She was featured in W. S. Gilbert's His Excellency in 1894, followed the next year by a starring role in the George Edwardes production of the musical The Shop Girl, playing alongside her husband.

In the 1900s, she starred in a series of long-running hits, including Bluebell in Fairyland (1901), Quality Street (1902), The Catch of the Season (1905) and The Beauty of Bath (1906).

He loved the adventurous, outdoor life, and had previously tried his hand at various professions, including farmer, merchant seaman and silver miner.

Shortly after Ellaline's birth, he gave up farming and moved his family back to England where, because of his swashbuckling style, was known as "Breezy Bill".

[6][7] In December 1893, Terriss starred in the title role in the successful and famously lavish version of the "fairy pantomime" Cinderella, produced by Henry Irving with music by Oscar Barrett.

[2] In 1895, Terriss was a replacement in the original London production of George Edwardes's hit, The Shop Girl, joining her husband as co-star.

[9] Another early success for the young couple was The Circus Girl (1896; Terriss made Lionel Monckton's song, "A Simple Little String" into a major hit).

Her father was stabbed to death by a deranged and disgruntled unemployed actor, Richard Archer Prince, as he was about to enter the stage door of the Royal Adelphi Theatre.

[10] They then joined forces with the producer Charles Frohman and, in his company over a period of seven years, they played the leads in a series of musicals written by Hicks, including: Bluebell in Fairyland (1901), which was continually revived as a Christmas entertainment for the next four decades; The Cherry Girl (1902); The Beauty of Bath (1906), which opened the Hicks Theatre (later renamed the Globe) and included additional lyrics by a newcomer, P. G. Wodehouse, and music by Jerome Kern, which became one of Terriss's best-loved roles; and The Gay Gordons (1907).

In December 1925, she appeared at the Lyceum with her husband in The Man in Dress Clothes, a French farce he had translated and in which their daughter made her stage debut.

"The Theatre World" reported in January 1926:There is little doubt that much of the success of this revival is due to the presence in the cast of our one and only Ellaline Terriss.

She has never been a "great" actress, but her charm – a sort of sweet radiance – has made her one of the most popular of living players.Terriss appeared in over a dozen British films, generally in which her husband was involved as an actor, writer or director.

[2] These included the silent films Scrooge (1913), David Garrick (1913), Flame of Passion (1915), A Woman of the World (1916), Masks and Faces (1918), Always Tell Your Wife (1923), Land of Hope and Glory (1927) and Blighty (1927).

[13] She made a successful transition to talkies, including Atlantic (1929), A Man of Mayfair (1931), Glamour (1931), The Iron Duke (1934), Royal Cavalcade (1935) and The Four Just Men (1939).

[citation needed] Terriss died at the Holy Family Nursing Home, Hampstead, London, at the age of 100 as a result of a hip fracture sustained during a fall.