Myrtle Tannehill Nichols (May 18, 1886 – July 25, 1977) was an American actress on stage and in silent films.
Myrtle Tannehill | |
|---|---|
 Myrtle Tannehill, from a 1916 publication | |
| Born | Myrtle Tannehill May 18, 1886 |
| Died | July 25, 1977 (aged 91) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1905–1925, 1929–1951 |
| Spouse(s) | Hale Hamilton (m.1912–div.1920) Charles G. Nichols (m.1925) |
Early life
editMyrtle Tannehill was born into a theatrical family.[1] Her mother was actress Maude Giroux, and her father was actor and playwright Frank Tannehill Jr. Her grandparents, Frank Tannehill Sr. and Susan (Nellie) McMurray Tannehill, were also in the theatre. Her much younger half-sister, Frances Tannehill Clark, also became an actress.[2]
Career
editMyrtle Tannehill's appearances on Broadway were mostly in comedies, and included roles in the plays Just out of College (1905), Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1906), Electricity (1910), Broadway Jones (1912-1913), Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford (1917),[3] Dear Brutus (1918-1919), The Bonehead (1920), The Broken Wing (1920-1921),[4] The Dream Maker (1921-1922), Dodsworth (1934), The Philadelphia Story (1939-1940), and Pygmalion (1945-1946).[5] In London she appeared in Sealed Orders (1913) and The Show Off (1924).[6] In 1916 she and her husband Hale Hamilton toured Australia with their stock company.[7] In 1925 she was cast in Appearances, a play by Garland Anderson.[8]
Tannehill appeared in three silent films: Ethel's Luncheon (1909), When the Mind Sleeps (1915), and The Barnstormers (1915).[9] She also made two late-career appearances on television, in "Murder by Choice", for Colgate Theatre (1949), and in "Follow Me" for Lights Out (1951).[10]
Personal life
editMyrtle Tannehill married actor Hale Hamilton in 1912, a month after he divorced actress Jane Oaker. Tannehill and Hamilton divorced in 1920, before he married his third wife, actress Grace La Rue.[11] Tannehill sued La Rue for alienation of affections.[12] In 1925, Tannehill married stock broker Charles G. Nichols.[13] She retired from the stage after her second marriage, but returned to acting after the stock market crash of 1929.[14] Myrtle Tannehill Nichols died in 1977, aged 91 years.[15]
References
edit- ^ "Members of Noted Stage Families Playing Here" Los Angeles Times (March 10, 1950): 32. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Myrtle, the Youngest of Old Stage Family" Chicago Tribune (January 11, 1911): 15. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "New Plays" Billboard (May 19, 1917): 78.
- ^ "Thrills and Sentiment in New Broadway Hits" Theatre Magazine (February 1921): 108.
- ^ George J. Nathan, The Theatre Book of the Year, 1945-1946 (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press 1974): 242. ISBN 9780838611746
- ^ J. P. Wearing, The London Stage, 1920-1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Rowman & Littlefield 2014): 325. ISBN 9780810893023
- ^ Myrtle Tannehill record, AusStage.
- ^ "Bellhop's Play" Daily News (September 9, 1925): 58. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Hanford C. Judson, "The Barnstormers" Moving Picture World (August 21, 1915): 1322.
- ^ William Hawes, Live Television Drama, 1946-1951 (McFarland 2001): 248, 312. ISBN 9781476608495
- ^ "Did Grace La Rue 'Vamp' Mrs. Hale Hamilton's Husband?" Sandusky Register (March 28, 1920): 23. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Grace La Rue Wed to Hale Hamilton" New York Times (June 1, 1920): 15.
- ^ "Myrtle Tannehill Married Secretly" Daily News (June 27, 1925): 51. via Newspapers.com
- ^ I. C. Brenner, "Memory Lane" Salt Lake Tribune (July 31, 1936): 16. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Deaths" New York Times (July 26, 1977): 32.
External links
edit- Myrtle Tannehill at IMDb
- Myrtle Tannehill at the Internet Broadway Database
- A 1913 photograph of Myrtle Tannehill and actor Langhorne Burton, in the Gabrielle Enthoven collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.