Born in Coventry. From an acting family her stage career started at age 8. When 17 she retired from the stage to marry artist G.F. Watts, 30 years her senior. Her desire for the stage was greater than that for her husband and they separated after less than a year. She disappeared and her father misidentified a body recovered from the Thames as hers. She resurfaced to reveal that she was, aged 20, having a happy affair with the architect-designer Edward W. Godwin, which produced two children. She went on to have two more marriages, each to actors (Irving and an American 30 years her junior), but her greatest partnership was professional, with the actor/manager Henry Irving. Died at her home in Kent, Smallhythe, which is now a museum. John Gielgud was her great-nephew.
This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Ellen Terry
Commemorated ati
Queen's Theatre - Long Acre
Queen's Theatre The old Queen's Theatre occupied this site for just eleven y...
Other Subjects
General John Burgoyne
Army officer, politician and playwright. Born at Park Prospect, Westminster. He entered the army in 1740 and in the Seven Years War he captured Valencia de Alcantara. During the Saratoga Campaign i...
Person, Armed Forces, Politics & Administration, Theatre, Canada, Ireland, Spain, USA
Sir Oswald Stoll
Theatre manager impresario. Born Melbourne, Australia. Moved when young to England and helped his mother manage a music hall in Liverpool. Very successful and merged with his competitor to form the...
Leila Campbell
Born as Leila Jaffe on 10 August 1911 her birth was registered in Birkenhead, Cheshire. She was the elder daughter of Myers Jaffe (1883-1961) and Rebecca Jaffe née Neiman (1879-1965) and when the 1...
Charles Macklin
Actor and playwright. Probably born in County Donegal, Ireland in about 1699. Lived in Bow Street.. Died at home in Tavistock Row.
Unity Theatre
Unity Theatre grew out of the agitprop street theatre in the East End of London in the early 1930's. The theatre, a converted chapel, was destroyed by fire in 1975.