Actress, Singer. A late 18th Century star of the London stage, she is probably better remembered for her romantic liasons. Born Anna Maria Phillips, she started her theatrical career as a child and made her bow at Drury Lane in 1780 as Mandane from Thomas Arne’s “Artaxerxes”. Soon becoming a company regular, she achieved renown as Polly Peachum in John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera” and as Ophelia from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. Married to a naval officer named Crouch since 1784, she began an association both personal and professional with tenor and impresario Michael Kelly in 1787. By 1791, with her marriage on the rocks and her affair with Kelly continuing, she entered into a brief relationship with the Prince of Wales, the future George IV. The Prince had his own simultaneous romance (maybe marriage) with Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert, and the affair was brief, though Anna did take away a considerable sum of money. She was to remain with Kelly until her sudden death, possibly the result of a carriage accident. (bio by: Bob Hufford)