Person    | Female  Born 18/3/1847  Died 21/7/1928

Ellen Terry

Categories: Theatre

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.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Ellen Terry

Commemorated ati

Ellen Terry - SW3

Ellen Terry, the great actress, lived here from 1904 to 1920.

Read More

Ellen Terry - SW5

London County Council Ellen Terry, 1847-1928, actress, lived here.

Read More

Queen's Theatre - Long Acre

Queen's Theatre The old Queen's Theatre occupied this site for just eleven y...

Read More

Other Subjects

Leila Campbell

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...

Person, Politics & Administration, Theatre

1 memorial
Duchess Theatre

Duchess Theatre

The Duchess Theatre began a distinguished career as a home for both drama and comedy when it opened with the war play "Tunnel Trench" in 1929. Prominent productions have included the 1936 London d...

Place, Theatre

1 memorial
St Martin's Theatre

St Martin's Theatre

Designed by Sprague, this theatre is one of a pair (the other being the Ambassadors next door) commissioned by Richard Verney Lord Willoughby de Broke, an aristocrat and politician with an interest...

Group, Theatre

1 memorial
George Grossmith, Jnr

George Grossmith, Jnr

Actor-manager and playwright. His father of the same name was also in show business. Often partnered Edmund Payne on stage (on Grossmith's right knee in this photo).

Person, Theatre

1 memorial
The Mousetrap

The Mousetrap

The world's longest running play - still going in 2013.  Written by Agatha Christie who gave the rights to her grandson.  We've heard the butler did it.

Fiction, Fictional, Theatre

2 memorials