Margaret Anglin
Canadian American stage actor (1876–1958)
Mary Margaret Warren Anglin (April 3, 1876 – January 7, 1958) was a Canadian-born American Broadway actress, director and producer. Encyclopædia Britannica calls her "one of the most brilliant actresses of her day."
Biography
Anglin was born in Ottawa, Ontario, the youngest of nine children of newspaper editor and politician Timothy Warren Anglin (1822–1896) by his second wife, Ellen MacTavish. At the time of her birth in Ottawa, April 3, 1876, he was the Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada. Her older brother, Francis Alexander Anglin (1865–1933) served as Chief Justice of Canada from 1924 to 1933.
She was educated at Loretto Abbey, Toronto, and at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Montreal. She graduated from the Empire School of Dramatic Acting, New York, in 1894, where she studied under Nelson Wheatcroft. Her acting skills brought the attention of theatre impresario Charles Frohman who enabled her professional stage debut in 1894 in the Bronson Howard production of Shenandoah.
An injury sustained while out riding laid her up for some months. In 1896 she became leading lady with James O'Neill, and toured with him in the United States and Canada. Her first professional appearance occurred as Madeline West in Shenandoah She subsequently played with the Sothern Company, and scored a great success as Lady Ursula.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Margaret Anglin” is canadian American stage actor (1876–1958). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Margaret, Anglin and Canadian, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “canadian American stage actor (1876–1958)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3290465. VIAF identifies the subject as 54947203. The Library of Congress control number is n88628239. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1876, 1958, 1822 and 1896.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Margaret Anglin”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Margaret Anglin primary sources, Margaret Anglin archive and Margaret research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Margaret Anglin”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Margaret Anglin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.