Kate Terry
Encyclopedia
Kate Terry was an English actress. Elder sister of the famous Ellen Terry
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
, she was born into a theatrical family, made her debut when still a child, became a leading lady in her own right, and left the stage in 1867 to marry. In retirement she commented that she was 20 years on the stage, yet left it when she was only 23. Her grandson was Sir John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
.
Early years
Terry was born in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, into a theatrical family. Her parents, Benjamin (1818–1896) and Sarah (née Ballard, 1817–1892), were comic actors in a touring company based in Portsmouth. Kate was the oldest surviving child of eleven, five of whom became actors: Ellen
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
, Florence, Fred
Fred Terry
Fred Terry was an English actor and theatrical manager. After establishing his reputation in London and in the provinces for a decade, he joined the company of Herbert Beerbohm Tree where he remained for four years, meeting his future wife, Julia Neilson...
, Kate and Marion
Marion Terry
Marion Bessie Terry was an English actress. In a career spanning half a century, she played leading roles in more than 125 plays. Always in the shadow of her more famous sister Ellen, Terry nevertheless achieved considerable success in the plays of W. S...
. Two other children, George and Charles, were connected with theatre management. Terry's grandson, John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
, became one of the twentieth century's most respected actors.
Stage career
Terry began her career as a child actress in BristolBristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
and then with the company of Charles Kean
Charles Kean
Charles John Kean , was born at Waterford, Ireland, the son of the actor Edmund Kean.After preparatory education at Worplesdon and at Greenford, near Harrow, he was sent to Eton College, where he remained three years...
in Shakespeare productions at London's Princess's Theatre
Princess's Theatre, London
The Princess's Theatre or Princess Theatre was a theatre in Oxford Street, London. The building opened in 1828 as the "Queen's Bazaar" and housed a diorama by Clarkson Stanfield and David Roberts. It was converted into a theatre and opened in 1836 as the Princess's Theatre, named for then Princess...
, where in 1851 she made her London debut playing Robin in a juvenile production of The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
, and in 1852 she played the juvenile role of Prince Arthur in King John. She repeated the part in a command performance for Queen Victoria. The historian and poet Lord Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay PC was a British poet, historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history...
was present and wrote in his diary that it was "worth having passed middle age to have seen little Kate Terry as Prince Arthur."
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
in 1857, and in 1858, when she was only 15, Kean gave her an adult role, Cordelia in King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
. Beginning in 1859, she toured for two years with her sister Ellen, accompanied by their parents and a musician, in "the kind of entertainment of which the German Reed productions
German Reed Entertainment
German Reed Entertainment was founded in 1855 and operated by Thomas German Reed together with his wife, Priscilla Reed née Horton...
were the last surviving examples, an entertainment of duologues and recitations, given in town halls and assembly rooms for the benefit of those people who like to be amused but would never consent to enter a theatre." In 1861, she returned to London to play Ophelia in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
. Over the next five years, she performed at several theatres in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
, becoming one of the best-known leading ladies in London. At the Lyceum Theatre, she appeared in The Duke's Motto in 1863 and Bel Demonio in 1864. At the Olympic Theatre
Olympic Theatre
The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street, and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout much of its existence...
the same year, she appeared in The Hidden Hand. In 1863 Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
said of her performance in The Lady of Lyons, "That is the very best piece of womanly tenderness I have ever seen on the stage, and you'll find that no audience can miss it."
In 1866 she appeared in Dion Boucicault
Dion Boucicault
Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot , commonly known as Dion Boucicault, was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the...
's Hunted Down alongside Henry Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
, who later formed a famous partnership with her sister Ellen. The same year, she joined the company at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
. There, in 1866, she appeared in A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing, followed in the same season by Ethel; or, Only a Life, an adaptation by Benjamin Webster, Jr., of Une Pauvre Fille. Of her performance in the latter piece, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
wrote that "what would be utterly ineffective and wearisome in the keeping of an ordinary actress, she renders effective and interesting by the natural interpretation of the character." This was soon followed by A Sister's Penance by Tom Taylor
Tom Taylor
Tom Taylor was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch magazine...
and Augustus Dubourg. With J. L. Toole, for the Christmas season of 1866, she appeared in new burlesque, The Mountain Dhu by Andrew Halliday. Beginning in June 1867, she starred in Dora, by Charles Reade
Charles Reade
Charles Reade was an English novelist and dramatist, best known for The Cloister and the Hearth.-Life:Charles Reade was born at Ipsden, Oxfordshire to John Reade and Anne Marie Scott-Waring; William Winwood Reade the influential historian , was his nephew. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford,...
based on Lord Tennyson's poem. In July 1867, she played Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
.The Times commented: "We can remember no such Beatrice, and we find it difficult to conceive a better." She then made her farewell to the West End as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, in August, to great acclaim.
John Gielgud calculated that his grandmother played about 100 roles in her short career. Her last stage appearance before her retirement was in October 1867 at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, in Tom Taylor
Tom Taylor
Tom Taylor was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch magazine...
's Plot and Passion. The Manchester Guardian ended its report on the performance: "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."
Retirement
After her farewell performances, she left the stage to marry the wealthy haberdasher and silk merchant Arthur J. Lewis (of the firm Lewis & Allenby). The couple had four daughters, the eldest of whom was also named Kate (the mother of Gielgud). The youngest, Mabel Terry-LewisMabel Terry-Lewis
Mabel Gwynedd Terry-Lewis was a British actress and a member of the Terry-Gielgud dynasty of actors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries....
, became an actress. Terry made two later appearances on stage: first in 1898, in Stuart Ogilvie's The Master, with John Hare
John Hare (actor)
Sir John Hare , born John Fairs, was an English actor and manager of the Garrick Theatre in London from 1889 to 1895.-Biography:Hare was born in Giggleswick in Yorkshire and was educated at Giggleswick school...
and her daughter Mabel, and in June 1906 she played Ursula in a scene from Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
at the gala stage celebration of her sister Ellen's jubilee.
Terry and her husband lived in considerable style in Moray Lodge in Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
, north London, where he hosted the Moray Minstrels, until Lewis lost all his money. After that, in Gielgud's words, "my grandmother lived very simply and rather resentfully in an ugly little house in West Cromwell Road, and she had no grand clothes and did not give parties any more. She played bridge and had paying guests. This was a sad ending to her career but she never grumbled or groused. She must have hated being out of the picture, even though many people still recognized her and paid court to her."
Terry died in London aged 79.