Elliott, Gertrude (1874-1950)

US actor. She made her first stage appearance in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1894, and made her New York City debut later the same year. She was first seen on the London stage at the Duke of York's on 5 June 1899, as Midge in The Cowboy and the Lady. She married the English actor and manager Johnston Forbes-Robertson in 1900, and played many leading roles with him. After her husband's retirement in 1914 she went into management, and took a company on extensive tours of the USA, South Africa, and Australia, returning occasionally to London, England. She was not seen in New York City after 1921 until, in 1936, she played Gertrude in Leslie Howard's production of Hamlet.

Elliott was born in Rockland, Maine. She was the sister of fellow actor Maxine Elliott (1868-1940). In addition to Shakespearean parts as Desdemona and Ophelia, she enjoyed success as Peggy in Mice and Men (1902), Maisie in The Light that Failed (1903), Stasia in The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1908), and Cleopatra in Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, which she first played in New York City in 1906.