Maxine Elliott (February 5, 1868 – March 5, 1940) also known as Little Jessie, Dettie or by her birth name Jessie Dermot, was an American actress and businesswoman. She managed her own theater and experimented with silent films in the 1910s. Immensely popular, she was rumoured to have intimate relationships with highly notable people such as King Edward VII and J.P. Morgan. During World War I, she was active on the cause of the Belgian relief. Early life Born on February 5, 1868, to Thomas Dermot, a sea captain and Adelaide Hill Dermot, she had a younger sister, actress Gertrude Elliot and at least two brothers, one of whom, a sailor, was lost at sea in the Indian Ocean. By age 15 in 1883, Jessie had been seduced and made pregnant by a 25-year-old man whom she may have married underage, according to her niece's biography. She either miscarried or lost the baby. This incident left a psychological wound on Jessie for the rest of her life. Eliott later developed a relationship with a man from a rich local family, Arthur Hall. When suspicions of her pregnancy developed and when her relationship with Hall was eventually exposed, she and her dad left for South America. Later in her older years she would still make bitter remarks about the separation between her and Hall. Acting She adopted her stage name Maxine Elliott in 1889, making her first appearance in 1890 in The Middleman. In 1895, she got her first big break when Augustin Daly hired her as a supporting actress for his star player, Ada Rehan. After divorcing her first husband, Elliott married comedian Nat C. Goodwin in 1898. The two starred together at home and abroad in such hits as Nathan Hale and The Cowboy and the Lady. For her appearance in a production of The Merchant of Venice, she negotiated a contract for $200 and one-half of the profits over $20,000. She was billed alone when Charles B. Dillingham's production of Her Own Way opened on Broadway on September 28, 1903. From then on, Elliott was a star. When the production moved to London in 1905, King Edward VII asked that she be presented to him, and they were rumoured to have had an intimate relationship. Goodwin eventually divorced Elliott in 1908. Around this time she became friendly with financier J. P. Morgan. Some biographers of Morgan claim the