Maude Granger

Granger, Maude [neé Anna Brainerd Follen] (1851?–1928), actress. Something of a curiosity, she began her career as a celebrated beauty and ended it as a fine character actress. In between she was occasionally a star, but her stardom was precarious and intermittent. George Odell wrote, “Miss Granger was in her youth one of the most beautiful and most photographed of actresses. Every college man, every sentimental girl, every collector had numerous pictures of her.” She made her New York debut in 1873 in Without a Heart and quickly rose to such important assignments as Clare Dart in The Mighty Dollar (1875) and millionairess Olivia Schuyler in Fifth Avenue (1877). That same year she was leading lady to John McCullough in revivals of Virginius, The Gladiator, Richelieu, and Othello and was judged a good enough actress to appear with Lester Wallack's company as Dora in Diplomacy (1878) and with Augustin Daly to play the humiliated, doomed Gervaise in L'Assommoir (1879). Granger next appeared in two Bartley Campbell plays, as Mary Brandon in My Partner (1879) and as Cicely Blaine in The Galley Slave (1879), followed by the adventuress Antonia in Two Nights in Rome (1880). Apparently her early promise was not being fully realized, for by this time her acting ability was coming under question, one critic suggesting, “a few gestures, postures, facial expressions, and verbal tones—these are her effects and these she repeats to a tiresome extent.” After playing in a series of revivals of popular contemporary plays opposite James O'Neill, her star quickly began to fade. For some years she played either important roles in lesser touring companies or supporting roles in major productions. With time, however, Granger appears to have carefully honed her limited abilities, and she won plaudits for her final appearances as the heroine's mother Mrs. Livingston in The First Year (1920) and as the selfish, domineering Grandma Spenser in Pigs (1924).