Born: Between 1846 and 1849, Canada
Died: 20 November 1925
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Clara La Montagne, Clara Morrison
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Clara Morris, an American actress, born in Toronto, Canada, reared in Cleveland, Ohio, where at the age of fifteen she was a ballet-dancer, and subsequently became the leading actress at the Academy of Music.
In 1870 she joined Augustin Daly’s company in New York, where in an adaptation of Wilkie Collin’s Man and Wife she scored an instant success, and her career as an emotional actress continued until 1894 when illness compelled her retirement, though she occasionally appeared in later years at special performances.
In 1874 she was married to F. C. Harriott, and for some years after retirement she devoted herself mainly to work treating of stage life, and her own Personal Experiences and Recollections.
Clara Morris will be remembered as the greatest emotional actress of her time, with a power of repressed feeling and passionate outburst that was startling. Her most notable successes were in Article 47, Alixe, Camille, The Geneva Cross, and Miss Multon in a version of East Lynne.
IW note: After retiring, Morris contributed articles on acting to various magazines, wrote a daily newspaper column for ten years, and published several books.