{{short description|American actress}} {{Infobox person |image = Rose Eytinge 001.jpg |birth_date = {{birth date|1835|11|21}} |birth_place =Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |death_date = {{death date and age|1911|12|20|1835|11|21}} |death_place = Amityville, New York |occupation = Stage actress |spouse = David Barnes (1855-1862?) divorced<br>George H. Butler (1869-1872) divorced<br>Cyril Searle (1880-1884) separated }}
'''Rose Eytinge''' (November 21, 1835 – December 20, 1911) was a Jewish American actress and author. She is thought to be the first American actress to earn a three figure salary.<ref name=jewish>{{cite book |last=Hyman |first=Paula |title=Jewish Women in America: A-L |year=1997 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=New York |isbn=0415919347 |pages=387–388}}</ref><ref>[http://asp6new.alexanderstreet.com/atho/atho.detail.people.aspx?personcode=per0044405 Rose Eytinge: ''North American Theatre Online'']</ref>
==Biography==
thumb|upright=1.2|1877 theatre poster of Rose Eytinge Eytinge was born November 21, 1835<ref name=Rose>{{cite news |title=Rose Eytinge is Dead at 76|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1911-12-21/ed-1/seq-9/|work=The New York Sun |date=December 21, 1911|page=9}}</ref> in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.<ref name= jewish /><ref name=players>{{cite book |last=Clapp |first=John B. |title=Players of the Present |url=https://archive.org/details/playerspresent00edgegoog |accessdate=January 19, 2013 |year=1899 |publisher=B.Franklin |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/playerspresent00edgegoog/page/n459 387]–388}}</ref> She began on the amateur stage at 17 and soon was invited to join a professional touring company.<ref name=players />
Her professional debut was on stage at the Olympic Theatre. She performed with Edwin Booth in "The Fool's Revenge".<ref name=Rose /> With Booth and others, she toured Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.. President Abraham Lincoln attended her performances and she was invited to the White House.<ref name=jewish />
In 1855, she married the newspaperman and author David M. Barnes (1820-1900),<ref>{{cite news|title=David M Barnes|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1900/06/21/102436230.pdf|accessdate=8 January 2015|work=The New York Times|date=21 June 1900}}</ref> but was divorced in 1862.<ref name=jewish /> They had one daughter, Rose Courtney, an actress who married actor John T. Raymond.<ref>{{cite book |last=Reddall |first=Henry Frederic |title=Fact, Fancy, and Fable |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7E4yAQAAMAAJ&q=%22courtney+barnes%22+eytinge |accessdate=January 21, 2013 |year=1892 |publisher=A. C. McClurg |page=445 }}</ref> Her niece, Pearl Eytinge, was also an actress.<ref>[http://asp6new.alexanderstreet.com/atho/atho.detail.people.aspx?personcode=per0061121 Pearl Eytinge: ''North American Theatre Online'']</ref> <ref>{{cite web |title=Pearl Eytinge |url=https://broadway.cas.sc.edu/content/pearl-eytinge |website=Broadway Photographs |accessdate=February 11, 2020}}</ref>
In 1869, she married Colonel George H. Butler, U. S. Consul General to Egypt.<ref name=famous>{{cite book |last=Young |first=William C. |title=Famous Actors and Actresses on the American Stage, Vol.1 |url=https://archive.org/details/famousactorsactr00youn/page/346 |year=1975 |publisher=R. R. Bowker |location=New York |isbn=0835208214 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/famousactorsactr00youn/page/346 346–348] |url-access=registration }}</ref> They lived abroad for two years and Eytinge took a break from performing. They had two children: a daughter, Florence (b. 1875) married Dr. Walsh, and a son, Benjamin Franklin Butler (1871-1904),<ref name=famous /> a newspaper artist, who was the roommate of young John Barrymore and married to actress Alice Johnson. Due to Butler's abusive behavior and infidelities, Eytinge sued for divorce in 1882.<ref>{{cite news| title =Rose Eytinge's Divorce| newspaper =New York Times| date =March 26, 1882| url =https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1882/03/26/103409779.pdf| accessdate =January 21, 2013}}</ref><ref group=Note>The 1882 divorce from Butler was a "degree of absolute divorce" in the Supreme Court, Special Term. She and Butler must have divorced earlier because she remarried to Cyril Searle in 1880. Also Butler remarried secretly in 1880 to Josephine Chesney confirming the status of an earlier divorce date.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}</ref>
Eytinge returned to New York to resume her career with the Union Square Theatre Company. It was at this time that she played one of her most famous roles, Shakespeare's "Cleopatra" for which she drew on her Egyptian experiences.<ref name=jewish />
In 1880, she married the actor Cyril Searle, but they were separated four years later. She gave her last performance in 1907.<ref name=jewish />
Among her principal later parts were Nancy Sykes in ''Oliver Twist'', Gervaise in ''Drink'', Ophelia to the ''Hamlet'' of E. L. Davenport, and Desdemona with James W. Wallack as ''Othello'' and Davenport as Iago.
Her literary works include the novel ''It Happened This Way'' (with S. Ada Fisher), the play ''Golden Chains'', and adaptations of Charles Dickens' ''Oliver Twist,'' ''Dombey and Son'', and Browning's ''Colombe's Birthday''.<ref name="BrowneAustin1906">{{cite book|author1=Walter Browne|author2=Fredrick Arnold Austin|title=Who's who on the Stage: The Dramatic Reference Book and Biographical Dictionary of the Theatre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xIoXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA90|year=1906|publisher=W. Browne & F. A. Austin|pages=90–}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor1=Gilman, D. C. |editor2=Thurston, H. T. |editor3=Moore, F. |encyclopedia=The New International Encyclopedia |edition=1st |year=1905 |publisher=New York: Dodd, Mead and Co |volume=VII |pages=403 }}</ref> Her personal memoirs were published in 1905. Eytinge died of a stroke on December 20, 1911, at the Brunswick Home of Amityville, New York, where she was supported by the Actors Fund of America. Her body was sent to Washington for burial.<ref name=Rose />
==Selected performances== * ''The Fool's Revenge'' as Fiordelisa (1864) * ''Griffith Gaunt'' as Katherine Peyton (1866) * ''Under the Gaslight'' as Laura Courtlandt (1867) * ''Led Astray'' as Armande (1873) * ''The Two Orphans'' as Marianne (1874) * ''Rose Michel'' (in title role) (1875)
==Written works== *{{cite book|title=It Happened This Way|year=1890|first1=Rose|last1=Eyting|first2=S. Ada|last2=Fisher|publisher=United States Book Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wnN4YkA1H9QC}} *{{cite book|title=The Memories of Rose Eytinge|year=1905|first=Rose|last=Eyting|publisher= Frederick A. Stokes Company|url=https://archive.org/details/memoriesofroseey00eyti}}
==Notes== {{reflist|group=Note}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} *{{IBDB name|39876}} *[https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=rose+eytinge Rose Eytinge] on the NYPL Digital Gallery *[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/02/25/100353404.pdf Rose Eytinge's Reminiscences of Distinguished Men] from The New York Times, February 25, 1912
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eytinge, Rose}} Category:1835 births Category:1911 deaths Category:American expatriates in Egypt Category:American autobiographers Category:19th-century American actresses Category:American stage actresses Category:Actresses from Philadelphia Category:Jewish American actresses Category:American women autobiographers