Blanche Crozier
{{short description|Canadian actress}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Blanche Crozier
| image = BlancheCrozier1901.jpg
| alt = Blanche Crozier, a young white actress, from a 1901 publication. She is wearing a large bonnet, and a dress with similar ribbons and feather trim.
| caption = Blanche Crozier, from a 1901 publication.
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1881
| birth_place = Lanark, Ontario
| death_date = May 31, 1957
| death_place =
| nationality = Canadian
| other_names = Blanche Sibbitt
| occupation = actress
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Blanche Crozier (1881– May 31, 1957) was a Canadian actress, working in Canadian and American stock companies in the early twentieth century. She later married the Scotch-American film director James Colin Campbell.
Early life
Born as Blanche Sibbitt in Lanark to Robert and Jane Sibbitt,Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Births and Stillbirths - 1869-1913; Series: MS929; Reel: 28; Record Group: RG 80-2 she was later raised in Brantford, Ontario.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924027213259|quote=Blanche Crozier.|title=The Players Blue Book|last=Storms|first=A. D.|date=1901|publisher=Sutherland & Storms|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924027213259/page/n297 292]|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cihm_11965|title=Women of Canada [microform] : their life and work|last=National Council of Women of Canada|date=1900|publisher=[S.l. : s.n.|others=Canadiana.org|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cihm_11965/page/n270 238]|isbn=9780665119651 }}
She attended the Toronto Conservatory of Music from 1897 to 1898. She won the Gold Medal in elocution during the visit of the Governor General in 1898. Harry Nelson Shaw was her instructor. Later that year, he would leave the school to form his own theatrical troupe as the "Harold Nelson Stock Company." She joined the cast, assuming her paternal grandmother's name, Blanche Crozier. The troupe traveled westward from Ontario, through Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, until falling ill in Manitoba."Music and Drama," Manitoba Morning Free Press, February 3, 1899, p.5
Career
Crozier acted in the Nelson Stock Company in Winnipeg, and in other companies in western Canada,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16013362/blanche_crozier/|title=An Arabian Night|date=June 14, 1899|work=Nanaimo Daily News|access-date=August 2, 2019|page=1|via=Newspapers.com}} early in her career. She played Juliet while still in her teens.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14125444/blanche_crozier/|title=Amusements: A Cavalier of France|date=December 18, 1900|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|access-date=August 2, 2019|page=6|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1901 she was described as a new member of Edwin Thanhouser's stock company.{{Cite web|url=https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=NYC19010824.2.17|title=New York Clipper|date=24 August 1901|website=Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections|access-date=2019-08-03}} She was seen in ingenue roles in Nashville, Tennessee, as a member of the Boyle Stock Company, in 1903 and 1904.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14126146/blanche_crozier/ "Miss Crozier Here"] The Tennessean (December 9, 1903): 2. via Newspapers.com{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14127265/blanche_crozier/|title=At the Play-Houses|date=May 15, 1904|work=The Tennessean|access-date=August 2, 2019|page=5|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1906 she appeared with the Brown-Baker Stock Company in New Orleans, in Graustark.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14129406/blanche_crozier/|title=Untitled news item|date=September 9, 1906|work=The Times-Democrat|access-date=August 2, 2019|page=40|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1907, she starred in a North Carolina production of Lena Rivers, based on the novel by Mary Jane Holmes.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14139981/blanche_crozier/|title=Amusements|date=November 21, 1907|work=The Charlotte News|access-date=August 2, 2019|page=6|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14139812/blanche_crozier/|title=Untitled review|date=November 7, 1907|work=Henderson Gold Leaf|access-date=August 2, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14140251/blanche_crozier/|title=Untitled news item|date=November 14, 1907|work=The Alamance Gleaner|access-date=August 2, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}}
She was still playing young and breeches roles in 1909,{{Cite journal|date=March 1909|title=At the Theaters|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WB6l6ahRP6UC&q=Blanche+Crozier+actress&pg=RA2-PA37|journal=Union Labor Advocate|volume=10|pages=37}} including Balthazar in Romeo and Juliet. "Blanche Crozier is so good in all the parts for which she may be cast that her merit cannot be concealed in any of them," commented one reviewer.{{Cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WB6l6ahRP6UC&q=Blanche+Crozier&pg=RA11-PA38|title=Marvin Stock Company|date=December 1909|work=Union Labor Advocate|access-date=August 2, 2019|page=38}} She starred in Texas in Chicago in 1910.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34507516/blanche_crozier_1910/|title=At Popular Prices|date=January 30, 1910|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=August 2, 2019|page=18|via=Newspapers.com}} She was described by one historian as having a "brief career" on Broadway.Sperdakos, P. (1999). [https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/7084 "Canada’s Daughters, America’s Sweethearts: The Careers of Canadian ’Footlight Favorites’ in the United States."] Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales Au Canada, 20(2).
Marriage and widowhood
Her tours with various stock companies put her in contact a rising actor and director, Colin Campbell. After Campbell took charge of Selig's studios in Los Angeles, they were married on March 2, 1912.California, County Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1830-1980. California Department of Public Health, courtesy of www.vitalsearch-worldwide.com
After her husband's sudden death in 1928, no records are available until 1940, when she is recorded as living in St. James, New York. She died on May 31, 1957, and is interred at Cedar Hill Cemetery.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Find a Grave|183763757|accessdate=2019-12-25}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crozier, Blanche}}
Category:Canadian stage actresses
Category:Actresses from Ontario
Category:People from Lanark County