H. Gilbert (d. 1866), a performer in the theatre company of which she was a member. Together they filled many engagements in English theatres, moving to America in 1849.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Gilbert, Ann|volume=12|page=7}}</ref>
Her first 15 years in America were spent in inland cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} Mrs Gilbert's first success in a speaking part was in 1857 as Wichavenda in John Brougham's ''Po-ca-hon-tas''.<ref name="EB1911"/>
One of the most brilliant and decisive successes of her professional life was gained at the Broadway Theatre<ref>The Broadway Theatre, located on Broadway near Broome St., operated under that name from 1864 until it was torn down in 1869. Brown, v.I, p. 523.</ref> where, on 5 August 1867, Mr and Mrs W. J. Florence presented Thomas William Robertson's comedy ''Caste'', for the first time in America.<ref>Brown, v.I, p. 518.</ref> On leaving the Broadway she went to Daly's Fifth Avenue Theatre on Twenty-fourth Street<ref>On the site of the subsequent Madison Square Theatre.</ref> with Robertson's comedy of ''Play''. The cast included E. L. Davenport, George Holland, William Davidge, J. L. Polk, Agnes Ethel, and George Clarke. Mrs Gilbert played Mrs Kinpeck.<ref>Brown, v.II, pp. 404-405.</ref> For many years she played opposite James Lewis as his "wife", or playing old women's parts, in which she had no equal.<ref name="EB1911"/>
After Mr Daly's death in 1899 she came under Charles Frohman's management and later became a member of Annie Russell's company. On 24 October 1904, at the New Lyceum Theatre, Mrs Gilbert made her first appearance as a star, being then in the eighty-second year of her age, in a play, by Clyde Fitch, called ''Granny'' with a young Marie Doro in one of her earliest roles. Granny was announced as her farewell role and she read a special poem composed by Fitch at the end of each performance. Her final New York appearance occurred at the Lyceum on 12 November 1904. She acted for fifty-four years (after five years as a dancer), and she remained in active employment to the last. Mrs Gilbert was uniquely respected and popular, both with audiences and behind the footlights. She performed last on 1 December, three days after ''Granny'' opened in Chicago,<ref>Mantle and Sherwood, p. 471.</ref> and died there on the following day from a brain haemorrhage.
==References== {{Reflist}} * {{NIE}}
==Bibliography== * [https://books.google.com/books?id=B0QjlkLi6-sC Brown, Thomas Allston, ''A History of the New York Stage from the Earliest Performances in 1732 to 1901, Vol. I'', New York: Dodd Mead & Co., 1903.] * [https://books.google.com/books?id=mDALAAAAIAAJ Brown, Thomas Allston, ''A History of the New York Stage from the Earliest Performances in 1732 to 1901, Vol. II'', New York: Dodd Mead & Co., 1903.] * [https://books.google.com/books?id=BZUVAAAAYAAJ Gilbert, Anne Hartley, ed. by Charlotte M. Martin, ''The Stage Reminiscences of Mrs. Gilbert'', New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1901.] * Mantle, Burns, and Garrison P. Sherwood, eds., ''The Best Plays of 1899-1909'', Philadelphia: The Blakiston Company, 1944. * {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KFk4AAAAIAAJ |first=William |last=Winter|author-link= William Winter (author)|title= The Wallet of Time|location= New York|publisher= Moffat, Yard and Company|year= 1913| pages=198–214}}
==External links== *{{Commons category-inline}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Anne Hartley}} Category:1821 births Category:1904 deaths Category:British stage actresses Category:19th-century British actresses Category:British female dancers Category:British expatriate actresses in the United States Category:Actresses from Rochdale Category:19th-century British people