Dame Ellen Terry, a part of a large and famous family of actors and actor-managers, was one of the most famous actresses in the world in the nineteenth century. Many of her most famous roles were alongside Sir Henry Irving, one of the most famous male actors in the world at the time. She joined his company in 1878, becoming his leading lady, touring both America and Britain in her famous roles in The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing, to name a few. Her career lasted nearly seventy years and she appeared in several films in the 1920s after a failed venture to manage the Imperial Theatre in London. Later in life, she became known for her one-woman shows, lectures, and recitations of soliloquies from Shakespeare’s heroines, much like performances from our own Anna Deavere Smith today.

Her brother was Fred Terry and her niece and nephew were Phyllis and Dennis Neilson-Terry. Her sister-in-law was Julia Neilson (wife of Fred). All were accomplished actors in their own right. Terry was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1925, the second time an actress was honored as such in history.

Sarah Frances Frost (Marlowe’s birth name) was born in England and came to the United States as a child in 1870. Her first stage appearance was in 1878 in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H. M. S. Pinafore. She was always popular with her audiences, and over the years became famous for her roles as Juliet, Viola, Rosalind, Beatrice, and Portia. After a stressful and failed marriage to and divorce from the ambitious actor Robert Taber, in 1904 Marlowe began performing with her second husband-to-be, E. H. Sothern, himself a distinguished Shakespearean. Although Marlowe was already a Broadway star in her own right, and was considered to be the best actress in the country, their first success as a team was in Romeo & Juliet in 1904. Seven years later, they married.

In 1907 she returned with her husband to England and as a member of Sothern’s company excelled in various plays in the company’s Shakespeare repertory. However, much of their major success was on Broadway. For a short time, they introduced Shakespeare to a much wider audience by performing many of his works at affordable prices at the Academy of Music in New York. She and her husband made eleven phonograph recordings of Shakespeare scenes between 1920 and 1921. She performed chiefly in the plays of Shakespeare and worked almost constant until her retirement in 1924. Later in life, George Washington University and Columbia University each conferred upon her honorary doctorate degrees. During her own lifetime, she was the subject of two biographies, one by a John D. Barry (1899) and another by Charles Edward Russell (1926), one of the founders of the NAACP.

Marlowe became somewhat of a recluse after Sothern died in 1933. They had no children, and she passed away in 1950 at the age of eighty-five.

From around 1895 owned and lived at the mansion at 337 Riverside Drive, New York City. Marlowe financed the townhome with the profits from her many Broadway successes, including both Shakespeare roles and her acclaimed role as Mary Tudor in Paul Kester’s adaptation of When Knighthood Was In Flower.

Marlowe’s stage prowess was well-acknowledged and long-lived. One reporter, in a 1903 edition of The New York Sun, noted of Marlowe: “There is not a woman player in America or in England that is—attractively considered—fit to unlace her shoe.” 

Winifred Emery, born in Manchester, was a fourth-generation actor; her father, grandfather, and great grandfather were all imminent actors. She first appeared on stage in 1870, and about a decade later in 1881 she joined Sir Henry Irving‘s company, eventually touring with them, including Ellen Terry, in the United States. During her years with Irving she play Nerissa and Jessica in The Merchant of Venice and Olivia in Twelfth Night. After she left Irving, she joined Wilson Barrett during 1890-91 and played in Hamlet. After returning from a tour in the US with Irving, she married fellow actor Cyril Maude in 1888.

Remembered mostly for her comedic performances, Emery acted with most of the important leading men and their companies during her career. Her other parts in Shakespeare included Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (1905) with Beerbohm Tree, and in 1908, Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor.