Dame Ellen Terry

Dame Ellen Terry, GBE (27 February 1847 – 21 July 1928) was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud.Born into a family of actors, Terry began acting as a child in Shakespeare plays and continued as a teen, in London and on tour. At sixteen she married the much older artist George Frederick Watts, but they separated within a year. She briefly returned to acting but then began a relationship with the architect Edward William Godwin and retired from the stage for six years. She returned to acting in 1874 and was immediately acclaimed for her portrayal of roles in Shakespeare and other classics.

Drawing by Sargent for Terry'sgolden jubilee programme, 1906

In 1878 she joined Henry Irving's company as his leading lady, and for more than the next two decades she was considered the leading Shakespearean and comic actress in Britain. Two of her most famous roles were Portia in The Merchant of Venice and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. She and Irving also toured with great success in America and Britain.In 1903 Terry took over management of London's Imperial Theatre, focusing on the plays of George Bernard Shaw and Henrik Ibsen. The venture was a financial failure, however, and Terry then toured and later also lectured. She continued to find acting success until 1920, while also appearing in films until 1922. Her career lasted nearly seven decades.

Photo c. 1880

After her death, the Ellen Terry Memorial Museum was founded in her memory at Smallhythe Place, an early 16th century house that she bought at the turn of the 20th century.^[23] The museum was taken over by the National Trust in 1939. Also following her death, Terry's correspondence with Shaw was published. Over three thousand letters survive.^[26]Terry's daughter Edith Craig became a theatre director, producer, costume designer and early pioneer of the women's suffrage movement in England; her son, Edward Gordon Craig, became an actor, scenery and effects designer, illustrator and director and founded the Gordon Craig School for the Art of the Theatre in Florence, Italy, in 1913; and her grandnephew was the actor John Gielgud. The singer Helen Terry and illustrator Helen Craig are also her descendants.http://www.firstnamestore.com/?p=30414

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