25 Facts About Ellaline Terriss

Ellaline Terriss met and married the actor-producer Seymour Hicks in 1893, and the two collaborated on many projects for the stage and screen.

The daughter of the actor William Terriss, Ellaline made her London stage debut at the age of 16 in Cupid's Messenger at London's Haymarket Theatre.

In 1892 Terriss starred in Faithful James and the following year she starred in the title role of Cinderella, produced by Henry Irving.

Ellaline Terriss was featured in W S Gilbert's His Excellency in 1894, followed the next year by a starring role in the George Edwardes production of the musical The Shop Girl, playing alongside her husband.

Ellaline Terriss began in the silent films Scrooge and David Garrick and made a successful transfer to talkies; her last film was The Four Just Men in 1939.

Ellaline Terriss died in Hampstead, England, at the age of 100.

Ellaline Terriss loved the adventurous, outdoor life, and had previously tried his hand at various professions, including farmer, merchant seaman and silver miner.

Ellaline Terriss performed from an early age, although she had no real ambition to act professionally.

Ellaline Terriss came to the attention of Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who signed her to make her professional London debut in the role of Mary Herbert in Cupid's Messenger, in 1888 at the Haymarket Theatre.

Ellaline Terriss attracted the attention of a promising young actor, Seymour Hicks, and they married in 1893.

In 1892, Ellaline Terriss starred in Faithful James, by BC Stephenson, with Brandon Thomas at the Court Theatre.

In December 1893, Ellaline Terriss starred in the title role in the successful and famously lavish version of the "fairy pantomime" Cinderella, produced by Henry Irving with music by Oscar Barrett.

In 1895, Ellaline Terriss was a replacement in the original London production of George Edwardes's hit, The Shop Girl, joining her husband as co-star.

In December 1897, while Ellaline Terriss was still playing in The Circus Girl, two tragedies befell her.

Ellaline Terriss's father was stabbed to death by a deranged and disgruntled unemployed actor, Richard Archer Prince, as he was about to enter the stage door of the Royal Adelphi Theatre.

Ellaline Terriss next starred in the title role of a new show co-authored by Hicks, A Runaway Girl, which became one of the Gaiety Theatre's most successful shows.

The couple adopted a daughter, Mabel, in about 1897, and Ellaline Terriss gave birth to another child, Betty, in 1904.

The couple performed constantly, both in London and on tour in America, except when Ellaline Terriss was pregnant with Betty.

In 1905, Ellaline Terriss took over the role of Angela in her husband's The Catch of the Season, which had been created by Zena Dare during Ellaline Terriss's pregnancy.

In 1907, Terriss reduced the grueling acting schedule she had kept up for almost twenty years, although she has appeared in a limited number of plays, including The Dashing Little Duke, which was less successful.

Ellaline Terriss played the title role in that production.

Ellaline Terriss appeared in over a dozen British films, generally in which her husband was involved as an actor, writer or director.

Hicks, who was knighted in 1935, died in 1949, and Ellaline Terriss survived him by 22 years.

Ellaline Terriss was the subject of an episode of This Is Your Life in 1962.

Ellaline Terriss died at the Holy Family Nursing Home, Hampstead, London, at the age of 100 as a result of a hip fracture sustained during a fall.