Blanche Bates was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actress, born at Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, Ore.

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

  She made her début in San Francisco

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

 in a benefit performance of Brander Matthews

Brander Matthews

James Brander Matthews , was a U.S. writer and educator. Matthews was the first U.S. professor of dramatic literature.-Biography:...

's This Picture and That. Among her early successes were her Mrs. Hillary in The Senator, Phyllis in The Charity Ball, and Nora in A Doll's House. She joined Daly's

Augustin Daly

John Augustin Daly was an American theatrical manager and playwright active in both the US and UK.-Biography:Daly was born in Plymouth, North Carolina and educated at Norfolk, Va...

 company in 1898 and the next year at Daly's Theatre

Daly's Theatre

Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.-Early years:...

, New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, played Mirtza in The Great Ruby. In 1901 she appeared as Cigarette in Under the Two Flags at the Garden Theatre

Garden Theatre (New York)

-Bibliography:*Wilson, James Grant, The Memorial History of the City of New-York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892. New York: New York History Co., 1893....

 in New York. Thereafter devoting herself to the productions of David Belasco

David Belasco

David Belasco was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director and playwright.-Biography:Born in San Francisco, California, where his Sephardic Jewish parents had moved from London, England, during the Gold Rush, he began working in a San Francisco theatre doing a variety of routine jobs,...

, she won great success in The Darling of the Gods (1902) and The Girl of the Golden West

The Girl of the Golden West (play)

The Girl of the Golden West is a theatrical play written, produced and directed by David Belasco and later made into an opera, La fanciulla del West, by Puccini. The four-act melodrama set in the California Gold Rush opened at the Belasco Theatre in New York on November 14, 1905 and ran for 224...

(1905) and after World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 in The Famous Mrs. Fair.

In 1902, H.M. Caldwell Company, New York and Boston, published a lavish Blanche Bates Edition of "Under Two Flags" by Ouida, with handsome illustrated covers, and numerous photographs from the play version starring Miss Bates.

Family

In 1900 Bates married Milton F. Davis, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. They had no children and divorced. In 1912 she married George Creel

George Creel

George Creel was an investigative journalist, a politician, and, most famously, the head of the United States Committee on Public Information, a propaganda organization created by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I. He said of himself that "an open mind is not part of my inheritance...

, a journalist and politician, and they had two children, a son George Jr. and a daughter Frances.

External links

• Blanche Bates portrait gallery from NYP Library Billy Rose Collection
• Blanche Bates University of Washington, Sayre collection
• Blanche Bates with her children, portrait