Adelaide Neilson

British stage actress (1848–1880)

Lilian Adelaide Neilson (3 March 184815 August 1880), born Elizabeth Ann Brown, was a British stage actress.

Neilson was the daughter of a strolling actress, Anne Brown, and was born, out of wedlock, at 35 St Peters Square Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In childhood she was known as Elizabeth Anne Bland, her mother having subsequently married a mechanic and house decorator named Samuel Bland. She grew up in relative poverty, initially in Skipton and later Guiseley, West Yorkshire (near Leeds), where she worked in a factory and as a nursery maid.

When she was about 15 years old Neilson left her home and made her way to London. Soon after she reached London, she obtained employment because of her beauty, as a member of the ballet at one of the theatres, and in that way she began her professional career. Various romantic tales were printed concerning her way of life at that time. She married Philip Henry Lee, the son of a clergyman resident at Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire, on 30 November 1864 at St. Mary's Church, Newington, Surrey using the name Lilian Adelaide Lizon. At her later adult baptism at St. Peter's Church, Leeds on 30 December 1866 (born 3 March 1848) she was also named Lilian Adelaide Lizon, daughter of Pierre and Annie Lizon of St. Peters Square, and Pierre's quality being described as gentleman. In the spring of 1865, after having received some instruction from the veteran actor, John Ryder, she appeared at Sarah Thorne's Theatre Royal (Margate), long a training school for novices, where she made a favourable impression. In 1865, at Theatre Royal (Margate), she appeared as Julia in The Hunchback, a character with which her name was long to be associated. For the next few years, she played at London and provincial theatres in various roles, including Rosalind, Amy Robsart and Rebecca (in Ivanhoe), Beatrice, Viola and Isabella (in Measure for Measure). She made her first American appearance on 18 November 1872, at Booth's Theatre, New York City, as Juliet. She was praised by American critics who echoed the acclaim she had received from London theatrical audiences. She made subsequent American tours throughout the 1870s. She played Amy Robsart, heroine of Sir Walter Scott, in May 1873. She is noted for a fine engagement staged in Brooklyn, New York the same year. Her farewell at Booth's Theatre came on 2 May 1874. Neilson accepted an engagement at the Lyceum in the autumn that year. She performed in Cymbeline by William Shakespeare at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York on 14 May 1877. She not only achieved distinction on the American stage, but accumulated a considerable fortune. The parts that she acted in America included Juliet, Rosalind, Viola, Beatrice, Imogen and Isabella, from Shakespeare and Amy Robsart, Julia, Pauline and Lady Teazle, from other authors.

In 1877 she obtained a divorce from her husband and did not remarry. An account, told some time later, of an alleged marriage to Edward Compton, an English actor, proved untrue.

Neilson was on the stage for about 15 years. She died suddenly whilst riding in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, France on 15 August 1880, aged 32. A subsequent post mortem stated death was caused by blood loss due to a rupture in the broad ligament near the left fallopian tube. She is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London, where a sculptured cross of white marble bearing the inscription "Gifted and Beautiful—Resting." marks her grave.