Terry family
Ellen Terry was seen as the greatest star of the family for many decades, but her great-nephew John Gielgud became at least as celebrated from the 1930s to the end of the 20th century.
His daughter Ellen recalled that he "always corrected me if I pronounced any word in a slipshod fashion, and if I now speak my language well it is in no small degree due to my early training.
[7] Their daughter, also called Aniela, married Adam Gielgud, who had been born at sea during his parents' flight from Poland after the failed rising against Russian rule in 1830.
Kate (1844–1924) was the first of the Terry children to make the family name famous on the English stage, beginning her career as a small child.
According to the academic Nina Auerbach, Kate may have been the most accomplished actor among her siblings, quickly gaining praise in the plays of Shakespeare, among others.
[8] Contemporary critics thought the same: The Manchester Guardian ended its report of her last performance before her retirement: "In our unwilling acceptance of her farewell, we must now rest satisfied with the memory of the peerless beauty of her merry-hearted acting ... like the music of a bewitching melody piercing the stillness of the night, and ending just when the ear longed for the next note.
She made only two later stage appearances, the first in 1898, in a small role supporting her daughter Mabel in a new play in the West End; the second was in 1906 at her sister Ellen's jubilee celebrations at Drury Lane.
They were listed by The Illustrated London News; those in bold type were professional actors or otherwise associated with the theatre: The scenery was designed, and the dances arranged, by Ellen's son Gordon Craig.
[14] Ellen Terry married three times, but her two children, Edith and Gordon, were the product of a long-term unmarried relationship with the architect Edward William Godwin.
[12][15] Marion (1853–1930) had a stage career lasting more than fifty years, becoming known especially for creating roles in the plays of W. S. Gilbert, Oscar Wilde, Henry James and others.
[17] Florence Maud Terry (16 August 1856[18][19] – 15 March 1896[20]) like her eldest sister Kate, acted until her marriage and then left the stage.
Elsewhere, she played the roles of Olivia in Twelfth Night, Lady Betty in Tom Taylor's Lady Clancarty, and in several plays by W. S. Gilbert, including as Dorothy in Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith, Jenny in Sweethearts, Cynisca in Pygmalion and Galatea, Mirza in The Palace of Truth, and with her sister Marion in Gilbert's Broken Hearts (Savoy Theatre, 1882), just before her marriage and retirement.
After a spell working as business manager for Michael Gunn at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, he joined the Compton Comedy Company, with whom he tried acting, without success.
He was known as a leading man in classic plays but achieved his greatest fame in swashbuckling parts such as the title role in The Scarlet Pimpernel.
In a long stage career, she appeared in tragedies and historical romances, often opposite her husband, and was known for her portrayal of Rosalind in a long-running production of As You Like It.
[30] Craig lived in a ménage à trois with the dramatist Christabel Marshall and the artist Clare "Tony" Atwood from 1916 until her death.
He was more celebrated in continental Europe than in Britain, and his large theatrical library was bought by the French government for the Collection Auguste Rondel.
She appeared in the West End and on Broadway in a wide range of plays including revivals of comedies by Wilde and new works by authors such as Noël Coward.
She made her first appearance on the stage at the Lyceum on 7 June 1893 as the baby in Olivia, starring Henry Irving and Ellen Terry.
She appeared on Broadway many times between 1903 and 1929, including as Laura Atherton in Children of the Moon by Martin Flavin in 1923[42] and Lady Sneerwell in The School for Scandal in 1925.
With that company she appeared as Olga in Three Sisters, Aline Solness in John Gabriel Borkman and Olivia in Twelfth Night (all 1927).
She received good notices in modern light comedy,[44][45] and in variety, joining Ethel Barrymore and Sir Nigel Playfair in a sketch by Barrie at the London Palladium in 1934.
[46] She also played in the classics, in which her roles included, in addition to Olivia and Lady Sneerwell, Ophelia in Hamlet and Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
[50] The piece was a curtain-raiser to Sydney Grundy's A Pair of Spectacles, in which Terry's cousin, Mabel Terry-Lewis made her first stage appearance.
[58] Two years after her return to the stage in the late 1890s, she played Lydia Languish in a production of The Rivals in which Edmund Gwenn was also appearing.
[58] She accompanied Gwenn to Australia, in which he played in a disastrous tour of Ben Hur; the failure prompted her to restore the family finances by accepting an engagement from J. C.
[56][59][60] When, in 1911, Irene Vanbrugh made her debut in variety, she chose Minnie Terry and Gwenn to join her in a short play specially written by Barrie.
[citation needed] Who's Who in the Theatre lists no performances by Minnie after October 1925,[62] but in a special BBC radio broadcast to mark Ellen Terry's 80th birthday in 1928, she joined other members of the family – Mabel Terry-Lewis and John Gielgud – together with other leading performers, in scenes from Shakespeare associated with Ellen.
She made her first appearance on stage in her native London in February 1906, as Lady Gerania in Dr Wake's Patient, in which she subsequently toured.
He also wrote two novels, Red Soil and The Wise Child, a travel book, About It and About, and three plays in collaboration with Naomi Mitchison, The Price of Freedom, As It Was in the Beginning, and Full Fathom Five (1932).
