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

Lady Slingsby
1 memorial
Jessica Tandy

Jessica Tandy

Actor. Born Jessie Alice Tandy in Upper Clapton. She appeared in over 100 stage productions and more than 60 roles in film and TV. In 1940, on the break-up of her marriage to actor Jack Hawkins, sh...

Person, Cinema, Theatre, TV & Radio, USA

1 memorial
Ian Albery

Ian Albery

Chief Executive of Sadler's Wells when the new theatre opened in October 1998.

Person, Politics & Administration, Theatre

1 memorial
General John Burgoyne

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

1 memorial
Lady Winifred Fortescue

Lady Winifred Fortescue

Writer and actress. Born as Winifred Beech in a Suffolk rectory. Died France. 1914 she married John Fortescue (1859-1933, librarian, archivist at Windsor Castle and British Army historian), despit...

Person, Benefactor, Literature, Theatre, France

1 memorial