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
Harry Tate
Comedian and impersonator. Born as Ronald Macdonald Hutchison. He had worked for the sugar refiners Henry Tate and Sons, hence his stage name. He performed in films and the music hall. Born at 47 ...
Richard Nelson Lee
Actor, theatre manager and writer of pantomimes and plays. Among his most successful pantomimes were 'Old Cocker' and 'Riddle me Riddle me Ree'. His father was Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Lee. The ...
Finsbury Park Empire Theatre
Designed by Frank Matcham. One of London’s most popular variety theatres. Here, in January 1921, the magician P. T. Selbit performed the illusion of "sawing a lady in half" - its first public perfo...
Ben Jonson
Playwright and poet. Born in Westminster, possibly, and a committed Londoner, though also of proud Scottish descent. Imprisoned three times, once for his first play which was deemed to be "lewd, se...
Brixton Theatre
Theatre designed by Frank Matcham. It had a capacity of 1,504, and was home to plays, small touring productions, and Christmas pantomimes. It was renamed the Melville Theatre in 1940, but was destr...
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