Terriss, Ellaline

Terriss, Ellaline (1871–1971), English actress, daughter of William Terriss. Born in the Falkland Islands while her father was sheep-farming there, she returned to England with her parents at an early age, and in 1888 made her first appearance on the stage at the Haymarket Theatre under Tree. She was also with Wyndham at the Criterion Theatre for three years. She made a great success in the title-role of Bluebell in Fairyland (1901), a children's play by her husband Seymour Hicks revived annually at Christmas for many years, and also appeared with him in a number of his other plays, including The Beauty of Bath (1906) and The Gay Gordons (1907), though one of her best performances had been given somewhat earlier as Phoebe Throssel in Barrie's Quality Street (1902). She accompanied Hicks on tour, both in straight plays and in music-hall sketches, and went with him to France in the First World War to play to the troops, afterwards travelling with him in Australia and Canada. She left the stage in 1929, after appearing in a revival of Hick's The Man in Dress Clothes, but returned briefly to play Mrs Thornton in his The Miracle Man (1935).