Florence Rea Rockwell (July 9, 1880 – March 24, 1964) was an American actress.
Early life Florence Rea Rockwell was born in St. Louis, Missouri,A. D. Storms, The Players Blue Book (Sutherland & Storms 1901): 212. the daughter of Theodore J. Rockwell and Amanda J. Rea Rockwell.Walter Browne, Fredrick Arnold Austin, Who's who on the Stage (Brown & Austin 1906): 190. Amanda Rockwell was a homeopathic physician and active in a group of women doctors in St. Louis."The New Homeopathic Hospital" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (January 11, 1890): 1. via Newspapers.com"Women Doctors" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (January 26, 1890): 17. via Newspapers.com
Rockwell was a child performer, and played Juliet,"Florence Rockwell, the Youngest Juliet" Evening Republican (January 11, 1907): 3. via Newspapers.com Ophelia, and Desdemona as a young actress still in her teens."Florence Rockwell" Munsey's Magazine (March 1895): 648. She studied with actress Rose Eytinge."A Rising Young Star" Los Angeles Times (March 5, 1899): 39. via Newspapers.com In 1894 she was presented as a case study in the Phrenological Journal of Science and Health, which found her to have "an uncommonly large brain".Nelson Sizer, "Character Studies No. 8: Florence Rockwell" Phrenological Journal of Science and Health (June 1894): 293, 294.
(Her birthdate is often given as either 1880 or 1887; however, she was described as Dr. Rockwell's 11-year-old daughter in an 1890 profile, making the earlier date more plausible.)
Career Rockwell acted in Broadway productions, including Cumberland '61 (1897), Oliver Goldsmith (1900), The Greatest Thing in the World (1900), Richard Savage (1901), D'Arcy of the Guards (1901-1902), John Henry (1903), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1903), Much Ado About Nothing (1904), Common Sense Bracket (1904-1905), Who Goes There? (1905), Beau Brummell by Clyde Fitch (1906), Popularity (1906), The Mills of the Gods (1907), The Round Up (1907), The Barrier (1910),"New Amsterdam: The Barrier" Theatre Magazine (February 1910): xiii. A Fool for Fortune (1912), and The Fallen Idol (1915).Johnson Briscoe, The Actors' Birthday Book (Moffatt, Yard and Co. 1904): 161.
In 1917, she took the lead role in The Glass House (sometimes titled The House of Glass) during a tour of Australia and New Zealand.
In 1919 she starred in a Hawaiian-themed revue called The Bird of Paradise, wearing a grass skirt and lei, and dancing a version of the hula."Cold Realism of a Hawaiian Costume" Boston Globe (May 18, 1919): 56. via Newspapers.com
Rockwell appeared in three silent films: Body and Soul (1915),"Florence Rockwell in Body and Soul" Arizona Republic (January 3, 1916): 12. via Newspapers.com He Fell in Love with His Wife (1915), and The Purple Night (1915)."Miss Rockwell with Knickerbocker" Moving Picture World (August 14, 1915): 1171."Morosco Captures Another Star of Stage for Screen" Statesman Journal (December 11, 1915): 6. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Rockwell married theatrical manager Howard F. Smith. She was widowed in 1932, and she died in 1964, in Stamford, Connecticut, aged 83 years (she was described as 76 years old in her obituary)."Florence Rockwell, 76, Dies; Former Broadway Actress" New York Times (March 26, 1964): 35.
References
External links
A photograph of Florence Rockwell from the California State Library.