Caroline Hill


Caroline Hill was an English actress.

Early life and career

Hill was born in York and began to act as a child, in about 1861, in roles such as Mamilius in A Winter's Tale and Arthur in The Life and Death of King John, in the company of Samuel Phelps at Sadler's Wells Theatre. Later, she joined the company of J. B. Buckstone at the Haymarket Theatre, where she created original roles, earning critical praise. These included roles in The Favourite of Fortune, Mary Warner, The Palace of Truth and Pygmalion and Galatea. She also appeared in a revival of All for Her by John Palgrave Simpson and Herman Charles Merivale. At the Duke's Theatre in 1879, she appeared in New Babylon by Paul Meritt.

New York and later years

Hill married actor Herbert Kelcey. Invited to New York with her husband by Lester Wallack, in 1883, Hill was a success in the role of Lady Dolly Vanderdecken in "Moths," at Wallack's Theatre. The following year, she played Fanny Gainsborough in The Pulse of New York, then appeared in Confusion and Old Love Letters, together with her husband, at the Park Theatre in Brooklyn, New York. She portrayed Lady Hilda in Broken Hearts, by W. S. Gilbert, at the Madison Square Theatre in 1885. The next year, she starred as the wife of the title character in Jim, the Penman in a summer tour.
Hill returned to England in the early 1890s when her marriage with Kelcey ended. In 1892, she played Lady Jones in The Guardsman by George R. Sims and Cecil Raleigh at the Court Theatre. She was still living in 1920.