Dame Ellen Alicia Terry

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Terry, Dame Ellen Alice (1847–1928), English actress, the second daughter of Benjamin Terry. She made her first appearance on the stage at the age of 9, playing Mamillius in The Winter's Tale in Charles Kean's company at the Princess's Theatre. She remained with the Keans until their retirement in 1859, and in the summer of that and succeeding years toured with her elder sister Kate (below) in A Drawing-Room Entertainment, in which they played together in short sketches. In 1861 Ellen joined the company at the Haymarket Theatre, leaving in 1864 to marry the painter G. F. Watts, an ill-judged union with a man twice her age which soon came to an end. She returned to the theatre for a time, leaving it again shortly afterwards to live with the archaeologist, architect, and theatrical designer Edward Godwin (1833–86), by whom she had two children, Edith and Edward Gordon Craig. When, on the insistence of Charles Reade, she reappeared on the London stage in 1874 as Philippa in his drama The Wandering Heir, taking over the part from Mrs John Wood, she was as brilliant as ever, and her long absence from the theatre seemed only to have increased the excellence of her acting. After playing for a year with the Bancrofts, she went to the Royal Court Theatre under Hare, playing for him one of her most successful parts, the title-role in Olivia (1878), an adaptation of Goldsmith's novel The Vicar of Wakefield. Later in 1878 Henry Irving, who had recently begun his tenancy of the Lyceum, engaged Ellen Terry as his leading lady, and so inaugurated a partnership which was to become one of the outstanding features of the London theatrical scene for the next 25 years. She appeared with him in a wide variety of parts, including a good deal of Shakespeare—notably Ophelia, Beatrice, Desdemona, Juliet, Viola, Lady Macbeth, and Imogen—in revivals of contemporary plays—Bulwer-Lytton's The Lady of Lyons and Selby's Robert Macaire—and in a few plays specially written for him— Wills's Charles I (1879) and Faust (1885), Merivale's Ravenswood (1890), based on Scott's novel The Bride of Lammermoor, Tennyson's The Cup (1881) and Becket (1893), and Comyns Carr's King Arthur. After leaving the Lyceum Ellen Terry became manager of the Imperial Theatre, where in 1903 she appeared in Much Ado about Nothing and Ibsen's The Vikings, being seen in the same year in Heijermans's The Good Hope (for the Stage Society), and two years later in Barrie's Alice Sit-By-The-Fire. In 1906 she celebrated her stage jubilee with a mammoth matinée at Drury Lane at which 22 members of the Terry family assisted. She was at the same time appearing as Lady Cicely Waynflete, a part specially written for her by Shaw in Captain Brassbound's Conversion. She seldom acted afterwards, but toured America and Australia, giving readings of and lectures on Shakespeare. Throughout her career she was an inspiration to those who played with her. She was not at her best in tragedy, though some critics admired her Lady Macbeth, the role in which she was painted by Sargent, and she unfortunately never played Rosalind in As You Like It which seemed, above all other parts, to have been written for her, but to a hundred other roles she imparted a freshness and vitality which was never forgotten by those who saw her.

Dame Ellen Alicia Terry 1848–1928, English actress. Of a prominent theatrical family, she made her debut at nine as Mamillius in Charles Kean's production of The Winter's Tale. She played juvenile roles until her unsuccessful marriage, at 16, to G. F. Watts , the painter. She retired from the stage for six years, during which time she had two children, Edith Craig and Edward Gordon Craig , by E. W. Godwin. In 1878 she joined Sir Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre as his leading lady. With him she toured the United States, later under the management of Charles Frohman . After 1902 she left Irving for an unsuccessful stint as manager of the Imperial Theatre, where her son, Edward, designed the sets. She also lectured on Shakespeare in England and in the United States. An actress of great beauty, she invested her verse speaking with spontaneity in such roles as Portia, Olivia, and especially Beatrice. In 1925 she was made Dame of the British Empire.

Bibliography: See her memoirs, ed. by E. Craig and C. St. John (1908, repr. 1969); her correspondence with G. B. Shaw, ed. by C. St. John (1931, repr. 1949); biographies by E. G. Craig (1932), R. Manvell (1968), C. Fecher (1971), and N. Auerbach (1989); study by M. Holroyd (2009).