20 Facts About Nanette Comstock

Nanette Comstock was an American actress whose career on stage spanned nearly 35 years.

Nanette Comstock appeared on both the New York and London stage and had shared the stage with many of the luminaries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Nanette Comstock was born in Albany, New York, the daughter of Anna Stewart and Alexander Cromwell Comstock and the niece of the New York politician Isaac Newton Comstock.

Nanette Comstock made her professional stage debut at the Fourteenth Street Theatre on September 12,1887, as the telegraph operator in the Charles Hale Hoyt farce A Hole in the Ground.

Nanette Comstock supported Kate Claxton at Madison Square Theatre on August 10,1889, in a stage adaption of the John Strange Winter novel Bootle's Baby.

Nanette Comstock opened with Shenandoah in the part of Madeline West and later assumed the role of Jenny Buckthorn, originally played by Effie Shannon.

In 1891 she toured as Lady May in Mavourreen, an Irish musical written by George Jessop for William J Scanlan, and on October 31,1892, Comstock played Valentine at the Standard Theatre in The Family Circle, a Sydney Rosenfeld adaptation of Bisson's Rue Pigalle 115.

Nanette Comstock was the original Kitty Verdun in the American production of Charley's Aunt at the Standard Theatre on October 2,1894, and on May 10 in London at the Adelphi Theatre, she played Wilbur's Ann in the David Belasco and Franklyn Fyles drama The Girl I Left Behind Me.

On January 3,1898, Nanette Comstock was back in London at the Globe Theatre as Sylvia in John Hare's production of Martha Morton's A Bachelor's Romance.

Nanette Comstock toured the US performing the same role opposite Sol Smith Russell, the original star of A Bachelor's Romance.

Nanette Comstock next toured with Wilton Lackaye playing Mrs Blake in Charles O'Malley, from the novels by Charles Lever, and later toured with Charles Dickson in his play Mistakes Will Happen.

Nanette Comstock closed the century in tours with Otis Skinner playing Lady Jessica in Henry James' The Liars, the Princess in Prince Otto, Skinner's adaptation from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, and Annabelle in the Mary Hartwell Catherwood story Lazarre.

In 1900, Nanette Comstock starred as Alice Adams to Howard Kyle's title character in the Clyde Fitch hit romantic drama Nathan Hale.

That year and over the next several, Comstock appeared in New York and on tour as Sally Sartoris opposite John B Mason in the Madeline Lucette Ryley comedy The Altar of Friendship; as Martha Ladbrook with Henrietta Crosman in Joan o' the Shoals by Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland; as Marjorie Leighton with William Collier, Sr.

In 1905, Nanette Comstock toured as Grace Whitney with Raymond Hitchcock in the Richard Harding Davis farce The Galloper, and the following year appeared in the play's January 6 New York debut at the Garden Theatre.

Nanette Comstock returned to London in May 1906 to play Shirley Rossmore in Charles Klein's The Lion and the Mouse at the Duke of York's Theatre, and afterward, spent the next few seasons with William Collier, Sr.

On September 7,1908, Comstock played the title role in the Louis Lovell play Jet at the Columbia Theatre in Washington, DC The following year, she co-starred with Robert C Hilliard as The Mother in a long run of the Porter Emerson Browne tale A Fool There Was from the Rudyard Kipling poem The Vampiers.

In December 1912, with the National Federation of Theatre Clubs, Nanette Comstock appeared at the Berkeley Lyceum, New York, as Gertrude in the Ethelyn Emery Keays play His Wife By His Side.

Nanette Comstock had been the wife of Frank Burbeck, a Boston-born actor who had played the part of The General in the original stage production of Shenandoah.

Nanette Comstock died of a heart attack on June 22,1942, at her residence on 143rd Street in New York City.