Being so close to the theatre sparked Matilda's interest in acting, and she began to train for the stage under elocution teacher, Peter Richings.

For the next two years, she worked in stock theatre companies in Washington, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston where she portrayed a wide range of heroines such as Lady Macbeth, Juliet, and Ophelia.

[1] While in Paris in 1855, Heron saw the popular play La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias), and decided to present her own version, in English, in America.

The resulting Camille,[4] premiered at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia on 3 October 1855 with Heron playing the protagonist Marguerite Gautier.

[6] Starting with Jean Davenport in 1853, most of the female stars of the day had appeared in the role, but Matilda Heron's Camille, more true to the original, was generally acknowledged to be the greatest on the American stage.

Her emotion-charged acting and personal magnetism, particularly in the role of Marguerite Gautier with which she became so closely identified, hypnotized audiences and critics alike with her captivating beauty.

For eight years after her initial triumph she acted with comparative success in New York, London, and on tour throughout the United States, appearing as the lead in plays she had written or adapted herself.

In New York during the season which she appeared in other plays, including her translation of Ernest Legouvé's Médée, marked the highest peak of her career.

In fact, it is reported that, later in her career, while speaking to an author who was to write a play for her, she was careful to state that the heroine must be "a lost woman."

[1] On 24 December 1857 Heron married composer and accomplished musician Robert Stoepel after meeting him in New Orleans at a performance of Camille.

A big benefit show was done to raise funds for her in January 1872, which included Edwin Booth, Jules Levy, John Brougham, and Laura Keene.

[9][10] Matilda Heron died at the age of 46 on 7 March 1877 at her New York City home a few weeks after an unsuccessful operation to halt hemorrhoidal bleeding.

Although the "emotional" school of acting Matilda Heron initiated had other followers, notably Clara Morris and, for a time, Laura Keene, it quickly became dated.

[1][5][11][12][13] Heron's interpretation was seen as particularly American, since it fit an image of robust, vigorous, and unyielding strength compared to her frail, proper European counterparts.

Indeed, Americans hoped to find in Matilda Heron an actress of their own national spirit who could gain international attention and fame.

Adam Badeau who witnessed Heron's Camille many times, reported that "she changes her execution too much; sometimes she omits fine touches, slurs over to-night what last night was most carefully portrayed, or makes wonderfully vivid what to-morrow may seem of less account."

He wrote that "Miss Heron is not the calm, collected self-possessed woman that aperfect artist is; but though she has more blemishes for that, she has some greater excellence for the same reason."

Badeau was referring to Heron's power of concentration, her native instinct, and emotional spontaneity that reached from the stage and into an audience.

[7] In explanation of her popularity, Tice Miller writes that "[s]he exhibited a style of emotional acting which seemed real to the audiences of her day."

Edward G. P. Wilkins disagreed with Clapp and criticized Heron's performance in Camille as "a high pressure first-class Western steamboat, with all her fires up, extra pounds of steam to the square inch.

[5] Some of Matilda Heron's original works include Lesbia, Mathilde, Gamea, the Hebrew Mother, Duel in the Days of Richelieu, and The Pearl of the Palais Royal.