Myrtle Tannehill

Myrtle Tannehill Nichols (May 18, 1886 – July 25, 1977) was an American actress on stage and in silent films.

Myrtle Tannehill
Myrtle Tannehill, from a 1916 publication
Born
Myrtle Tannehill

May 18, 1886
DiedJuly 25, 1977 (aged 91)
Yorktown Heights, New York, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1905–1925, 1929–1951
Spouse(s)Hale Hamilton (m.1912–div.1920)
Charles G. Nichols (m.1925)

Early life

Myrtle Tannehill was born into a theatrical family.[1] Her mother was actress Maude Giroux, and her father was actor and playwright Frank Tannehill Jr. Her grandparents, Frank Tannehill Sr. and Susan (Nellie) McMurray Tannehill, were also in the theatre. Her much younger half-sister, Frances Tannehill Clark, also became an actress.[2]

Career

Myrtle Tannehill's appearances on Broadway were mostly in comedies, and included roles in the plays Just out of College (1905), Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1906), Electricity (1910), Broadway Jones (1912-1913), Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford (1917),[3] Dear Brutus (1918-1919), The Bonehead (1920), The Broken Wing (1920-1921),[4] The Dream Maker (1921-1922), Dodsworth (1934), The Philadelphia Story (1939-1940), and Pygmalion (1945-1946).[5] In London she appeared in Sealed Orders (1913) and The Show Off (1924).[6] In 1916 she and her husband Hale Hamilton toured Australia with their stock company.[7] In 1925 she was cast in Appearances, a play by Garland Anderson.[8]

Inez Plummer and Myrtle Tannehill in a scene from The Broken Wing (1921).

Tannehill appeared in three silent films: Ethel's Luncheon (1909), When the Mind Sleeps (1915), and The Barnstormers (1915).[9] She also made two late-career appearances on television, in "Murder by Choice", for Colgate Theatre (1949), and in "Follow Me" for Lights Out (1951).[10]

Personal life

Myrtle Tannehill married actor Hale Hamilton in 1912, a month after he divorced actress Jane Oaker. Tannehill and Hamilton divorced in 1920, before he married his third wife, actress Grace La Rue.[11] Tannehill sued La Rue for alienation of affections.[12] In 1925, Tannehill married stock broker Charles G. Nichols.[13] She retired from the stage after her second marriage, but returned to acting after the stock market crash of 1929.[14] Myrtle Tannehill Nichols died in 1977, aged 91 years.[15]

References
  1. "Members of Noted Stage Families Playing Here" Los Angeles Times (March 10, 1950): 32. via Newspapers.comopen access
  2. "Myrtle, the Youngest of Old Stage Family" Chicago Tribune (January 11, 1911): 15. via Newspapers.comopen access
  3. "New Plays" Billboard (May 19, 1917): 78.
  4. "Thrills and Sentiment in New Broadway Hits" Theatre Magazine (February 1921): 108.
  5. George J. Nathan, The Theatre Book of the Year, 1945-1946 (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press 1974): 242. ISBN 9780838611746
  6. J. P. Wearing, The London Stage, 1920-1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Rowman & Littlefield 2014): 325. ISBN 9780810893023
  7. Myrtle Tannehill record, AusStage.
  8. "Bellhop's Play" Daily News (September 9, 1925): 58. via Newspapers.comopen access
  9. Hanford C. Judson, "The Barnstormers" Moving Picture World (August 21, 1915): 1322.
  10. William Hawes, Live Television Drama, 1946-1951 (McFarland 2001): 248, 312. ISBN 9781476608495
  11. "Did Grace La Rue 'Vamp' Mrs. Hale Hamilton's Husband?" Sandusky Register (March 28, 1920): 23. via Newspapers.comopen access
  12. "Grace La Rue Wed to Hale Hamilton" New York Times (June 1, 1920): 15.
  13. "Myrtle Tannehill Married Secretly" Daily News (June 27, 1925): 51. via Newspapers.comopen access
  14. I. C. Brenner, "Memory Lane" Salt Lake Tribune (July 31, 1936): 16. via Newspapers.comopen access
  15. "Deaths" New York Times (July 26, 1977): 32.
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