(1873-1941)
Born in 1872 to the manager and leading actor of the Oro Fino Theatre in Portland, Oregon, Blanche Bates enjoyed three decades of stardom. Performing a one-act play for a benefit in San Francisco ignited her interest in acting, and in 1894 she joined T. D. Frawley's stock company as a utility actress. After a season of touring the west, she joined Augustin Daly's company in 1894, making her New York debut as Bianca in support of Ada Rehan in The Taming of the Shrew. In 1899, she played Hannah in The Children of the Ghetto and opposite James O'Neill in The Musketeers. Under David Belasco's management, she starred in Madame Butterfly (1900), The Darling of the Gods (1902), and the role for which she was most remembered, the title role in The Girl of the Golden West (1905).
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.