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Terry, Ellen

Name: Ellen Terry

Nickname/Alias: full name: Dame Alice Ellen Terry; Nelly Terry

Achievements: Leading Shakespearean actress in association with Henry Irving beginning 1878; eight American tours with Irving between 1883 and 1901; created D.B.E. (1925)

Born: February 27, 1847; Coventry, England

Died: July 21, 1928; Smallhythe Place, Tenterden, Kent, England

Field & Discipline: Performing Arts; Theater; Actress

Language: English

Father: Benjamin Terry

Mother: Sarah Ballard

Siblings: 10 brothers and sisters, including Kate (Mrs. Arthur Lewis),; Marion (Polly); Florence (Floss); Fred Terry (actor); Ben, Jr.; George;  Charles; Tom; two others died in infancy

Spouse: 1) George Frederick Watts (father of her children: Edward

William Godwin); 2) Charles Clavering Wardell (stage name: Kelly); 3)  James Usselmann (stage name: Carew)

Children: Edith Craig; Edward Gordon Craig

Education: Home schooled, theater-trained

Major Works:

Ellen Terry's Memoirs (1933)

Four Lectures on Shakespeare (1932)

Ellen Terry and Bernard Shaw, A Correspondence (1931)

Major Roles on Stage:

Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield (1878, played Olivia)

Hamlet (1878, played Ophelia)

The Merchant of Venice (1879, played Portia)

Othello (1881, played Desdemona)

Much Ado About Nothing (1882, played Beatrice)

Macbeth (1888, played Lady Macbeth)

King Henry VIII (1892, played Queen Katharine)

Life & Times:

Ellen Terry was born in a theatrical rooming house in Coventry, and made her stage debut in London with Charles Kean's company on April 28, 1856 as Prince Mamillius in The Winter's Tale (her father and sister were also in the play, her mother was the company wardrobe mistress). The premiere was attended by [performance seen by] Queen Victoria*.  A review called Ellen "vivacious and precocious...a worthy relative of her sister Kate."

Creating a family theater dynasty was the goal of Ben Terry. He succeeded. His daughters Kate, Ellen, Marion and Florence were actresses ‘in their bones.’   Fred, the youngest, became a colorful actor-manager" who continued the dynasty by producing a new generation of theatrical Terrys.   Kate became great-aunt of [great-aunt of] Gielgud*.

In Britain during the 1850s acting was not respectable and actors not particularly admired.  Yet Ellen Terry was one of the most beloved figures of her time. She became a star in the modern sense of the word and at one time was one of the highest-paid women in Britain. Unconventional and complex, living in a rapidly changing world, Ellen Terry was a remarkable woman.  After the failure of her early marriage at 16  to the artist George Frederic Watts (he was 46), she eloped to the country with the young aesthetic architect Edward Godwin. This scandal led to a break with her family and she retired from the stage for six years.

She bore Godwin two illegitimate children who were adopted by her second husband, the actor Charles Kelly. They later took the names: Edith Craig (Edy) and Edward Gordon [illegitimate son was] Craig* . When Godwin left her she needed to earn a living and accepted an offer to return to the stage in 1874.

The turning-point of her professional career was her 1875 appearance as Portia in the  production of The Merchant of Venice. Her 1877 marriage to Charles Wardell  (who acted under the name Charles Kelly)  returned her to respectability in the eyes of her family.   In 1878 [worked with] Henry Irving* (actor-manager) became sole lessee of the Lyceum Theatre and engaged Ellen Terry to play Ophelia in his forthcoming production of Hamlet.

This began an association which lasted until 1902. She took part in Irving's eight American tours between 1883 and 1901.  In 1903 she entered theater management without Irving and toured and lectured widely.

Her Drury Lane Jubilee in 1906 celebrated 50 years on stage.  She married James Usselmann in 1907; he was an American actor with the stage name of James Carew. They lived apart after 1910.  Ellen Terry toured America again in 1910/11 to give a series of lectures on the principal heroines of Shakespeare's plays. She made five films between 1916 and 1922.

Her last appearance on the stage was at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in November 1925, and that same year she was made Dame of British Empire. She died 21 July 1928 at her house at Smallhythe in Kent.

Smallhythe Place was given to the National Trust in 1939 by Ellen's daughter. As the Ellen Terry Museum, it houses a wealth of interesting articles and memorabilia from the great actress' life. Portraits of Ellen Terry by John Singer Sargent, G. F. Watts, Graham Robertson and Clare Atwood immortalize her.

She first attracted [a fan was] Carroll* (then the Rev. Charles Dodgson) in 1856 at her debut and he photographed the Terry family in 1864.  [a fan was] Shaw* was an admirer and they exchanged hundreds of  letters. [a pal of] Barrie* wrote Alice Sit-by-the Fire especially for her.

Her friend [a pal of] Burne-Jones* never painted her, but designed Lyceum production sets for Irving, most notably for King Arthur (1895) with Terry as Guinevere, Irving as King Arthur, and [acted with] Forbes-Robertson* as Lancelot.    [sonnets written to her by] Wilde* wrote sonnets to her.  As the child bride of G.F. Watts,  Ellen Terry was first exposed to the company of [met] Gladstone*, [met] Disraeli*, [met] Robert Browning*, [met] Tennyson*, and [met] Thackeray*.

At her jubilee Drury Lane matinee in 1906, among others  [her jubilee attended by] Caruso* sang, [her jubilee attended by] Duse* appeared,  [her jubilee attended by] Conan Doyle* played a juryman in Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury, and [she acted with] Tree* played Benedick to her Beatrice,  with Forbes-Robertson as Claudio.  She worked with the tragedian [worked with]Macready*.

Assessment: Ellen Terry is remembered as one of the greatest and most

beloved actresses, dominating the English and US theater (1878-1902).

Oneliner: Ellen Terry,  great Victorian actress

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