Charlotte Hampden Camillos

Charlotte Hampden Camillos, long time resident of Ridgefield, CT, died on March 27 after 87 remarkable years. She died peacefully in her sleep due to complications from COPD.  

Charlotte was born in New York City to Margaret Charnley Hampden and Paul Hampden, and lived her early years in Ridgefield and Suffern, NY.  After high school, she followed in the footsteps of her grandfather, Walter Hampden, a well known stage actor of the time, and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London before pursuing an acting career in New York City. It was during this time, while working as a page in NBC studios in Rockefeller Center, that she met her husband Angelos.

Charlotte and Angelos moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1962 where they lived for 15 years and raised their family. They enjoyed a fun-loving ex-pat lifestyle in Brazil while also sowing their roots in the local culture, cementing a lifelong appreciation for adventure and travel. They moved back to Ridgefield in 1976, and opened the Kouros Art Gallery in New York in 1981, which they ran as a husband and wife team until its closing in 2013. During this period, Charlotte re-engaged with her love of acting through off broadway and local community theatre, giving her friends and family many memorable performances.

Following the death of Angelos in 2017, Charlotte settled into an apartment in Ridgefield and began her final life chapter. In addition to her ongoing acting gigs, she relentlessly pursued new commitments that kept her mind sharp and her social circles expanding. She kept the books at the Ridgebury Congregational Church. She acted as an SP (standardized patient) at Danbury Hospital helping to train new doctors. She enjoyed classes at Founders Hall, of particular note, a writing class which inspired many wonderful memoir style essays.

Charlotte was a woman of many talents with an energy that drove her to push her boundaries. Her indomitable personality never left anyone guessing what she was thinking and kept us all on our toes. She is survived by her daughter Danae, her son Jason, her siblings Michael, Edmund and Dorothy, four grandchildren and her cat Cinza (who was lovingly adopted by a friend). 

A date will be announced in the near future for a celebration of Charlotte’s life.