Violet Vanbrugh

Who was Violet Vanbrugh?

Violet Vanbrugh, born Violet Augusta Mary Barnes, was an English actress who had a career spanning more than 50 years. Despite her many successes, her career was overshadowed by that of her more famous sister Irene Vanbrugh.

Vanbrugh studied acting and made her professional debut in an 1886 burlesque. The same year, she made her West End theatre debut and then travelled to Margate to play leading roles in four of Shakespeare's plays. In 1889 she joined the Kendals at the Royal Court Theatre and on tour in the U.S. Two years later, back in London, she joined Henry Irving and Ellen Terry in their famous Shakespeare company at the Lyceum Theatre. In 1893, she appeared opposite her husband Arthur Bourchier at Daly's Theatre and soon became his leading leading lady at the Royalty Theatre and then at the Garrick Theatre, where Bourchier was lessee for the first six years of the 20th century.

Vanbrugh returned to Shakespearean roles in 1906 at Stratford upon Avon, where she played Lady Macbeth to her husband's Macbeth, and they soon starred together in Herbert Beerbohm Tree's London production of Henry VIII.