Sarah Siddons: The first celebrity actress

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Jo Willett, author of SARAH SIDDONS: THE FIRST CELEBRITY ACTRESS,  explores the life and fame of legendary actress Sarah Siddons, the Queen of Drury Lane, who lived for a year at Capo di Monte on Windmill Hill in Hampstead.

Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) was the greatest tragic actress and highest-paid performer of  her generation.   Adored by theatre audiences, writers, artists and the royal family alike, Sarah grasped the importance of her image. She made sure that every leading portrait painter, including Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds and George Romney, captured her likeness, so that engravings could be sold to her adoring public.

Sarah Siddons grew up as a member of a family troupe of travelling actors, always poor and often hungry. But before she was 30, she had become a superstar, her fees greater than any actor – male or female – had previously achieved. Her rise was not easy. Her London debut in 1775, aged just 20, was a disaster but the young actress – already a mother of two – rebuilt her career, consolidating her skills, and returned to the capital to triumph seven years later.

In an eighteenth-century world of vicious satire and gossip, she also battled to manage her reputation. Married young, she took constant pains to portray herself as a respectable and happily married woman, even though her marriage did not live up to this ideal. Sarah’s story is not just about rags to riches; this remarkable woman also redefined the world of theatre and became the first celebrity actress.