{{Short description|American actress}} {{Infobox person | name = Beatrice Cameron | image = Beatrice Cameron.jpg | caption = | birth_name = Susan Hegeman | birth_date = 1868 | birth_place = Troy, New York, United States | death_date = {{Death date and given age|1940|7|12|72}} | death_place = New London, Connecticut, United States | spouse = Richard Mansfield (1892–1907) | children = | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1886–1898 }} '''Beatrice Cameron''' (born Susan Hegeman, 1868 – July 12, 1940) was an American stage actress. She was the leading lady for the company of actor Richard Mansfield, whom she married in 1892. She retired from acting in 1898.
==Career== Cameron's first acting experience was in ''The Midnight Marriage'' with Cora Urquhart Brown-Potter at the Madison Square Theatre on Broadway. She was a spectator at a rehearsal when a member of the cast in a minor role fell ill. She volunteered to take over the part, learning both lines and dance steps by the following evening.<ref>{{cite news |title=Our Gallery of Players: LVII. Miss Beatrice Cameron |work=The Illustrated American |date=July 30, 1892 |volume=11 |issue=128 |page=509 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NHRNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA509}}</ref> After performing with the company of Robert B. Mantell, in 1886 she joined the company of Richard Mansfield. Her first role with the company was in the comedy ''Prince Karl''. In 1887 she took the part of Agnes Carew in the Broadway production of ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'', a role that she would reprise in London and many other cities.<ref name="Winter357">{{cite book |title=The Life and Art of Richard Mansfield |first=William |last=Winter |author-link=William Winter (author) |year=1910 |publisher=Moffat, Yard and Company |location=New York |volume=1 |oclc=1513656 |pages=357–360}}</ref> While in London, she first appeared in ''Lesbia'' and ''Richard III''. Upon returning to the United States, she became the first actress to portray Nora in ''A Doll's House'' on Broadway, when Henrik Ibsen's controversial play opened at Palmer's Theatre in December 1889.<ref name="Dayobit">{{cite news |title=Mrs. Richard Mansfield, 72, Famed Actress, Passes Away; Formerly Active in Relief Work |work=The New London Evening Day |date=July 13, 1940 |page=6 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gKctAAAAIBAJ&sjid=enEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1071%2C986457}}</ref> Cameron performed in 13 other plays with Mansfield's company.<ref name="Winter357" />
She officially retired from acting on February 12, 1898, following a performance at the Grand Opera House in Chicago. She did appear once post-retirement, in a final performance as Raina in George Bernard Shaw's play ''Arms and the Man'', at the Garden Theatre on January 8, 1900.<ref name="Winter357" />
==Personal life== [[File:Card Number 252, Beatrice Cameron, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-7) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes MET DP840373.jpg|alt=Portrait of woman wearing a hat|thumb|upright|Beatrice Cameron, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-7) issued by Duke Sons & Co., 1880s, Metropolitan Museum of Art]] Cameron was born Susan Hegeman in Troy, New York in 1868. She was the daughter of William H. and Esther Byram Hegeman. She married Mansfield on September 15, 1892.<ref name="Winter154">{{cite book |title=The Life and Art of Richard Mansfield |first=William |last=Winter |author-link=William Winter (author) |year=1910 |publisher=Moffat, Yard and Company |location=New York |volume=1 |oclc=1513656 |pages=154–155}}</ref> She continued to perform with him in their touring company. While traveling to a show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in February 1895, Cameron and a maid were injured when an out of control passenger coach crashed into their private rail car. The evening's performance was cancelled, but both women escaped with only minor injuries.<ref>{{cite news |title=Beatrice Cameron Injured |work=The New York Times |date=February 19, 1895 |volume=44 |issue=13,571 |page=3 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1895/02/19/archives/beatrice-cameron-injured-richard-mansfields-private-car-wrecked-by.html}}</ref>
Their only child, George Gibbs Mansfield, was born on August 8, 1898.<ref name="Winter154" /> Gibbs Mansfield would later adopt his father's first name when he followed him into acting. The elder Richard Mansfield died on August 30, 1907. When the United States entered World War I, their son enlisted in the army. He died of meningitis on April 3, 1918, while training with the Signal Corps in San Antonio, Texas.<ref>{{cite news |title=Richard Mansfield Dies in Texas Camp |work=The New York Times |date=April 5, 1918 |page=15 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1918/04/05/archives/richard-mansfield-dies-in-texas-camp-son-of-the-actor-a-victim-of.html}}</ref>
In 1920, Cameron engaged in relief work for victims of the Armenian genocide in Urfa, Turkey, when the American humanitarian compounds housing Armenian orphans came under siege. There she came under Turkish fire. Soon afterwards, she did relief work with the refugees in Jerusalem. She recited Shakespeare to the suffering and hungry refugees.<ref>"Shakespeare in Lieu of Stew", ''New Near East'', November 1920, pp. 23–24.</ref> She subsequently participated in relief efforts in Syria and Czechoslovakia, supported women's suffrage and was active in the League of Women Voters.<ref name="Dayobit" />
Cameron donated her late husband's costumes to the Smithsonian Institution and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. She donated to Episcopal churches, including the Church of the Transfiguration in New York, in his honor. In 1925 she organized a theater company, the Richard Mansfield Players, and in 1932 she staged a revival of ''Arms and the Man'' in his memory. She lived in their home in New London, Connecticut until her own death due to coronary thrombosis on July 12, 1940.<ref name="Dayobit" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Beatrice Cameron}} *{{IBDB name}} *[http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=501367 Beatrice Cameron] at NYPL Digital Gallery *[https://www.sanliurfa.bel.tr/files/1/bsb_sonra/8_milli_mucadele.pdf Şanlıurfa Mücadele Albümü] (''Sanliurfa Struggle Album'') – Includes photos of Cameron visiting Şanlıurfa Province in Turkey (see page 89) *[https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/MVTN/id/6264/rec/58 Mrs. Mansfield] recorded January 5, 1929 reciting a poem and speaking on the Fox Movietone cameras(Univ of South Carolina)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Beatrice}} Category:1868 births Category:1940 deaths Category:19th-century American actresses Category:American stage actresses Category:Actresses from Troy, New York