Rose Coghlan was born on March 18, 1851 in Peterborough, Lincolnshire, England. She was the daughter of Francis Coghlan, an author and publisher, and Anna Maria (Kirby) Coghlan, and a younger sister of the actor Charles Coghlan. Her sister-in-law let her act one of the Witches in Macbeth at an early age, and she made her London début at the old Gaiety when she was eighteen.
Career
She made her American début in New York, September 2, 1871, as Jupiter in Lydia Thompson's revival of Ixion, and her performance was enthusiastically recorded: "Youthful, handsome, golden-voiced Miss Coghlan; a more captivating personality has seldom greeted the eyes and ears of any audience" . During the remainder of this season and the next she supported E. A. Sothern at Wallack's, playing among other rôles Mary in Our American Cousin. Discontented with the minor rôles assigned to her, however, she returned to England in April 1873, acting with leading players there until 1877, when she came back to Wallack's as leading lady of the stock company. She remained there most of the time till the break-up of the company in 1888. Wallack's was noted for its revivals of the "old comedies, " and it was in this artificial high comedy that Miss Coghlan shone, but she also played serious rôles and made a hit as the Countess Zicka in Sardou's Diplomacy. In the autumn of 1878 she acted with her brother at Wallack's and made a great hit as Lady Teazle. In January 1883 she played Nellie Denver in The Silver King and later the title rôle of Lady Clare in the English version of Le Maître de Forges. In the changing times, Wallack was increasingly less successful with his comedy revivals and had to resort to melodrama or long road tours. Miss Coghlan spent much of 1884-85 on the road. Wallack's famous company disbanded in 1888 with a final performance of The School for Scandal, and thereafter Miss Coghlan's fortunes declined. Her photographs indicate that she had lost the girlish face and figure of the seventies; and, also, the style of plays and acting was changing. In 1893 she enjoyed a success in Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, with her brother she revived Diplomacy, and in 1898 she played in White Heather, but by the turn of the century she had become, to the rising generation, an "old timer. " In 1903 she acted Penelope in Stephen Phillips's Ulysses, in 1908 was with John Drew in Jack Straw, the next year played at the New Theatre, in 1916 celebrated her fiftieth anniversary on the stage, and in 1917 appeared in Maugham's Our Betters. In 1920 she was in vaudeville and the following year made her last Broadway appearance, in Belasco's production of Deburau. To the audiences of her later years her artistic methods seemed a bit excessive and "theatrical, " though she had still a splendid voice and much natural power, but she had been trained to the broad strokes of melodrama and artificial comedy, and an early warning of the Prince of Wales, that Americans "don't like old women, " must sometimes have stirred in her memory. She became an American citizen in 1902. In 1922 she was discovered in ill health and poverty, and the Producing Managers' Association raised $10, 000 for her at a benefit at the Apollo Theatre. In a few years the funds were depleted and she spent the last years of her life at St. Vincent's Retreat at Harrison where she died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"The fresh, young beauty, bright smile, and variously arch and artless demeanor of this actress render her a refreshing spectacle to eyes that are tired with gazing on the frequent female ugliness and raw-boned masculinity of the stage".
Connections
Miss Coghlan was twice married, first to Clinton J. Edgerly of Boston in 1885, and later to John T. Sullivan, an actor. Both marriages were terminated by divorce. She was survived by a daughter, Rosaline.